Lane County responds to addiction crisis with a wider safety net for drug users

For years, Jeremy Overstreet lived on the streets of Lane County, bouncing between Cottage Grove and Eugene, often crashing at friends’ houses for the night in exchange for fentanyl pills. 

Just a few years ago, Overstreet said, he handled stashes of thousands of fentanyl pills, supplied through a Mexican cartel that traveled the Interstate 5 corridor into Lane County. Eventually, his supplier disappeared and he lost his connection to the illicit drug market. Yet Overstreet’s fentanyl addiction raged on.

Homeless, he reached a turning point on the streets of Eugene, when police cited him Oct. 27, 2024, for trespassing and camping illegally. Police gave him a chance to avoid the low-level misdemeanor charge if he entered Lane County’s deflection program, which steers people toward addiction treatment and allows them to avoid facing charges in court. 

Requirements for a successful recovery vary based on a person’s needs, but in general, Lane County participants need to participate in treatment for at least three months to graduate.

Overstreet, 38, is among Lane County’s first group of six people to complete the program, which started in October. 

Lane County deliberately established one of the most expansive deflection programs in the state. In most other Oregon counties, the deflection program is not open to people who face other charges or face open warrants. Lane County’s program allows people who face additional low-level charges or warrants, like Overstreet, to enter the deflection program. 

Lane County officials say they’re pleased with the results of the program thus far and say it’s helped curb open drug use in public areas like downtown Eugene. But they say the program needs consistent funding support from the state to continue.

This approach to addiction and low-level drug possession in the county — and most other Oregon counties — started last year in response to soaring and deadly drug overdoses, which killed 1,833 Oregonians in 2023, up from 571 in 2018. 

In Lane County, 221 people died of drug overdoses in 2023, more than any other county except Multnomah County. That’s up from 71 people in 2018. Overdose data for 2024 is not available until later this year because of the time needed to collect and compile results.

“It saved my life”

Overstreet spent most of his adult life homeless and involved in drugs — dealing and using.  Growing up, he bounced between California, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon. 

“The deflection program is actually a really good program,” he said. “It saved my life.”

But to continue locally and succeed in the long run, county officials say it will need consistent state funding for the next two-year budget period, which starts July 1. Legislators are still hammering out details of that budget.

In Lane County, 121 people have been referred to the program as of Monday. Referrals happen when police connect people who may be eligible to service providers. Out of 121 people who started the program, six have graduated and 64 are still participating. The remaining 51 have failed the program. 

 Across Oregon, 560 people have started the programs and 396 are still participating.

So far, 45 Oregonians have successfully completed the programs, including Overstreet.

Because the graduation requirements can differ dramatically from county to county, it can be misleading to compare one county’s success rate to another’s.

Long-term challenges persist in Lane County and throughout Oregon, including a shortage of residential addiction treatment beds. In 2024, a state report found a shortage of more than 3,700 beds for behavioral health care, including addiction treatment. That report put Lane County in a 10-county region that needs 1,175 beds.

Those high needs mean the work is unfinished. Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said the county has a good program, and deflection gives officers another way to engage with people who possess and use drugs. 

“None of this works unless this state decides to prioritize funding for on-demand treatment,” he said. “What many of these individuals need is treatment: substance use disorder treatment, inpatient treatment. And until the state invests the amount of money it’s going to take for both their substance use disorder and mental health treatment, we’re going to see many of these same individuals over and over and over again.”

How we got here 

In 2024, Oregon lawmakers responded to the drug addiction crisis by passing House Bill 4002, which puts a new misdemeanor possession charge in place for people found with small amounts of drugs including cocaine, heroin and fentanyl. It allows police to make arrests; the charge carries potential fines or jail time upon conviction. The law also allows counties to create deflection programs so police can offer an opportunity to enter recovery services or treatment, avoiding court entirely. 

So far, 28 of Oregon’s 36 counties have started deflection programs.

