6 days ago
This Is the Pacific Northwest on Drugs
A new study finds that Oregon's and Washington state's experiments with decriminalizing drug possession caused a surge in serious violent and property crime, especially in Portland and Seattle.
The paper, a collaboration among five criminologists, is the first to demonstrate that the states' reforms—since undone by their legislatures amid massive public backlash—increased crime relative to the rest of the country. Prior research played down the phenomenon, allowing defenders of decriminalization to pretend the issue wasn't real.
