Oregon abandoned its radical drug law. Then came the mass arrests

Last year, the state ended a trailblazing law decriminalizing possession. Drug users in some counties are now in and out of jail, without lawyers, struggling to get treatment

At 7.45am on a cool February morning in Medford, Oregon, six police officers pulled up to a desolate road lined with tarps and a shopping cart and began making arrests.

The officers directed four adults to sit on the sidewalk, handcuffing them behind their backs and rifling through their pockets. They were being detained for illegal camping, but the officers were also searching for evidence of drugs.