Local Criminal Justice Reform

Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez has announced that Portland will begin prosecuting people arrested for drug possession if they refuse to 'meaningfully engage' in treatment within 90 days, a sharp turn from the deflection‑only approach adopted after Oregon’s drug decriminalization measure. Under the new policy, defendants will still be offered treatment and services, but failure to participate over three months will trigger criminal charges and move cases into court. Vasquez’s office says a year of relying on voluntary deflection showed the program was 'failing,' and that surrounding counties had already coupled treatment offers with accountability. General counsel Adam Gibbs emphasized that the DA is changing the one lever fully under his control—who gets charged—while coordinating with the county health department and commissioners to tighten program outcomes. Recovery advocates quoted in the piece back the shift as adding needed consequences to get more people into care, while critics online are already framing it as a retreat from decriminalization reforms that were supposed to prioritize public health over punishment.