The passage of HB 4002 displayed how much the state’s drug addiction landscape has changed remarkably in recent years. Just four years earlier, in 2020, Oregon voters passed Measure 110, which decriminalized misdemeanor drug possession and replaced it with citations of up to $100. People cited could avoid the fine if they underwent an assessment at a drug treatment center. The measure also allocated a share of cannabis tax revenue toward drug addiction treatment and recovery services across Oregon.

Since then, the drug problem has grown. Fentanyl overdoses increased in Oregon. Police officers often did not issue the citations available through Measure 110, because they lacked any means to keep people accountable and motivate them to enter treatment, Skinner said. He believes that while the Measure 110 system was flawed, the new law provides more accountability through the justice system.

The Legislature passed House Bill 4002 to give law enforcement more tools. The new law recriminalized drug possession in small amounts for individual use — effectively unwinding part of Measure 110. It kept in place cannabis funding for providers and gave extra money to counties that started deflection programs. 

In 2024, Lane County received $2.1 million. That funding pays for temporary housing and peer navigators that guide people in the program to treatment and other services, like employment and food assistance. Lane County officials, 11 local law enforcement agencies and treatment providers worked together to put the deflection plan together. 

Gov. Tina Kotek’s budget proposal seeks $40 million to continue deflection programs, though county breakdowns are not available at this point. The Legislature’s two-year budget won’t be ready until the end of the session in June, and county officials say local funding cannot cover the program, making them reliant on what the state provides.

The funding worries from local officials boil down to this question: Will the allocated money from the state be enough to cover the number of people who opt for deflection?

Deflection approach in Lane County

Clint Riley, Lane County’s deflection program administrator, knows firsthand the link between drug addiction and the criminal justice system. He was commander of the Lane County Jail in his former role with the sheriff’s office.

When Riley ran into formerly jailed people he had not seen in a long time, he would ask them how they were doing. Often, the answer was that they got clean, he said.

Yet, the issue is broader than drug possession, he knows. 

People in addiction often steal or commit other crimes like trespassing or burglary.

That’s part of the reason why Lane County officials deliberately created a deflection plan that made as many people eligible as possible, including those facing other potential misdemeanor charges tied to their addiction, like trespassing and theft. 

“Think of how safe the community gets when you get somebody off drugs,” Riley said. “Because now people aren’t doing those quality of life crimes against people in the community and everybody wins in that situation.”

The approach sets Lane County apart from other Oregon counties, which usually only offer deflection when people face misdemeanor drug possession charges — not for other offenses. This is possible because state lawmakers gave counties flexibility to set their own standards for their programs.

The coordinated effort requires law enforcement, behavioral health providers and prosecutors to work together. One of the organizations that helped plan the program is Ideal Option, which offers recovery services to people in drug addiction and helps them connect with other services including health care, housing and job assistance.

“What we did know from talking to our law enforcement agencies and the chiefs of police was that they were looking to find ways to address those low-level quality of life crimes that they knew were being driven by substance abuse,” Lane County District Attorney Chris Parosa told Lookout Eugene-Springfield. “For us, it was an easy call to make it more expansive early.”

Skinner said law enforcement wants to see a good outcome, not put people in jail.

“The majority of the work that we do just wants to see a positive outcome,” he said. “And that positive outcome can be successful deflection or successful treatment. And we’re happy to be engaged when we start to see those types of successes happen for people.”

How people enter deflection

Ideal Option has five peer navigators so someone is always on call to work with officers countywide when they come across people eligible for deflection. Peer navigators often have experienced and overcome drug addiction, giving them a background that helps them relate to people on the streets. 

Peer navigators often respond in person and sometimes through a video call if necessary. They make initial contact with the person and make plans to follow up and guide them to services. 

Ideal Option staff help them sign up for Medicaid, facilitate connections with addiction treatment providers, housing and help with other needs, like obtaining identification and registering for benefits. 

