those systems that will benefit our patients,” Loeffler said. The idea is to remove some of the stigma surrounding addiction. “The goal of having deflection programs in place will make people in criminal justice and law enforcement aware of the opportunity to treat patients, and to think of people in custody as patients first,” Loeffler said.
available,” Hartley said. “That’s the thing that’s getting lost and frankly giving the public a false sense of confidence in this. We don’t want somebody going through all that process and being screened and wanting treatment, only to say that we don’t have it available because they won’t trust the process in the future.”
Hartley supports setting up deflection programs. And for many, the deflection programs may be the only opportunity for people to connect with services, given the lack of public defenders to help people who enter the courts system, he said. But, he said, the system will only work if services are available. Often, street-level intervention with case managers and specialists who are in recovery is the most successful in drawing drug users toward treatment, he said. “That person doesn’t know that this officer is actually really nice and progressive and really wants them to just get treatment and doesn’t care about them going to jail,” Hartley said. “They see a badge and a gun.” Others share similar concerns. Tera Hurst is executive director of the Health Justice Recovery Alliance, a nonprofit with members that provide various services funded under Measure 110. She said that when people seek services and can’t get them, they withdraw and that it becomes difficult to steer them towards recovery.
Oregon Treatment Options Are Limited Oregon lacks addiction treatment – both inpatient and outpatient. In national studies, the state always ranks at or near the bottom in access to treatment. A recent state report found Oregon has a shortage of nearly 3,000 beds for behavioral health and addiction treatment. That shortage has continued since voters passed Measure 110 in 2020, even though the law allocated hundreds of millions of dollars of cannabis revenue for various services, including treatment. The $211 million funding in House Bill 4002 comes in addition to the Measure 110 money and specifically aims to expand treatment by helping counties set up new programs as well as providing money for new residential facilities, recovery housing, clinics and court programs. It also allocated money for addiction treatment in jails. The services set up under Measure 110 will continue. But as counties put together their programs, drug users will still face difficulty accessing treatment. That’s also a concern in gaining public confidence that the system works, said Grant Hartley, Multnomah County director for Metropolitan Public Defenders. “Treatment is not Dr. Moxie Loeffler, who treats people with drug addictions in Oregon, works from a clinic in Salem. (Ben Botkin/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
“Treatment is not available. That’s the thing that’s getting lost and frankly giving the public a false sense of confidence in this.” – Grant Hartley, Multnomah County director, Metropolitan Public Defenders She also worries about the tight timeline. “One of my biggest concerns with this bill is that the people are going to kind of try and do this really fast,” Hurst said. “And they’re not going to actually kind of take the time that it needs to really build it out and build the relationships between the providers and law enforcement.”
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The Business Review | April 2024
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