Why decriminalization hasn’t solved Oregon’s drug problems

Good morning! It's Tuesday, August 1st. I'm Shumita Basu. This is “Apple News Today.” On today's show, What happened when Oregon decriminalized hard drugs. The story of an Afghan teen who made it to the U.S. alone, and now has to survive without his family. And a look at why people have been throwing stuff at concerts.

But first, let's take a brief look at some major stories in the news. California's largest wildfire of the year is now burning Nevada as well. Smoke has been spreading across the states. It blotted out the sun over the Las Vegas Strip and kept commercial planes grounded because of low visibility. The fire is fueled by the underbrush in the desert. Scientists say that the growth is especially thick, because of the record rain that hit California during the winter.

The U.S. is frankly, lucky to escape from this group stage and advance on. They were, you know, the width of a goalpost away from watching the rest of this tournament back in the States.

We'll have more in the next episode of our World Cup podcast, "After the Whistle” with Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe. You can follow it on the Podcasts app and hear it in the Apple News app.

Let's now turn to State of the State, our series that zooms in on local issues and how they impact people living there. Today we are in Oregon, where three years ago voters approved a ballot measure to decriminalize hard drugs. Measure 110 eliminated penalties for possessing small amounts of cocaine, heroin, meth, and more. The idea was to focus on addiction treatment instead of punishment. It was based on policies in Portugal, which decriminalized drugs two decades ago.

So the goal is, if you remove criminal penalties from drug use, the theory is that drug users will come out of the shadows. Jim Hinch wrote for “The Atlantic” about Oregon's policy overhaul, which was designed to make it easier for drug users to get help.

Drug policy reformers were hoping that Measure 110 would show that if you take away the criminal part and you focus on public health responses to drug use, that you can see an improvement across the board, that you'll see less drug use, less drug addiction, fewer drug overdoses, and overall improvement in people's lives and the lives of the communities that they live in.

Two years after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, tens of thousands of refugees have resettled in the United States. Many were able to travel here because they worked with U.S. forces in the past, meaning if they stayed behind, they would've been targeted by the new regime.

But that's also meant some families have been torn apart. “NPR” spoke with a teenager who's been living in Virginia, all by himself, since he left Afghanistan in 2021. His uncle worked for the military, which made the whole family eligible to fly out. The rest of his family though, wasn't able to get on a flight.

I called them several times, but no one was answering because they was in the crowd and no one heard the phone ring. It's a dark day for me because I lost my whole family.

“NPR” isn't using his name, to protect his family's identity. He was 17 years old when he got on a military plane with only his papers and the clothes on his back. When he eventually reached the United States, he had to decide where to start a new life alone.

I don’t have any relatives here. Then I found out about Virginia, it has a good education system. And that was my goal to achieve.

He started high school and worked odd jobs. A local church raised money and helped him find work. “NPR” spoke to Melanie Gray, with Christ Church in Alexandria.

He needed financial help, period. You know, he's going to school full time, he's working full time. So imagining him here alone without a family, the burden, I believe, is extra heavy.

He's about to become a permanent U.S. resident. His application for asylum was accepted. And he plans to go to college on a scholarship to study computer programming. But his heart is in Kabul. He misses his friends and his family. They talk often, and he sends money when he can.

All the time I'm worried about my family because they are in danger. They have no rights there. No freedom of speech. Our Afghan girls can't go to school.

The hope is that the family will be able to reunite at some point. For now, he says, he's making the best of living by himself, because he has no other choice.

What is going on at concerts lately? I'm talking about people throwing stuff at performers. You might've seen the clips on social media over the last few days where someone appears to throw a drink at Cardi B while she was on stage, and she responded by throwing her mic into the crowd, with dead accuracy by the way. There's some dispute over exactly what happened there, but what's clear is that it's part of a widespread problem, one that's very different from the long tradition of throwing flowers or even underwear on stage. Drake, Pink, and Harry Styles are just some of the artists who've had dangerous or even just strange things thrown at them recently.

The Cardi B incident had us looking at a recent piece from “Teen Vogue's” news and politics editor Lexi McMenamin. They took a look at the possible explanations for why we're seeing more of this. One is that people might be doing this for a fleeting hit of viral fame on TikTok. Another is that some audience members are behaving badly because they forgot how to act during the time that concerts were shut down by pandemic lockdowns.

You can find that piece and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around. We've got a narrated article coming up next from “The New Yorker” about a small-town Oklahoma newspaper. A father-son team at the McCurtain Gazette uncovered explosive revelations about the local sheriff. That's cued up for you next, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.