The appeal of Measure 110 and why so many Oregon voters supported it in 2020 was: A person addicted to drugs needs treatment and not to be thrown in jail.

The program didn’t flower. It faltered. It helped create more treatment. There were also so many fumes, including people being able to carry around illegal drugs without consequence.

Voters in Deschutes County may now get more of what they hoped for through the county’s new deflection program.

Now, because of changes by the Oregon Legislature, minor amounts of drugs have been recriminalized. Other changes were made to make it easier to prosecute drug trafficking. Enhanced crimes were put in place for delivery of illegal drugs in areas near treatment facilities, shelters and public parks.

The deflection program that Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Michael Shults and others have scrambled to stand up offers an alternative to jail for minor possession. People can be “deflected” into treatment. It can mean a lot, not only for the person struggling with drugs. It also gives a powerful lever to a law enforcement officer.

“It gives them an opportunity, a tool to change behavior, and be the person who helped,” Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Monday, during a presentation to some Bend city councilors.

Under the old rules of Measure 110, police officers couldn’t do much more than issue a meaningless ticket to people with minor amounts of drug possession.

Some people will not qualify for deflection. There are many reasons to lose eligibility — if they are from outside Central Oregon, if issues with mental health prevent them from being able to go through treatment, if they are combative and more.

If they are eligible, a police officer has the discretion to refer them to a handoff to a “navigator” with treatment providers Best Care or Ideal Options to get medically assisted treatment swiftly. The person must participate voluntarily.

People who are transported to see a deflection navigator will still be issued a citation for possession of a controlled substance. It will be set out for 60 days, though. If a person follows through with deflection, no charges are filed. They get no criminal record for the incident. And because of that, no public defender is needed.

People who are transported to jail and do not participate in the deflection program can still get treatment and avoid jail time. In that case, it’s called diversion and that decision is made in front of a judge, Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels explained.

The deflection program may not work in every case. A similar program in Marion County has been showing success.

There are other possible problems, as well. The navigators are currently not available in Deschutes County 24-7. The hope is that some people will still be able to be connected with the deflection program even in the off hours. Perhaps the working hours can be expanded in the future.

And then there is, of course, money. The state provided some initial funding. The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office has received more than $840,000 in grants. It’s not enough for everything the county is doing with the deflection program now. There’s uncertainty about future funding. But state Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend and state Sen. Kate Lieber, D-Portland, who is also co-chair of the state’s budget committee, told us they are committed to providing appropriate funding.

Krantz said the deflection program “is what our communities thought Ballot Measure 110 would do.” The key issue, as Gunnels pointed out, will be to demonstrate that the deflection program in Deschutes County truly works.