PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – With a new law in place, anyone caught using drugs on TriMet buses and trains could be facing up to a year behind bars.
TriMet championed the bill after conducting a survey that found roughly half of their riders had felt unsafe while riding on public transit.
TriMet General Manager Sam Desue said, "The changes passed in the last legislative session made it clear public drug use cannot be tolerated on transit systems."
Last year, the Oregon State Legislature passed a bill that made using drugs on public transit a Class A misdemeanor, meaning that someone caught using drugs on public transportation could spend up to 364 days in jail or pay thousands in fines.
This law followed the bills reversing Measure 110, making the possession of small amounts of hard drugs illegal.
TriMet partners with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office to lead the Transit Police division to enforce this new law.
"The sheriff's office oversees the Transit Police division, which is comprised of approximately 21 deputy sheriffs and police officers," Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell said. "That is, recognizing that other jurisdictions anywhere that transit lines are running, the local jurisdiction of that area will be providing emergency services."
Andrew Wilson, TriMet's executive director of Safety and Security, said, "If you have this incident occur out there, you make a phone call to the security operations center. They may be able to pull that up directly and monitor that event and dispatch law enforcement personnel."
Between 2021 and 2025, TriMet nearly quadrupled its safety and security budget. It has also improved the lighting at 60% on MAX platforms and, within the past year, upgraded the majority of its cameras.
Wilson said TriMet worked "to ensure a safe place where you can bring your children and others without ingesting fumes from somebody that's sitting with you in an enclosed space."
A person caught using drugs could be sent to a deflection center instead of jail. But that will be up to Multnomah County DA Nathan Vasquez on a case-by-case basis.
"If this law is broken, my office will prosecute it. Period," Vasquez said. "People that are using these control services that are releasing really a noxious and dangerous substance into a very oftentimes confined area, endangering people that have no desire to be anywhere near that, including children. So this office does not support those types of cases going to deflection. And quite frankly, that will be my decision."
