Trio of bills aims to address Oregon's failure to equip kids with needed tools against drugs

This article has been updated to incorporate additional reporting.

Young Oregonians experience one of the nation’s highest rates of youth substance disorder in the country as well as one of the highest rates of fatal overdoses in their age group. Now some lawmakers and advocates have ideas to help change that.

Last year, a six-month investigation by The Lund Report in collaboration with the University of Oregon’s Catalyst Journalism Project and Oregon Public Broadcasting gathered data from school districts teaching 9 out of 10 public school students in the state. The results indicated that 60% districts are not providing science-based tools to help young people avoid drug use and addiction — in possible violation of state law.

Not only that, but state officials have not done much to help districts comply with the law, let alone hold them accountable for violating it.

Now, three bills aim to help officials emulate their counterparts in states like Pennsylvania and Washington. Unlike Oregon, they have funded evidence-driven strategies to drive down rates of youth substance use disorder.

“We just have these giant gaps for youth,” one of the bills’ chief co-sponsors, state Rep. Jules Walters, D-West Linn, told The Lund Report. “We think of (substance use disorder) as an adult disease, and that is not how it works.”

Prevention science has changed

Youth prevention programs have come a long way since the days of DARE, the program that originated with the Los Angeles Police Department that became notorious for scare tactics and ineffectiveness.

Researchers have found that programs and teaching styles that offer life skills and boost self-esteem help kids stay off drugs as well as just generally fare better in life, while saving taxpayer money. 

But for years state reports have flagged deficiencies in prevention without much happening as a result. Less than 2% of Oregon’s spending on substance use disorder services went to youth prevention other than tobacco, according to a state-commissioned report issued last spring. 

A national analysis of federal survey data found that Oregon has the third-highest rate of youth substance use disorder among the 50 states plus Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, other 2023 federal data indicated that among 50 states, Oregon had the third highest per-capita rate of drug overdose deaths among youth ages 15 to 19. 

Three bills to get a hearing

Bills slated for a Wednesday hearing are intended to assess where the state is lacking in youth prevention services and direct the state to develop a strategy to fill in those gaps. One would define the word “prevention” — an effort to improve the focus of such efforts. 

The three bills are:

• House Bill 3321 would define “prevention” and direct the state Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission to develop and enact a statewide strategy to help people avoid drugs. As part of the strategy, the commission would also define state agency responsibilities and expected outcomes.
• House Bill 2502 would direct the commission to work with other state agencies to conduct a study of how to increase prevention, screening, intervention and referral programs in schools.
• House Bill 3375 would direct the commission to assess the current availability of these programs as well as any gaps in youth prevention and treatment. 

Pam Pearce, a prevention educator and the co-founder of the state’s first recovery high school, told The Lund Report that most of the state’s efforts amount to interventions after people start using drugs. Giving kids tools and knowledge earlier in life, however, is proven to be more effective.

She’s hopeful that the bills help the state get on the right track, adding that “Oregon is in such a bad place that there is nowhere to go but up from here.” 

Advocates are cautiously optimistic, but cost hurdles may remain

Nobody has submitted formal written opposition to the bills. But legislative analysts have not yet provided an estimated price tag for them. With limited space in the budget, support from legislative leadership could be key.

Jon Epstein, an Oregon man whose son died from an overdose caused by a counterfeit pill, works with the national nonprofit Song for Charlie to raise awareness about the risk of drugs to youth. He said the bills could be “foundational” by ensuring state funds are spent properly on prevention programs supported by evidence.

“It really feels like progress is about to happen,” he said, but added, “I have some anxiety that what comes out won’t be strong enough.”

Shifting approaches to drug abuse

Walters said that last year she spoke with advocates and officials who said the state needed a definition of prevention because it kept getting lumped in with approaches known as harm reduction that are intended to reduce the harms of using drugs such as distributing opioid overdose medications. 

Pearce, who leads a prevention education nonprofit and sits on a subcommittee of the Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission, said that much of the state's public health messaging, including billboards and ads, around the drug crisis has focused on reducing risks to people using substances rather than preventing use. She said that the state’s recent “gap analysis” on available services largely left out prevention. 

“If we don’t stop new customers, this doesn’t end,” she said. “And I don’t think that there will ever be enough money to reduce harm.”

Recent efforts debated

Last year, Kotek called the Unsupported series’ findings “alarming” and promised to develop an action plan, saying “prevention is part of the solution to Oregon’s addiction crisis.”

When asked by The Lund Report what Kotek’s office has done since then, a spokesperson responded with an email stating that the governor’s office convened a work group of experts focused on finding ways to help educators promote social-emotional health.

Additionally, the governor’s proposed budget includes $25 million in new spending for school-based health centers, youth residential and community-based behavioral health and substance use treatment, as well as youth suicide prevention.  

The Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Authority responded with a joint statement to questions from The Lund Report. The agencies updated the Fentanyl Toolkit for Schools in fall last year and took other steps to raise awareness. The education department created a new position to coordinate youth prevention efforts and hired a former school nurse to fill it.

Anthony Biglan, a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute who studies youth prevention, said the state’s recent efforts continue to show the need for officials to focus on evidence-based techniques and specific guidance for schools.

“When states systematically implement specific evidence-based programs they get far better results in preventing substance use (and other problems!) than Oregon has ever gotten,” he wrote in an email, adding that as The Lund Report series documented, “schools are not using effective programs.”

He said he generally supports the three bills but thinks they should include a broader focus on general life skills for kids that help with issues beyond substance use prevention, as well as clear tracking. He’s said that the state’s efforts to support social-emotional health in kids have also lacked monitoring and a focus on evidence.

“The legislation would be stronger if it explicitly called for identifying evidence-based school and family programs and monitoring the extent to which these programs are reaching families and youth,” he added.

‘Feels too slow and too small,’ Senator says

Dr. Lisa Reynolds, a pediatrician and Washington County lawmaker, told The Lund Report last year that improved youth prevention efforts had “to be part of the focus” for the Legislature’s 2025 session if not sooner. 

In a recent interview, she echoed that sentiment, but added that the Legislature’s focus needs to go beyond school-based programs to include things like early childhood programming, which can help prevent addiction.

Now a state senator, Reynolds chairs the newly formed Senate Early Childhood and Behavioral Health Committee where she is advancing a so-called “Momnibus” legislative package. It would boost funding to house and treat pregnant or postpartum mothers dealing with substance abuse. It also would train more health care workers, such as doulas, and diversify the perinatal workforce. 

Reynolds is a member of the Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission. She said the panel has sought a comprehensive strategy to guide youth prevention, and Walters’ bill will further that goal. 

But, she added, “It still feels too slow and too small.”