Oregon is finally figuring out that legalizing hard drugs in a moral vacuum doesn’t work

George Santayana famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Leftist policies daily show his wisdom. The latest leftist policy to go down in flames is Oregon’s experiment with legalizing all drugs. It turns out that when you give people license to sin, and also delete all moral constraints, they’ll sin themselves to death. Now, Oregon’s very leftist governor, Tina Kotek, is walking back the policy, having declared a state of emergency over fentanyl drug overdoses.

The Founding Fathers never forgot the past. Indeed, they were imbued with it. One example of that wisdom was James Madison, who pored over the history books to determine what form of government would best optimize human potential. The one thing he knew with certainty was that people needed some government in order to function: “If Men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Image: Fentanyl overdose in Portland. YouTube screen grab.

But men aren’t angels, and they do need control over their conduct. In Western culture, it started with the Bible (the Noahide laws and the Ten Commandments), and the West continued with laws constraining man’s propensity toward dangerous vices…that is, personal behaviors that are likely to harm the actor or others. I happen to agree with R. Delderfield’s principle of “few rules but unbreakable,” but you still need rules.

That’s what Oregon is discovering when it comes to decriminalizing hard drugs. Humans respond to carrots and sticks, and if you’re imprisoned for using hard drugs, that’s a good stick and may serve as a deterrent to anyone even thinking about trying them. Another deterrent is morality, but that, too, has vanished from leftist enclaves.

Of course, it helps if you haven’t already traveled down the slippery slope of drug use. Several years ago, Oregon began the process of decriminalizing marijuana. When I was in Bend last year, everywhere I went in the small downtown area reeked of pot.

I remember growing up in the 1960s when public areas reeked of cigarettes. But at least cigarettes, no matter how stinky and unhealthy, energized people, increasing their ability to accomplish things. Pot, by contrast, unless you’re an exceptional savant such as Lee Child or Louis Armstrong, simply makes you inert…and more receptive to other drugs.

And that’s where we get to the disaster of Oregon’s decision to take away the brakes when it comes to hard drugs, a decision history could have shown them was doomed to failure.  

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) declared a state of emergency in Portland due to the dire increase in fentanyl overdoses just a few years after the state decriminalized drug use.

The progressive state became the first to decriminalize drug use when the legislature passed Measure 110 in 2020, aiming to focus on recovery over incarceration for addicts.

Nearly 60 percent of voters approved of the measure at the time, but newer polls have found that they regret that move just three years later.

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The state has seen a continuous increase in overdose deaths since the measure passed in 2020. In 2022, the levels soared to nearly 1,000 fatal drug overdoses.

The 90-day state of emergency order issued by Gov. Kotek and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler will “commit available resources to the unified response.”

I met a young man recently who was living in Portland. He thought it would be a cool, hipster place. Instead, a few months ago, he woke to discover a drug den, complete with tents, pipes, needles, used condoms, and fecal matter, outside his apartment building in what had recently been a family-friendly neighborhood. He has since decamped for…drum-roll please…New York City. He hasn’t quite learned his lesson, but he’s on the path.

Again, men are not angels, especially in a society that has broken from traditional morality. Under these circumstances, given the chance to indulge in vice, many will. Having a few unbreakable rules will not end individual liberty but will enable individuals and communities to function optimally. Awash in a sea of leftist idealism, Oregon forgot that, and it’s now (deservedly) paying the price.