Oregon’s soaring crime rates are a ‘tragic result’ of decriminalizing hard drugs: Oregon DA
Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton discusses the impact decriminalizing hard drugs has had on the state of Oregon on ‘Fox & Friends.’
During an interview on ‘Fox & Friends Weekend,’ District Attorney Kevin Barton of Washington County, Oregon breaks down productive solutions to inflated crime rates following the unprecedented passing of the drug decriminalization law.
WASHINGTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY KEVIN BARTON: It's a false promise. And unfortunately, it's the tragic result that so many of us predicted would happen but hoped that wouldn't. So what we've seen is we've seen property crime dramatically rising, things like car theft, car break-ins, catalytic converter theft around the entire state. But especially in the Portland area. We've seen violent crime increasing in Portland and spilling over into surrounding communities like my own community, where I'm I'm the district attorney of the county that essentially borders all of Portland.
A large homeless camp in Portland, Oregon. (iStock)
And we've seen other things, too. Overdose deaths spiking the use of Narcan, which police and other first responders use to try and counteract an overdose that's gone up, tripled in the county where I am outside of Portland. And even children who have been exposed to drugs, and we found children, toddlers, babies with meth and heroin in their system.
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