 So obviously the war on drugs in the United States has been a colossal failure It's led to mass incarceration and I mean this is something that is functionally the New Jim Crow in America Communities of color black Americans have been disproportionately targeted in the war on drugs and it hasn't actually stopped drug use It hasn't led to a reduction in drug related crimes So what we need to do is decriminalize all drugs and rather than treating Drug use as you know a criminal issue. We treat it as a health issue and Instead of locking people up. We offer them treatment and guess what? Oregon is going to vote on just that issue So we're making some progress at the state level at the federal level We're not making much progress when it comes to ending the war on drugs, but states have made a lot of progress I mean back in 2012 Washington and Colorado became the first states to vote to legalize cannabis and then two years later Oregon was one of the states to follow suit and now in 2020 in November Oregonians are going to be voting to decriminalize all drugs and This could be a game-changer So as leaflies max savage Levinson explains in the upcoming November election Oregonians will vote on a measure that would decriminalize all drugs on July 1st Oregon's drug addiction treatment and recovery act IP 4 4 officially qualified for the November ballot the Oregon Secretary of State's office verified 116,000 signatures in favor of the initiative just over the minimum of 112,020 the initiative would decriminalize the use of all drugs and provide holistic wide-reaching services to drug users IP 4 4 is the first measure of its kind to reach a statewide ballot in the United States The proposed program would be funded almost exclusively through the 100 million an annual cannabis tax revenue Nothing like this has ever been done before said Matt Sutton media relations director at drug policy action Which helped to write an advocate for the initiative drug policy action is the advocacy and political arm of the drug policy Alliance There's been a lot of movement in terms of criminal justice reform and people are starting to realize that criminalizing drugs isn't doing anything It's just harming them more. So this is a game changer if this passes I mean, I can't explain how big this could be like the implications aren't limited to Oregon because we often time see this Domino effect. This is why so many states have voted to legalize cannabis if one state does it and it's successful odds Our other states are going to want to emulate that state's success so what they're going to do in a nutshell is rather than treating drug users like criminals they're going to treat it as a health issue and They're going to focus on funding treatment and also there's going to be an emphasis on housing So now if you're caught with heroin, for example, you're not gonna go to jail Maximum you'll face is a $100 fine. That's it. No jail time hundred dollars max Because this is no longer a criminal issue if this passes. It's a health issue This could be huge now if this passes in the United States, I give it a couple of years I think we would see just how effective it will be I don't think you'll see the results of it automatically But if you look to a country like Portugal in 2001, they actually did decriminalize drugs and the results I mean, they've just been stunning and we've had almost two decades to see how effective this policy has been I mean, they've substantially decreased overdoses They've decreased HIV infection rates and even crime related to drugs has substantially dropped So we want this to pass in Oregon Even if you don't live in Oregon, you should be rooting for this to pass because if it passes here It may pass in your state in a couple of years unless you live in like Mississippi, then I'm sorry. There's no hope for you I'm so sorry So I'm gonna link you to the IP 4-4 website if you want this to pass You've got to fight for it You've got to advocate for it and you have to educate people Using the you know success of Portugal to explain to people that this really is the correct approach Criminalizing drugs hasn't done what they said it would do. It hasn't led to a reduction in crime It hasn't made the streets any safer. The opposite has happened, right? Refueling private prisons and mass incarceration and it's got to stop So this is something to fight for even if you've kind of checked out of this election because Bernie Sanders lost This is definitely something to fight for even if you don't live in Oregon And I say that selfishly as someone who does live in Oregon who wants this to go through But I don't want to just stop there when it comes to you know drug reform Oregon aside from this is also on the cusp of Legalizing psychedelic mushrooms now. We're not talking about legalizing it in the way that they legalized weed here in 2014 we're talking about them basically making it legal for medical Professionals to prescribe to patients with depression and whatnot. So as Lizzie Acre of Oregon live reports IP 3 4 would legalize the use of psychedelic mushrooms in controlled doses and Administered by professionals in the state Oregon would be the first state to legalize the substance Which is currently a schedule one drug cities like Oakland and Denver have already decriminalized Silo-Cybin if the measure passes it won't mean Silo-Cybin will be widely available in the same way cannabis is instead It will empower the Oregon Health Authority to set up all licensing training Certification and ongoing education requirements for Silo-Cybin service centers and facilitators during a mandated two-year development process according to the release Only license holders will be able to provide Silo-Cybin therapy Cultivate Silo-Cybin or own a Silo-Cybin service center under the measure and the measure would not allow people to take or grow Psychedelic mushrooms in their homes or leave a treatment facility while still under the influence of Silo-Cybin The use of the substance will be highly structured with therapy recipients going through a pre-screening a supervised therapy session and a post-use evaluation So they're approaching the legalization of psychedelics in a really cautious way It reminds me of the way that they approached medical cannabis, but I mean this is still good It's a step in the right direction if they open the door to it in this way get their feet a little bit wet Maybe in a couple of years we vote to legalize it in the same way that we legalized cannabis This is a really really good sign And we don't necessarily know if these are going to pass I haven't seen polls yet They probably won't do much polling until you know closer towards the time the election takes place because we don't even necessarily know At the time I record this that the legalization of psychedelic psychedelics will make it on the ballot I think that they met their required signature threshold, but now it's in the validation process They have to make sure that all of the signatures are valid So that's going to take some time. We'll probably find out relatively soon But I mean in the event both of these measures passes Oregon's drug policy will be Substantially different. They will be a leader in the United States and possibly around the world Like we are emulating Portugal who has been wildly successful when it comes to their drug policy So I mean if you want to end the drug war since the federal government isn't taking it seriously State governments are the way to go and for Oregon to vote on this just the fact that they're voting on this alone Is a success in a way, right? I mean we want the policy and executed But just the fact that we're to this point where we're voting to decriminalize all drugs in a state that is a victory But if we pass it that's a game changer like that's a different story So I will be voting for this and supporting these measures enthusiastically, but if we want these to pass We've got our work cut out for us because people are They're gonna be afraid of this. There's going to be fear mongering. I'm sure that you know There's going to be talk of the world collapsing, you know back in 2014 when we legalized cannabis I had a lot of conversations with people in Oregon who were afraid that you know, this is going to lead to Hot driving while high being legal and people freaking out and you know There's no way to test if somebody is high and they're driving But I mean you have to educate people we didn't we didn't have a way to Determine whether or not someone was driving While drunk while under the influence when we legalized alcohol But I mean that's still not a reason to not legalize it like there are a lot of precautions that we're taking We're doing this responsibly. We're not just really nearly selling drugs to kids, which was one of the main Fear fear mongering tactics. They basically said oh, well, you're gonna market marijuana to kids gonna be so terrible They're gonna start smoking pot No, that never happened. They said the sky was gonna fall it never fell So we're gonna see that same thing so we're going to have to fight to combat propaganda But this is I mean the fact that it's on the ballot It's such a great thing to see so I hope it passes I'll be fighting for it But just getting there is a victory in and of itself and I hope that we can actually lead the way in the country and around the world and Show that you're decriminalizing drugs is the way to go because the war on drugs has been a colossal failure