Emily Green/The Lund Report

Oregon State Capitol building, May 18, 2021. Oregon's unique tax law sends money back to taxpayers whenever personal income tax revenues come in at least 2% above initial projections during a two-year budget cycle.

Money for Measure 110 addiction services finally arrives; Oregon auditors spot problems

State auditors issued a “risk” letter flagging issues even as the drug decriminalization act’s oversight council finished approving grant applications.

Health and Medicine

‘People are dying’ while state bureaucracy holds up Oregon treatment dollars, say Measure 110 proponents

Emily Green/The Lund Report

Frustrations mount as hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for Oregon’s underfunded drug and alcohol treatment and recovery providers continue to sit unspent in state coffers.

A man, 23, sits on the sidewalk in downtown Portland, preparing what he says is heroin, June 25, 2021. Measure 110, a drug treatment and recovery act, aims to connect drug users to treatment and recovery services, including housing assistance instead of serving time in jail for possessing small amounts of drugs.

Health and Medicine

Few obtain treatment in first year of Oregon drug-decriminalization grants

Emily Green/The Lund Report

More than 16,000 Oregonians accessed services through the new grant program set up under Oregon’s landmark drug-decriminalization law in its first year, but less than 1% of those helped with Measure 110 dollars were reported to have entered treatment, new state data shows.