In addition to the five states that legalized cannabis, Oregon voters decriminalized all drugs and allowed psilocybin therapy. Several writers saw a trend upending decades of U.S. policy surrounding controlled substances.
AP/Oregonian
- At the New York Times, Nicholas Kristoff says liberal drug laws are one area where Democrats and Republicans agree. “One result of the war on drugs is that today there are as many Americans with arrest records as with college degrees. Yet we still lost the war. Addiction has soared in the United States, and more Americans die from overdoses each year than died in the Vietnam, Afghan and Iraq wars combined. A baby is born dependent on drugs every 15 minutes.”
- Wired argues that rejecting the war on drugs is a positive step for public health.
- American voters ended the drug war (paywall), Anthony L. Fisher writes in Business Insider.
