PENDLETON — Eastern Oregon Republican lawmakers say fixing Measure 110, the drug-decriminalization and addiction-treatment initiative Oregon voters passed in 2020, is the issue they’ll be focused on during the upcoming short legislative session.

The session, which the Oregon Constitution limits to 35 days, begins Feb. 5.

GOP lawmakers from Eastern Oregon say the short session forces lawmakers to focus on just a handful of issues — and, for them, Measure 110 reform is at the top of the list.

“It is broken and we need to fix it,” said Sen. Lynn Findley, who represents Senate District 30, which covers all of Baker, Grant, Crook, Harney, Lake and Malheur counties and parts of Deschutes and Jefferson counties.

Rep. Greg Smith agreed.

“I really think you’re going to see a lot of conversations surrounding behavioral health and addiction,” said Smith, who represents House District 57, which includes Umatilla County along with eight other counties.

Smith said both Republicans and Democrats see the need for changes to Measure 110. But the extent of that change is up for debate, he said.

Sen. Bill Hansell, of Athena, is entering his final legislative session after declaring in 2023 he would not seek a fourth term. He said the proposals to change M110 run the spectrum from repealing and replacing the law to just giving it a bit of “window dressing.”

Measure 110 limits police to issuing $100 citations to people found with small amounts of drugs, including cocaine, heroin and fentanyl. The fee can be waived for people who agree to have an assessment about their drug use. The citations don’t carry the weight of a misdemeanor charge, which can include jail time, fines or both.

Oregon Republicans say they’re backing recommendations from law enforcement officials to make possession of even small amounts of certain drugs, such as heroin or fentanyl, a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum sentence of 364 days in jail, a $6,250 fine or both. Under the Republican proposal, defendants could avoid maximum sentences by enrolling in diversion programs and specialty drug courts. Republicans also want to mandate enrollment in recovery and long-term treatment programs.

Under a proposal from Democrats, however, drug possession would be treated as a Class C misdemeanor, which carries lighter penalties: jail time of 30 days, a $1,250 fine or both.

Many law enforcement officials have said that filing Class C misdemeanors in drug cases would be ineffective in reducing drug use and overdose rates, because the maximum penalties are too light.

“Republicans believe we need to repeal 110 and start over,” Smith said. “I think the majority party (Democrats) would contend that they want to tweak the existing ballot measure.”

Republicans believe in the need to recriminalize public use of drugs, he said, but that raises questions.

“What does that look like and what does that mean?” Smith said. “Because at the end of the day, we also want folks getting treatment. And so there’s a balance between justice and mercy.”

Keep what works with M110

“There’s been a major effort to repeal and replace much of the bill and keep the treatment options in place,” Hansell said.

He was a Umatilla County commissioner for 30 years before winning the Senate seat. He said county officials want treatment back under their roofs. He said Measure 110 “was a huge mistake” in taking treatment away from county oversight.

“We’re trying to create a new entity when you already had an effective entity, and that was county mental health, county drug treatment, drug courts,” he said. “I believe that we need to get it back to the county level and have us provide the service on behalf of the state like we did before.”

Keeping it at the county level means people in treatment can live at home, receive the support of family and friends and know there is accountability.

“I think the basic premise is that when people are addicted, they want to get off the drugs and just give them the opportunity to do so,” he said. “It’s much more complicated than that.”

Most people need additional incentive to seek treatment.

“But we’re seeing that if you just have a piece of paper and say go get help, they’re not,” he said.

And for those who do seek treatment under Measure 110, he said, few finish it. Drug courts, however, he said, have lower recidivism rates and were changing lives.

“There’s got to be accountability, and being accountable helps incentivize the recovery,” he said.

The opportunity for treatment must be there, he said, but also consequences for those who don’t seek treatment.

“That to me is missing currently, and counties had that,” Hansell said.

Rep. Bobby Levy, of Echo, also spoke to the need to bring accountability with Measure 110.

“We’ve had zero accountability with all the agencies that receive the money for Measure 110 and the nonprofits that receive money for Measure 110 and we still don’t have any mental health facilities,” Levy said. “And the homeless crisis is exactly what it is, it’s a homeless crisis and that is partially due to Measure 110 legalizing major drugs.”

Hansell said he goes into this session consciously optimistic “that we might be able to hammer something out” when it comes to revamping Measure 110. But the short session’s timeframe makes that tougher. Major bills usually take longer to work out, but one way or another changes are coming for the law.

“I would hope we can do our job, because I think the people want us to very clearly make the changes that need to be made legislatively,” Hansell said. “Otherwise I think we’ll have a ballot measure.”

Beyond Measure 110

Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, said he hopes there isn’t much contention between Republicans and Democrats during the short session.

“The short session is for small policy tweaks and budgetary fixes,” he said.

In addition to the focus on calls to fix Measure 110, he said there is Gov. Tina Kotek’s $500 million funding request for homeless housing, mental health and education.

