Blue State Regrets
 
Blue State Regrets
Written By Micah Clark   |   05.24.23
Reading Time: 2 minutes
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There is a new poll from one of the politically bluest states in the nation expressing regret for their liberal ways. It didn’t take long.

In 2020 Oregonians voted nearly 60-40 percent to decriminalize drugs, a fairytale notion supported by libertarians and leftists. The results were the exact opposite of what advocates claimed would happen. Social problems, crime, addiction, and homelessness exploded. New tax money from legal drug sales disappeared into the government bureaucracy with no visible benefits to society.

Now, a poll by Portland-based DHM Research finds that support has flipped – 63 percent of Oregonians support reinstating criminal punishments for drug possession.

“Oregon has turned into an international spectacle and I think we looked at each other and realize that we made an enormous mistake,” Portland-based trial attorney Kristin Olson told Fox News.

A majority of every demographic in the poll, including younger Oregon voters ages 18-30, now support reinstatement of criminal penalties for drug possession and use.

“I think we didn’t realize that what we were signing up for was the deterioration of civilized norms and the public spaces being ceded to people in late-stage drug addiction and engaged in all sorts of criminal activity to keep that addiction going,” Olsen said.

An audit also found the state’s health authority could not provide data showing how hundreds of millions of tax dollars earmarked for addiction services through new decriminalization policies were spent.

On another note, Quest Diagnostics recently looked at 10.6 million workplace drug test results and found that positive tests for marijuana following workplace accidents are now at the highest levels in 25 years.  Not surprisingly, states that have legalized medical or recreational use had higher workplace test positivity rates.


Micah Clark
In 1989 Micah Clark graduated from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Micah interned as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives’ Republican staff and later became an Assistant Campaign Manager for a State Senator. Micah then served as a legislative assistant for Citizens Concerned for the Constitution. He served as the Indiana Family Institute’s Director of Public Policy, and later as its Executive Director, throughout the 1990’s. Micah is the only person to have served with all three of Indiana’s top statewide pro-family organizations. In November 2001, Micah became the Executive...
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