Why Oregon’s Drug Decriminalization Failed

In 2020 Oregon passed Measure 110, decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs.

But now “America’s most radical experiment with drug decriminalization has ended,” writes the Atlantic, “after more than three years of painful results.”

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has pledged to sign legislation repealing the principal elements of the ballot initiative… Possessing hard drugs is again a crime in Oregon, and courts will return to mandating treatment for offenders. Oregonians had supported Measure 110 with 59 percent of the vote in 2020, but three years later, polling showed that 64 percent wanted some or all of it repealed…

More than $260 million were allocated to services such as naloxone distribution, employment and housing services, and voluntary treatment… Once drugs were decriminalized and destigmatized, the thinking went, those who wanted to continue using would be more willing to access harm-reduction services that helped them use in safer ways. Meanwhile, the many people who wanted to quit using drugs but had been too ashamed or fearful to seek treatment would do so. Advocates foresaw a surge of help-seeking, a reduction in drug-overdose deaths, fewer racial disparities in the health and criminal-justice systems, lower rates of incarceration, and safer neighborhoods for all…

Measure 110 did not reduce Oregon’s drug problems. The drug-overdose-death rate increased by 43 percent in 2021, its first year of implementation — and then kept rising. The latest CDC data show that in the 12 months ending in September 2023, deaths by overdose grew by 41.6 percent, versus 2.1 percent nationwide. No other state saw a higher rise in deaths… Neither did decriminalization produce a flood of help-seeking. The replacement for criminal penalties, a $100 ticket for drug possession with the fine waived if the individual called a toll-free number for a health assessment, with the aim of encouraging treatment, failed completely. More than 95 percent of people ignored the ticket, for which — in keeping with the spirit of Measure 110 — there was no consequence. The cost of the hotline worked out to about $7,000 per completed phone call, according to The Economist. These realities, as well as associated disorder such as open-air drug markets and a sharp rise in violent crime — while such crime was falling nationally — led Oregonians to rethink their drug policy.

The article notes that Oregon was the first U.S. state to decriminalize marijuana back in 1973, and had long shown low rates of imprisonment for non-violent crimes (diverting offenders into so-called “drug courts which could mandate treatment or order court-directed supervision). “However, after Measure 110 was passed and the threat of jail time eliminated, the flow of people into these programs slowed.”

But “One thing Measure 110 got right, at least in principle, is that Oregon’s addiction-treatment system was grossly underfunded,” the article concludes. And it adds that the newly-passed law now “provides extensive new funding for immediate needs, including detox facilities, sobering centers, treatment facilities, and the staff to support those services.”

They recommend other states adopt “adequately funded, evidence-based prevention and treatment” — and instead of punitive incarcerations, “use criminal justice productively to discourage drug use.”

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FTC and DOJ Think McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines Should Be Legal To Fix

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have urged the US Copyright Office to broaden exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s Section 1201. Specifically, the two agencies are advocating for the extension of the right to repair to include “commercial and industrial equipment,” which includes McDonald’s ice cream machines that are notorious for breaking down. The Verge reports: Exemptions to DMCA Section 1201 are issued every three years, as per the Register of Copyrights’ recommendation. Prior exemptions have been issued for jailbreaking cellphones and repairing certain parts of video game consoles. The FTC and DOJ are asking the Copyright Office to go a step further, extending the right to repair to “commercial and industrial equipment.” The comment (PDF) singles out four distinct categories that would benefit from DMCA exemptions: commercial soft serve machines; proprietary diagnostic kits; programmable logic controllers; and enterprise IT. ‘In the Agencies’ view, renewing and expanding repair-related exemptions would promote competition in markets for replacement parts, repair, and maintenance services, as well as facilitate competition in markets for repairable products,” the comment reads.

The inability to do third-party repairs on these products not only limits competition, the agencies say, but also makes repairs more costly and can lead to hundreds or thousands of dollars in lost sales. Certain logic controllers have to be discarded and replaced if they break or if the passwords for them get lost. The average estimated cost of “unplanned manufacturing downtime” was $260,000 per hour, the comment notes, citing research from Public Knowledge and iFixit. As for soft serve machines, breakdowns can lead to $625 in lost sales each day. Business owners can’t legally fix them on their own or hire an independent technician to do so, meaning they have to wait around for an authorized technician — which, the comment says, usually takes around 90 days.

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Montana’s Governor’s Changes To TikTok Ban Bill Would Ban All Social Media Entirely

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has returned an “amendatory veto” to the legislature regarding the state’s unconstitutional “ban TikTok” bill, proposing alternative draft language that inadvertently could ban all social media platforms in the state due to poor drafting. The revised language targets any social media application that collects personal information and provides it to a foreign adversary, but since most social media networks collect such information and share it with entities in foreign countries, it would effectively ban all social media in Montana. Techdirt reports: As [1st Amendment lawyer Ari Cohn] points out, the new draft targets any “social media application” that allows for “the collection of personal information or data” and allows for “the personal information or data to be provided to a foreign adversary or a person or entity located within a country designated as a foreign adversary.” Now, some might think that sounds reasonable, but the details here matter. And the details reveal that EVERY social media network collects such information and provides it to people located in countries designated as a foreign adversary. And that’s because “personal information” is a very broad term, as is “provided.” [Ari writes:]

“‘Surely,’ you might think, ‘that just covers the data platforms amass by monitoring and tracking us, right?’ Perhaps not. The bill doesn’t define the term, so who knows what it means in their heads. But we have an idea of what it means out in the real (online) world, by way of the regulations implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Those regulations include in the definition of ‘personal information’ things like: First and last name; Online contact information; A screen or user name where it functions in the same manner as online contact information. In other words, the types of information that accompany virtually every piece of content posted on social media. If a platform allows that kind of information to be provided to any foreign adversary or a person or entity located within a foreign adversary, it is banned from Montana.

