États-Unis : l’Oregon a abandonné sa loi radicale sur les drogues. Puis vinrent les arrestations de masse

Le retour en arrière sur la décriminalisation dans l’État a mené à des milliers d’arrestations, alimentant des cycles perturbateurs de détention et de libération, sans amélioration de l’accès au logement, aux soins ou au soutien. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

Last year, the state ended a trailblazing law decriminalizing possession. Drug users in some counties are now in and out of jail, without lawyers, struggling to get treatment.

At 7.45am on a cool February morning in Medford, Oregon, six police officers pulled up to a desolate road lined with tarps and a shopping cart and began making arrests.

The officers directed four adults to sit on the sidewalk, handcuffing them behind their backs and rifling through their pockets. They were being detained for illegal camping, but the officers were also searching for evidence of drugs.

“Love you!” a husband and wife shouted at each other as they were separated to be taken to jail.

Officer Paul Verling placed one 43-year-old woman in the back of his car while his team tested a confiscated glass pipe for drug residue. He told her she could potentially avoid jail if she entered drug treatment.

The woman said she had been using methamphetamine to cope with homelessness and would be grateful for treatment. But once Verling ran her name through the system, he discovered she had a warrant for a probation violation. That made her ineligible for “deflection”. She, too, would be going to jail, he said, possibly for a month.

“You wanna engage in some rehab when you get out?” he said.

“Yes sir,” she mumbled.

“I’m glad we had this talk today,” Verling said, as he took her out of the car to escort her into a jail enclosure.