American federalism has many virtues, not least the ability to learn from bad state policy experiments. A case in point is Oregon’s current rethinking of its drug decriminalization policy that has led to a surge in addiction, overdoses and homelessness.

In 2020 58% of Oregonians supported Measure 110, which effectively decriminalized drug use, including heroin, oxycodone and methamphetamine. But an August survey by Emerson College Polling found that 56% of Oregonians now want to repeal the measure, and Democrats are feeling the political heat.

Last week Oregon Democrats outlined a proposal that would make personal possession a misdemeanor crime and raise the maximum punishment from the current $100 fine to a $1,250 penalty or up to 30 days in jail. In September even Portland’s notoriously left-wing City Council passed a ban on public drug use that carries penalties that include a $500 fine or up to six months in jail. Portland’s measure can’t take effect unless state law changes.

The political shift reflects the cost in lives lost and public disorder from drug decriminalization. In 2019, 280 people died of an opioid overdose in Oregon, according to the state’s health authority. By 2022 that number rose to 956. Full data isn’t available for 2023, but in the first six months Oregon recorded 628 fatal opioid overdoses.

Open-air drug use and drug dealing are “at an all-time high,” Portland police Sgt. Jerry Cioeta told the Oregonian last summer. The federal government recently reported that homelessness in Oregon rose 22.5% between 2020 and 2022. A stroll through Portland’s tent cities suggests penalty-free access to drugs is a major contributing factor.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Portland’s shoplifting rates were up 22% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period of 2019. The thieves are often drug-addled, and they sell the stolen goods to support their habits.

After Democrats released their proposed reform on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon said it would “reverse the state’s public health approach to addiction and impose a criminal penalty for people not able to access treatment.” But the ACLU won’t acknowledge how Measure 110 has failed to get treatment to drug addicts.

Under the 2020 measure, drug users can get even their minimal $100 fine waived by calling a treatment-referral hotline. Oregon Public Broadcastinglooked at 978 circuit-court cases involving drug tickets in 2021. More than three-fifths of defendants failed to show up in court, while only seven people “leveraged a phone call to have their case dismissed.” The special-treatment hotline had “received, on average, fewer than two calls a week from people who’ve received tickets.”

Measure 110 deprives law enforcement of the chance to use penalties as legal leverage to steer addicts to the help they need. The proposed reform is hardly onerous, and drug users could be prosecuted only after they declined a state intervention aimed at getting them treatment. Oregon’s experience is a warning to other cities that think it’s compassionate to let drug users populate the streets with impunity.