“Homelessness and mental health issues are huge in the area, but throwing money at them without accountability, doesn’t work,” Owens said. “We do need to invest in mental health and behavior far more than what we have, but we also have to work with local counties and local providers to find out how to best spend that money.”

On the lawmaking front, Owens said he’s working on a bill that would allow small rural medical practitioners to receive patient information of past medications. The bill, he said, would help smaller practitioners better understand habitual drug use problems and be more sensitive on the kinds of medications they’re prescribing to patients.

More for wolf compensation

In the last legislative session in 2023, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association sought compensation reform in Salem. Instead of paying market value for a confirmed or probable livestock depredation, the OCA is asking for a 7-to-1 wolf compensation multiplier to cover economic impact from all the stress-related effects on a herd and the inability to find cattle carcasses, officials said.

The 7-to-1 proposal didn’t make it into law last year, but OCA President Todd Nash said they plan to bring it back. Levy said she’s been working closely with Nash and John Williams, wolf committee chair for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, to introduce a new multiplier bill with a few changes from the original proposal.

The new bill, if enacted, would pay 7-1, or seven times the compensation for the loss of a single calf, sheep or goat. It would pay 3-1 for cows and bulls, and fair market equal compensation, or 1-1, for horses, working dogs and other livestock with a maximum of $15,000 per animal, according to an OCA information document Levy shared

“We’ve changed it a little bit,” she said “It’s still (7 to 1 compensation) for calves, sheep and goats, three times for cows, and 1-1 for working dogs,” she said. “The least the state could do for the financial, emotional and mental loss that the producers in the state of Oregon are suffering on their backs because of the wolf population is to pass this bill.”

Levy, who opposes abortion, said she also plans to introduce a bill that would provide medical care to an infant if the baby is born alive or survives an abortion.

“In Oregon, to have a full term abortion or nine months of term, you can have an abortion, and at any point in that time if the baby is born alive from that abortion, in Oregon, they don’t have to provide medical care for that baby,” Levy said. “So if a baby is born alive from the abortion, my bill is making them provide medical care for the baby. They need to provide medical care for the baby, and they don’t have to do that now. It would protect the mother from any consequences and it would just provide the baby the medical care it needs to survive.”

For fish and child advocates

Hansell’s two bills take on returning fish to the Walla Walla River and protection from lawsuits for Child Advocacy Centers.

The Walla Walla is the only river in Oregon that has its headwaters in Oregon and empties into the Columbia River in Washington.

“So the watershed is divided between Oregon and Washington,” Hansell said. “We don’t have another river in the state that has that. So it’s unique.”

Fish returns have been successful in the Umatilla River, he said, and making that happen involved ranchers, irrigators, environmentalists and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation working together. He said he would like to replicate that success in the Walla Walla River, but having two jurisdictions in two states makes that a challenge.

“So for example, any water that we in Oregon conserve and leave in the river for fish, we lose control over it when it crosses the border,” Hansell said.

Irrigation districts in Washington are happy to use the water, but that means the water does not get to the mouth of the Columbia.

“So we need a working agreement, some have called it a compact,” he said, between Oregon and Washington, but a deal between the two states will need the approval of Congress.

Hansell said Washington in its last legislative session adopted a plan, and he had a bill in Oregon’s last session that did not make it out of the Ways and Means Committee. So he’s putting forth a bill to authorize Oregon to work with Washington and the CTUIR on bringing back fish to the Walla Walla River.

“It doesn’t commit anything,” he said, “but it sets the framework that gives the opportunity to begin to work on setting up that arrangement.”

State water resources has the staff to handle the work, he said, and the bill has strong support, including from Senate President Rob Wagner and Senate President Pro Tempore James Manning. Levy is a co-sponsor and will carry the bill in the House.

Hansell’s second bill protects Child Advocacy Centers, local bodies that help children in the legal system who are the victims or possible victims of abuse.

“There’s a liability issue with them and the work that they do, and that’s a loophole,” Hansell said.

If an individual is under investigation for child abuse, but the investigation does not proceed for whatever reason, the subject of the investigation can sue the advocate.

“So it’s a chilling effect on the effectiveness and the ability of this committee to really operate,” Hansell said.

District attorneys, children advocacy groups and the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association want immunity for those advocates if they operate in good faith, he said, in much the same way the state provides immunity for court-appointed special advocates.

Hansell also is bringing two memorials. One is to recognize the 25th year of the Inland Northwest Musicians, which is based in Hermiston. The second is to commemorate the late Mike Donahue.

Donahue worked for 44 years for KOIN 6 News in Portland and became a trusted anchor. He died in 2023 at the age of 77. He and Hansell were college friends.

“We were at the University of Oregon together,” Hansell said. “We were involved. My junior year I was junior class president and he was sophomore class president.”

While the two did not see each other often in later years, Hansell said the memorial would be for Donahue’s contributions to Oregon.