The goal is for peer navigators to be collaborative and help the person find the right treatment provider, said Art Zamudio, supervisor of the Lane County program for Ideal Option. In some cases, certain treatment providers are a better fit than others.

“People are more likely to engage in help if they have a say in it,” Zamudio said.

Other needs, including housing, are also part of recovery.

The county contracts with Reveille Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides housing and veterans services, so homeless people who enter deflection can access one of 20 housing units in Eugene. The housing provides a safe place, and allows peer navigators to check in frequently during the early days of the journey to sobriety. 

That housing is an option, not a requirement, to participate in deflection. But without that choice, people who remain on the streets, exposed to drugs, face much tougher odds.

“They go into a housing unit that has a lock and they can actually sleep without fearing at any second they can be assaulted,” said Josh Lair, director of community development for Ideal Option.

But it’s just a temporary stopping point. From there, people can go on to residential treatment, sober houses for people in recovery or other housing programs.

For people like Overstreet, it was critical to his success.

“If you’re on the street in a tent, you’re not going to want to get clean, because then you’re cold, you’re hungry, and you get worried about trespasses and worry about trying to find a place to sleep,” he said. 

During the program, peer navigators stay in touch with treatment providers and deflection participants to ensure they are actively involved and showing up for appointments.

To succeed, participants must remain in contact with their peer navigator for at least three months and stay in treatment. If the participant cannot be contacted for 30 days, they can have charges filed against them by the district attorney.

On the streets 

When Measure 110 passed, some Oregonians complained about the prevalence of open and public drug use from Portland to Grants Pass. With no serious legal consequences, drug users worried less about police interactions.

Since the passage of House Bill 4002, drug use in places like downtown Eugene is less visible, though it’s likely more hidden, not stopped. 

“We still know that’s happening,” Skinner said. “But there’s less instances of open-air drug use, or at least drug use that is visible to our community even though we know that it’s still probably as pervasive as it was before.”

Overstreet said drugs like fentanyl remain easy for people to obtain in Eugene. 

“You can ask any homeless person, and most likely they have a connection,” he said. “It’s so easy to get; it’s so easy to acquire. Not necessarily are you gonna get stuff that’s really good, and not necessarily you’re getting stuff that’s really bad, but you can find it anywhere. It’s not going away.”

Arrests outpace deflection cases

While deflection is available, it is not automatic. State law gives police officers discretion on who gets offered the alternative to an arrest.

And people can decline to participate. 

In Lane County, an arrest for misdemeanor drug possession may unfold differently depending on the agency and other circumstances, like how cooperative someone is when they interact with police. 

There were nearly 300 cases with misdemeanor drug charges filed in Lane County by March 31 since the law took effect in September 2024, the latest available state data show. Statewide, more than 3,700 cases have been filed. 

Riley, the deflection program administrator, said officers who don’t offer deflection are asked to document their reasons. As the program continues, those records will show the circumstances of cases and factors that led to deflection not being offered. 

People are automatically ineligible if they are part of a domestic violence arrest, a sex offender or a police informant. In the field, police officers have the discretion on whether to offer deflection. Riley said that data, when available, will offer insights into those circumstances, like if a suspect is belligerent during the officer’s call.

And as word of the program spreads, officials believe more people will be open to participating.

It’s also not a one-shot opportunity; people can enter deflection more than once in Lane County if they relapse after completing the program.

“It doesn’t always stick every time,” Riley said. “Sometimes people are going to stumble.”

A life beyond addiction

As he looks to the future, Overstreet wants to help others facing the same perils he does. He is making plans to work, possibly as a peer navigator, to assist others in drug addiction. 

It’s a full turnaround from someone who once handled thousands of fentanyl pills. He urges anyone dealing with addiction to seek recovery and a better life. 

“The lifestyle is fun for a minute, and after a while, it becomes a job,” he said. “It’s not fun anymore. If you can find help, find help — get help.”