GEOFF BENNETT: It's been more than two-and-a-half years since a first-of-its-kind law went into effect in Oregon that decriminalized small possession of most drugs, including opioids and methamphetamines.

Stephanie Sy reports from Portland on what's working and, notably, what's not working with the law that advocates hoped could change drug enforcement.

STEPHANIE SY: In downtown Portland, under a light rain, a small crowd gathers for what's become an annual event, remembering those who have died from drug overdoses and those who have survived them.

HAVEN WHEELOCK, Outside In: I hate with all my heart that it gets bigger every year.

STEPHANIE SY: In the last year alone, over 1,400 Oregonians have succumbed to overdoses, fueled largely by the explosion of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

HAVEN WHEELOCK: Fentanyl has really changed the game.

STEPHANIE SY: Haven Wheelock is the drug users health services supervisor for Outside In, a nonprofit in Portland.

HAVEN WHEELOCK: They will dispose of any used injection equipment they have.

STEPHANIE SY: The services include distributing safer injection supplies like clean needles, but also glass pipes and tests that detect fentanyl in other drugs.

Narcan, the opioid overdose reversal drug, is also available.

HAVEN WHEELOCK: Smoking supplies are definitely our biggest draw currently.

STEPHANIE SY: Harm reduction services like these are a cornerstone of Measure or M 110.

The law also allocated funding from legal marijuana sales taxes to organizations like Outside In.

HAVEN WHEELOCK: Measure 110 has done a lot for our community, and it's only going to do more as we move forward.

We're moving to this new system that is centering health and hope.

STEPHANIE SY: But since the law went into effect, overdose deaths in Oregon have risen by 66 percent.

Advocates say the problem is fentanyl, not decriminalization, and point out nearby cities like Seattle have also seen large increases in drug overdoses.

MONTA KNUDSON, Executive Director, Bridges to Change: We passed M110 at the worst possible time, because we can't pull apart, what is COVID impact that comes from 50 years of disinvestment because of the war on drugs, and then we have decrim that happened at the same time.

STEPHANIE SY: Monta Knudson runs Bridges to Change, one of the state's largest recipients of funding from the law.

Money, he says, has been slow in coming.

MONTA KNUDSON: We were able, in the last 12 months to procure and stand up about 238 beds.

Some of those are still in the process.

Some are being built.

STEPHANIE SY: Services at Bridges to Change include housing and peer counseling for those with substance use disorder.

But, notably, Measure 110 does not pay for traditional inpatient treatment facilities, which are funded by Medicaid or insurance.

Even before Measure 110, Oregon had one of the largest gaps in care for people with substance use disorder.

MONTA KNUDSON: Everybody was expecting results from the passage of the law, right?

But they don't understand how long it takes to stand these things up.

I'm constantly trying to fight and secure M110 to continue, because it's been under attack so much.

And so... STEPHANIE SY: Is M110 in jeopardy?

Is that your sense?

MONTA KNUDSON: Yes, M110's been in jeopardy since it started.

STEPHANIE SY: Less than three years ago, 58 percent of Oregon voters supported decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of hard drugs.

The tide has quickly turned.

A poll from August found that 56 percent of voters now support a total repeal of the law.

MINGUS MAPPS, Portland, Oregon, City commissioner: I think decriminalizing highly addictive, highly dangerous drugs is a terrible idea.

STEPHANIE SY: Mingus Mapps is a Portland city commissioner and one of those Oregonians who has had a change of heart about Measure 110.

While he says he's not ready to support a full repeal, he concedes that some drugs need to be recriminalized.

MINGUS MAPPS: I tell you, Portland managed to do this entirely wrong.

We both decriminalized drugs, but we didn't increase access to treatment.

STEPHANIE SY: Commissioner Mapps points out that Portland has many acute issues, rising homicides, homelessness, and an economically struggling downtown core.

But he says fentanyl runs through them all.

Do you view the fentanyl problem as being related to Measure 110?

MINGUS MAPPS: It clearly is.

One of the things -- I hate to say it, but I'm afraid it's true -- in the last several years, Portland has clearly become known to the drug cartels as a great place to set up a business dealing fentanyl.

STEPHANIE SY: Mapps acknowledges fentanyl is a growing problem up and down the West Coast, but says Portland's small police force, down some 120 officers since the 2020 racial justice protests, compounds the challenge.

We saw firsthand how officers are stretched thin riding along with Portland's Central Bike Squad, which patrols a 124-square block area in downtown.

