After concluding last week’s hearing in the Oregon Capitol about revising Measure 110, Sen. Kate Lieber shared her Girl Scout cookies with those who attended. In the hallway outside the hearing room, opponents of Lieber and Rep. Jason Kropf’s proposal munched on Odd Moe’s Pizza.

For nearly four hours, the Joint Committee on Addiction and Community Safety Response chaired by Democrats Lieber and Kropf had listened to people criticize and occasionally praise the pair’s House Bill 4002, as well as two Republican measures, HB 4036 and SB 1555.

More than 80 people had testified. In chronological order, here is a sampling of their comments.

Committee co-chair Lieber, D-Portland, who chaired the meeting: “We all, I think, can agree that the drug crisis is urgent, which is why we’re taking some real significant action. And it is why we all have some disagreements. And great minds can disagree. And at some point, we have to make some choices on what we’re going to pursue.”

House Republican Leader Jeff Helfrich, Hood River: “It is time to stop enabling drug addiction in the state of Oregon. It is time to end Measure 110.

“I’m a retired police sergeant. I worked for the city [of Portland] for over 25 1/2 years to keep it safe. It breaks my heart to see what has happened to our cities. Let me be clear. There’s nothing compassionate about allowing people to die from drug overdose.”

Rep. Tracy Cramer, R-Gervais: “Measure 110 has downplayed the negative impact of hard drugs. Measure 110 has created a culture amongst our youth that downplays the impact of drug use.”

Max Williams, Coalition to Fix and Improve Measure 110: “Our preference would not be to go to the ballot with a ballot measure in the fall. It would be that the Legislature would step forward like those legislators that have just testified and find a solution that will actually work for Oregonians, work for individuals who are suffering with addiction, work for the communities that are being impacted by this and ultimately work for the people who you are all here representing.”

Michelle Stroh, Oregon City, whose 25-year-old son died from a fentanyl overdose: “I’m here also for the other Oregon parents who also buried their children due to the drug crisis that has overtaken our state. Oregon now leads the nation in growth of drug overdoses among teenagers.”

Ben Biamont, Seattle: “I do feel it’s important to take a second to acknowledge and provide space for those people who have lost their lives in this ongoing War on Drugs and war on people who use drugs.”

Grant Hartley, Multnomah County director, Metropolitan Public Defenders: “Law enforcement’s desire is to arrest rather than refer to treatment. In reality, law enforcement [wants] recriminalization not to confiscate drugs [and] refer people to treatment but to search people. They want the ability to get into people’s pockets and their cars by claiming they have probable cause that the person possesses drugs.”

Julia Delgado, vice president, Urban League of Oregon: “Measure 110 sought to restructure recovery services and end the harms that drug use criminalization has had on communities of color, Black communities specifically. And the results of Measure 110 have been modest, with over 60,000 people receiving some form of treatment. …

“Recriminalizing addiction will make it both more difficult and more expensive to actually treat drug addiction.”

Emily Hawley, senior policy advocate, ACLU of Oregon: “The promise of criminalization is illusory. 

“When Oregonians passed Measure 110 in 2020, we had the second-worst addiction rates in the country. Criminalization had failed and the cost of this failure fell disproportionately upon Black, indigenous and people of color Oregonians.”

Erin Anderson, Portland police officer, recounting his responding to a fatal overdose: “I joined my partner, four firefighters and two ambulance paramedics and that mother. All our attention was on that 15-year -old boy who lay on the floor motionless and blue. … Those medics used every tool they had to try and bring him back. …

“I’m telling you, I don’t think I can embrace another mother to tell her [that] her son is gone. I need you to do the right thing here.”

Jennifer Nash, chair, Oregon Public Defense Commission: “The recriminalization of drug possession under proposed legislation will result in persons being charged with non-person misdemeanors. There is no current capacity in our public defense system to provide these people with lawyers. Those defendants would likely be placed on the unrepresented persons list, and we estimate that their cases would take 18 to 36 months from the time of their arrest to be resolved through the system.”

Dr. Angela Carter, former Measure 110 implementation and program manager at Oregon Health Authority: “Incarceration does not beget recovery. It increases risk for overdose and death. It increases trauma-related mental health issues that can increase use.”

Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair: “Last night in Bend we had three overdose calls at the same moment. Fortunately, all three survived, but we lost four people in six days in January.”

Rick Coufal, Sisters, retired military and law enforcement: “Controlled substance users do not always step forward and say, ‘I’m a user. I want to quit.’ Most of them need to be compelled to do that, and that is unfortunately the role of law enforcement.”

Mili Rose, Gladstone, director of operations, Iron Tribe Network: “Over the last 18 months, Iron Tribe Network through Measure 110 funding has expanded services in four counties, housing 140 people and providing peer services to clients, of which many had minor children in their care. Those services included more than 2,500 individual interactions to help stabilize recovering addicts in those communities.

“This work is just the beginning and with continued support we can save more lives. We can’t do this by reverting back to failed policies that criminalize people for healthcare issues.”