In the 1980s, First Lady Nancy Reagen created her “Just Say No” campaign for illegal drugs. Many times, she was mocked by the media and Democrats for being naive.
Wikipedia reports that “Nancy Reagan often attributed the origins of the phrase to a 1982 visit to Longfellow Elementary School in Oakland, Calif: when asked by a schoolgirl what to do if her peers offered her drugs, the First Lady responded, Just say ‘no’.”
Nancy traveled over 250,000 miles in the U.S. and around the world with this message, “If you can save just one child, it’s worth it.” The campaign made it to TV shows like Different Strokes and Punky Brewster.
Critics think this campaign contributed to the mass incarceration of drug users and labeled drug users as “bad people.”
Since then, Progressive Democrats have pushed laws to give greater access to mind-altering chemicals. Independents and some Republicans have also supported this move to open access to drugs. Ground zero is in the state of Oregon.
Last week, the tide may have started to turn when Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek — a Democrat — signed into law new legislation that criminalizes possession of some drugs, like fentanyl and heroin.
House Bill 4002 overwhelmingly cleared both state legislature chambers with bipartisan support in January. It can put offenders in jail for up to six months.
Oregon Republicans view this legislation as too weak. I agree, but it is a step in the right direction.
Interestingly, this legislation goes against the will of Oregon voters who in 2020 voted through a ballot initiative — Measure 110— by 58 percent to make their state the first in the nation to decriminalize the possession and personal use of all drugs. I seem to remember Democrats — in the not-so-distant past — crying foul when the Missouri legislature voted to change a ballot initiative here.
It’s a good thing Oregon voters did not make possession and use of drugs a right in their constitution.
This radical experiment in Oregon has resulted in an increase in deaths from opioid use from 280 one year before Measure 110 to 955 in 2022, one year after it passed.
If you believe this is a nationwide trend, you would be wrong. When comparing the increase in opioid deaths from 2019 to 2023, Oregon saw an increase of 13 times. For the nation, it was double.
“We have drugs that are just rampant, and we’re seeing public drug use daily,” Republican Rep. Lucetta Elmer said in a FoxNews report. “Extreme homelessness and garbage everywhere. It’s unsafe, and it’s unsightly, but it’s also heartbreaking because, literally, our fellow citizens are dying.”
These are the results of Progressive policies.
Hopefully, the rest of the nation can learn from the errors that Oregon has made and stop this insane notion that keeps us from punishing drug use and possession.
The State of Oregon is not the only one passing measures to make them seem like heretics just a few years ago.
Voters in San Francisco started to make a U-Turn with their soft-on-crime policies last week when they passed two measures.
Proposition F requires drug screening for people receiving public benefits and would force drug addicts to go into treatment if they want to continue receiving those benefits.
The other one, Proposition E, gives law enforcement better surveillance tools and rein in oversight over the force, like allowing looser restrictions on car chases.
Last Tuesday, another progressive blue city, Washington D.C, passed a crime package that will keep more people in jail while awaiting trial.
Less than four years ago, GOP Senator Tom Cotton — in a New York Times op-ed — called for the National Guard to help put down riots after the death of George Floyd. Democrats and the media crucified him.
Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, forgetting that all Republican ideas are racist and despised, called for the deployment of 750 National Guard members to assist the New York Police Department with bag searches at entrances of busy train stations to help lower crime.
Remember, these are conservative policies that blue states and cities are leaning to.