Do you know who might be persons located within a country designated as a foreign adversary? Users. Users who are provided the kinds of ‘personal information’ that are inherent in the very concept of social media. So, effectively, the bill would ban any social media company that allows any user in China, Russia, Iran, or Cuba to see content from a Montana user (and this is a generous reading, nothing in the bill seems to require that the data/information shared be from a Montana resident). On top of it, each time a user from one of those countries accesses content, platforms would be subject to a $10,000 fine. Do you know which platforms allow people in those countries to access content posted in the United States? All of them. Congratulations, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte. You just managed to accidentally ban all social media for Montanans. Good work.”

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Government Cybersecurity Agencies Unite to Urge Secure Software Design Practices

Several government cybersecurity agencies united to urge secure-by-design and secure-by-default software. Releasing “joint guidance” for software manufactuers were two U.S. security agencies — the FBI and the NSA — joined with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the cybersecurity authorities of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, and New Zealand. “To create a future where technology and associated products are safe for customers,” they wrote in a joint statement, “the authoring agencies urge manufacturers to revamp their design and development programs to permit only secure-by-design and -default products to be shipped to customers.”

The Washington Post reports:
Software manufacturers should put an end to default passwords, write in safer programming languages and establish vulnerability disclosure programs for reporting flaws, a collection of U.S. and international government agencies said in new guidelines Thursday. [The guidelines also urge rigorous code reviews.]

The “principles and approaches” document, which isn’t mandatory but lays out the agencies’ views on securing software, is the first major step by the Biden administration as part of its push to make software products secure as part of the design process, and to make their default settings secure as well. It’s part of a potentially contentious multiyear effort that aims to shift the way software makers secure their products. It was a key feature of the administration’s national cybersecurity strategy, which was released last month and emphasized shifting the burden of security from consumers — who have to manage frequent software updates — to the companies that make often insecure products… The administration has also raised the prospect of legislation on secure-by-design and secure-by-default, but officials have said it could be years away….

The [international affairs think tank] Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative has praised the Biden administration’s desire to address economic incentives for insecurity. Right now, the costs of cyberattacks fall on users more than they do tech providers, according to many policymakers. “They’re on a righteous mission,” Trey Herr, director of the Atlantic Council initiative, told me. If today’s guidelines are the beginning of the discussion on secure-by-design and secure-by-default, Herr said, “this is a really strong start, and an important one.”
“It really takes aim at security features as a profit center,” which for some companies has led to a lot of financial growth, Herr said. “I do think that’s going to rub people the wrong way and quick, but that’s good. That’s a good fight.”
In the statement CISA’s director says consumers also have a role to play in this transition. “As software now powers the critical systems and services we collectively rely upon every day, consumers must demand that manufacturers prioritize product safety above all else.”

Among other things, the new guidelines say that manufacturers “are encouraged make hard tradeoffs and investments, including those that will be ‘invisible’ to the customers, such as migrating to programming languages that eliminate widespread vulnerabilities.”

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Colorado Approves First-Ever Agricultural Right to Repair Bill

Denver legislators have just passed the first-ever agricultural Right to Repair bill. Today’s landslide 44-16 vote in the House follows a successful vote in the Senate last month. iFixit reports: Once the Agricultural Right to Repair bill passes, manufacturers will be required to share all the parts, embedded software, firmware, tools, and documentation necessary for repair. One critical step remains: a signature by Governor Polis, who has signaled that he supports the legislation.

To support Right to Repair legislation near you, find your state on Repair.org — or, if you’re outside the US, look for your country’s advocacy network here. The summary of HB23-1011 reads: “Starting January 1, 2024, the bill requires a manufacturer to provide parts, embedded software, firmware, tools, or documentation, such as diagnostic, maintenance, or repair manuals, diagrams, or similar information (resources), to independent repair providers and owners of the manufacturer’s agricultural equipment to allow an independent repair provider or owner to conduct diagnostic, maintenance, or repair services on the owner’s agricultural equipment.

The bill folds agricultural equipment into the existing consumer right-to-repair statutes, which statutes provide the following:
– A manufacturer’s failure to comply with the requirement to provide resources is a deceptive trade practice;
– In complying with the requirement to provide resources, a manufacturer need not divulge any trade secrets to independent repair providers and owners; and
– Any new contractual provision or other arrangement that a manufacturer enters into that would remove or limit the manufacturer’s obligation to provide resources to independent repair providers and owners is void and unenforceable; and
– An independent repair provider or owner is not authorized to make modifications to agricultural equipment that permanently deactivate any safety notification system or bring the equipment out of compliance with safety or emissions laws or to engage in any conduct that would evade emissions, copyright, trademark, or patent laws.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.