Opioid deaths have climbed in Oregon. There were 280 unintentional opioid deaths in 2019, 472 in 2020, 737 in 2021, 955 in 2022. Complete 2023 data is not available yet.

How much of that increase is due to Measure 110? How much of that would have happened without Measure 110? We don’t know.

Handing out virtually meaningless tickets for possession of hard drugs surely doesn’t help. Awarding some $265 million to assist in treatment surely has helped some people. How many success stories are out there?

Changes are likely coming in the February legislative session to Measure 110. But no matter how you feel about the ballot measure, it can be difficult to find data to prove how effective the treatment side of Measure 110 has been in combating addiction.

The Legislature did ask for more information. When it prepared its most recent state budget, it included a note to the Oregon Health Authority. It requested a report by Jan. 1 from the health authority.

The note asked for a public dashboard of the revenues and expenditures in the Drug Treatment and Recovery Services Fund. The note wanted details of grants and contracts. It also asked for program outcomes — the bang for the buck

You can see the dashboards and reports here: tinyurl.com/M110data.

More treatment is available. Wait times were cut. There is more culturally and linguistically appropriate treatment. And more.

But when the Joint Interim SubCommittee on Human Services meets on Wednesday, it will be looking at a review of the inadequacies of the health authority’s report by a legislative analyst. The bottom line: What the health authority provided contains “useful program information and statistics, but do not provide substantive program outcomes.” It provides “information about what funding is used to support, it does not address the impact of the program and services” beyond some subjective data.

The Legislature doesn’t have to wait for more data to act on Measure 110. It does have to wait before it knows more about how effective the expanded treatment has been.