The war on drugs may come to an end sThe war on drugs has been going on since the 1970s and is still happening today. The efforts to try to get drugs out of America have not always been effective, but some states are making the move to try to keep people out of prisons, such as Nebraska and North Carolina where they have decriminalized marijuana. States like Oregon have made the large step to decriminalize marijuana and other hard street drugs such as heroin, cocaine and even methamphetamine, according to portlandoregon.gov.

Oregon has decided not to legalize but to decriminalize all drugs. Decriminalizing drugs means that they remain illegal, and instead, the consequences are a misdemeanor or a traffic ticket and rehabilitation services rather than prison. The Oregon government has made this decision to try and relieve the number of drug charges and imprisonment the state has. Before the change, Oregon had opium, cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine marked as class B felonies, and could have sentences for up to 10 years, according to oregoncrimes.com.

“It will be interesting to see how Oregon will handle the small amounts of possession versus a possession felony amount at a federal level,” school resource officer Tim Bateman said.

By decriminalizing drugs, Oregon is hoping there will be more chances to rehabilitate the people who are struggling with addictions, there will be fewer people in prisons and jails and a lower drug crime rate. This would also give the state more room to financially provide for the people in the rehabilitation centers. There will be a $57 million budget in the first year of decriminalization, all according to opb.org.

The charge will depend on the type of possession. Some amounts might only have a traffic ticket reparation, while others may have a misdemeanor or a simple possession charge.

Traffic Ticket:

Maximum of one gram of heroin
Maximum of one gram, or five pills of MDMA
Maximum of two grams of methamphetamine
Maximum of 40 units of LSD
Maximum of 12 grams of psilocybin
Maximum of 40 units of illegal methadone
Maximum of 40 pills of oxycodone
Maximum of two grams of cocaine

Misdemeanor or simple possession:

Minimum of one to three grams of heroin
Minimum of one to four grams of MDMA
Minimum of two to eight grams of methamphetamine
Minimum of two to eight grams of cocaine

According to oregonlive.com.