History of teenage substance abuse dating back 50 years

"Criminalization keeps people in the shadows. Schmidt, who publicly supported Measure 110, says he firmly believes the health model - not criminalization - is the best way to battle the disease substance use disorder. "What we've been doing for the last number of decades has completely failed," says Mike Schmidt, district attorney for Oregon's most populated county, Multnomah, which includes Portland. And while critics everywhere have long called the drug war a racist, inhumane fiasco that fails to deliver justice or health, Oregon is the first to take a leap toward radically changing those systems.

For years Oregon has ranked near the top of states with the highest rates of drug and alcohol addiction and near the very bottom nationally in access to recovery services.