Led by Sergeant Jerry Cioeta, the Bike Squad gets a tip about a possible drug drop and approaches a parked SUV.

Ultimately, they don't find probable cause to conduct a search and let the vehicle and its occupants go.

Measure 110 may have legalized possession of small amounts of drugs, but dealing drugs is still illegal.

And Cioeta's squad captures a lot of busts on its popular Instagram account, including weapons and the ubiquitous blue pills that contain fentanyl.

Do you think that 110 increased demand?

SGT.

JERRY CIOETA, Portland Police Bureau: I think it's too hard to tell.

Because fentanyl hit when 110 hit, when COVID was here, I mean, it was the perfect storm for a drug epidemic like we'd never seen before.

STEPHANIE SY: As part of Measure 110, police are directed to write tickets when they see someone using or possessing drugs.

The ticket includes a phone number to get a substance use health assessment, but, in practice, most tickets are ignored and only a few dozen people have completed the assessment.

SGT.

JERRY CIOETA: Everybody has a breaking point, but they're not going to go until they're ready.

STEPHANIE SY: Right.

SGT.

JERRY CIOETA: If I gave the same person 100 tickets and, on a 100th, it was, OK, maybe now it's my time, I mean, is that enough?

I don't know.

Who knows?

STEPHANIE SY: Riding closer to downtown, the crew spots a man in a mask, jaywalking.

After checking his I.D., it turns out that he has an outstanding warrant for a weapons offense.

And in the suspect's backpack, they find tools, which could be used for robbery.

When was the last time you used?

MAN: It's been a while.

SGT.

JERRY CIOETA: Been a while?

A couple days?

Are you dope-sick?

MAN: Not yet.

I'm holding on.

STEPHANIE SY: He described himself as an occasional fentanyl user and said he was on a wait-list for inpatient treatment.

MAN: It's been like eight weeks now.

I'm still on the wait-list.

SGT.

JERRY CIOETA: OK. STEPHANIE SY: Eventually, the 25-year-old is taken to a county jail, only to be denied booking and released because of an abscess in his mouth.

Just three days later, the same man was charged with stabbing two Black teenagers in a racially motivated attack.

SGT.

JERRY CIOETA: We have a city that is just in disarray, and we have businesses that are trying to come back from all of this.

STEPHANIE SY: It's a struggle that Lisa Schroeder is dealing with every day.

She's the executive chef and owner of Mother's Bistro, a restaurant in downtown Portland.

LISA SCHROEDER, Owner, Mother's Bistro and Bar: I will tell you something.

Measure 110 is destroying our city.

The drug problem is killing our city.

I see it firsthand.

It is leading to the crime.

It's leading to the vandalism.

It's leading to people feeling unsafe in our city.

STEPHANIE SY: Schroeder is serving on a state task force to revitalize downtown Portland, where foot traffic this spring was about 37 percent of what it was in 2019.

LISA SCHROEDER: At Mother's, I used to be able to say I can count on death, taxes and weekend brunch.

Now we don't even have a wait on weekend brunch.

It's unheard of.

STEPHANIE SY: Schroeder also argues that some of the efforts funded by Measure 110 are misguided.

LISA SCHROEDER: Giving foil and pipes, how is that harm reduction?

What are we doing for them?

I think we need to get a handle on this and come up with solutions that will help people, instead of aiding and abetting their problems.

STEPHANIE SY: It's a sentiment that Commissioner Mingus Mapps has heard from his constituents.

He's thrown his hat into the race for mayor next year.

MINGUS MAPPS: Turning around our fentanyl problem has to be, frankly, job number one.

Measure 110 is something that we imposed on ourselves, and we can fix it too.

STEPHANIE SY: Bridges to Change's Monta Knudson acknowledges the rocky roll out of the law, but says Measure 110 is not the problem.

MONTA KNUDSON: M110 is this political football right now just going back and forth.

And so part of me is like, if recrim happens, nothing's going to change.

Even if every dollar we needed to create capacity dumped into the system, it's going to take five, 10 years to make a dent.

STEPHANIE SY: But frustrated Oregonians are not waiting.

Last month, the coalition put forward a proposal to unwind the central tenets of the law, recriminalizing possession and requiring treatment.

What some had hoped would be a new chapter in the war on drugs may only be a footnote in the increasingly deadly opioid epidemic.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy in Portland, Oregon.