In 2020, motivated to try a different way to combat drug use, Oregon voted to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of hard drugs including fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine.

Things didn’t turn out as planned.

Mike Baker, a national reporter for The Times, explains what went wrong.

Guest: Mike Baker (https://www.nytimes.com/by/mike-baker) , a national reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Amid soaring overdose deaths, Oregon lawmakers have voted to bring back some restrictions (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/us/oregon-drug-decriminalization-rollback-measure-110.html) .
• State leaders declared a 90-day state of emergency (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/us/portland-fentanyl-emergency.html) in central Portland in an effort to tackle fentanyl abuse.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily (http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily) . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.