QuickTake:

The program allow some defendants to avoid court and possible jail time if they enter treatment for drug addiction. A part of the program that provides housing is a key for success, county leaders say. More than 100 people have graduated or are still enrolled.

Lane County’s efforts to guide people in drug addiction into recovery stepped up in 2025, even though the county’s deflection program is still relatively new.

Lane County started the program in October 2024. It gives people facing misdemeanor drug possession charges or other low-level charges tied to addiction an opportunity to avoid court if they participate in a recovery program. It’s part of the state’s broader push to combat drug addiction.

Since October 2024, 34 people have graduated from the program, and another 83 are currently in the program, county data show. That’s 117 people in all, slightly more than a third of the 317 people who have participated. About 200 others have been removed from the program, most of them because they made no contact with program workers and couldn’t be reached.

Considering the program is reaching out to Lane County’s most vulnerable residents, who are often living on the streets, it’s a success story, county officials said. What’s more, the county’s ability to provide emergency housing immediately to people when they enter the program improves the success rate, said Clint Riley, Lane County’s deflection program administrator.

“If we get someone engaging in treatment, working on themselves and thinking about things that most people think about every day, the criminal behavior goes away,” Riley said in an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

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 about 20 housing units in Eugene. The emergency housing provides a safe place, and allows peer navigators who work with participants to check in frequently during the early days of the journey to sobriety.

Peer navigators, through a contract with recovery services provider Ideal Option, help program participants access housing, health care, job assistance and other services. People in emergency housing sometimes stay there for a few days or weeks, leaving to enter detox or other inpatient residential treatment.

Lane County District Attorney Christopher Parosa said the housing component and other immediate services for people is key. It works better than handing someone paperwork and hoping they connect with the program later on their own, he said.

“We get to remove them safely from the streets and put them in a place where they get their own apartment,” Parosa said.

People who don’t complete the program can still face charges in court. But the goal is to keep them in the program. Staff follow up with program participants if they miss appointments, Riley said.

Those who stay in the program for a few months can avoid charges and move on with their lives.

To graduate, participants must complete at least 90 days of “meaningful engagement” with the program, Riley said. That 90-day period usually entails treatment, though participants and graduates can still be undergoing recovery services and treatment afterward.

“The longer someone’s in treatment, the more now they’re focusing on not so much ‘Where am I going to get drugs?’ but ‘Where am I going to work? Where am I going to live? How do I get my kids back?’” Riley said. “That’s the meaningful engagement we want to see.”

Many choose to stay in the program beyond 90 days. On average, graduates participated in the program for 152 days.

Lane County recognizes graduates of a new recovery program 

Statewide effort 

The program is part of a wider battle Oregon is fighting against drug addiction, especially fentanyl and other opioids.  

In 2024, Oregon lawmakers passed 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 and carries potential fines or jail time upon conviction. The law also allowed counties to create deflection programs so police can offer people an opportunity to enter recovery services or treatment, avoiding court entirely. 

Currently, 27 of Oregon’s 36 counties have set up deflection programs. The law gave counties broad discretion to decide who is eligible for deflection and set parameters, like how often someone can participate, how often someone is eligible, how long it lasts and what services are available. Lane County’s is one of the most expansive deflection programs and allows people to participate multiple times, even after dropping out.

Statewide, 393 people completed a deflection program by Nov. 3, state data show. Another 383 people were enrolled in deflection as of Nov. 3.

Oregon’s drug addiction landscape has changed significantly in recent years. 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 put a share of cannabis tax revenue toward drug addiction treatment and recovery services across Oregon.

But in the aftermath, drug addiction and fentanyl overdoses increased in Oregon, as the opioid crisis reached the West Coast. Police officers often did not issue the citations available through Measure 110, because they lacked a mechanism to keep people accountable.

That changed after House Bill 4002 recriminalized drug possession in small amounts for individual use. The law also kept in place cannabis funding for providers and gave extra money to counties that started deflection programs. For the 2025-2027 biennium, Lane County gets about $4.6 million, or $2.3 million annually. 

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.