February 17, 2024
Dear Editor;
In a Reader’s Voice February 13 online and February 15 print edition, David E. Smith wrote that Oregon’s deaths from drug overdose increased substantially after 2020 when drugs were decriminalized in the State, implying that this was the cause. Cherry-picked data often lead to inaccurate conclusions. It seems likely in this case.
Although drug overdose deaths in Oregon did increase after 2020, nationwide deaths did as well. In Oregon’s case, the increase began a year before decriminalization. This makes decriminalization an unlikely cause. The rate in Oregon remains relatively low. A year after decriminalization, two-thirds of our states still suffered a higher drug overdose death rate than Oregon’s which was 26.8 per 100,000. I’m not sure why Mr. Smith picked Oregon as his example, instead of say, Tennessee with 56.6 deaths per 100,000, or Ohio, with 48.1. I suspect neither of them decriminalized hard drugs. Perhaps the problem isn’t as simple as Mr. Smith implies.
Craig Zabel, Sugar Grove