September is Recovery Month, celebrating the recovery community and highlighting the importance of evidence-based treatment and recovery practices. Coincidentally, Sept. 1 is also the day that drug recriminalization takes effect in Oregon, following the passage of House Bill 4002, which rolls back a key provision of Measure 110, Oregon's 2020 drug decriminalization measure.

Under the new law, possession will be a misdemeanor, but it does allow offenders to "deflect" from the justice system into treatment programs on a county-by-county basis. Tony Vezina is co-founder and executive director of Fourth Dimension Recovery Center, or 4D Recovery, which is participating in the Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington county drug deflection programs. It's a youth-led, peer-focused recovery community, and Vezina was a guest on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss the organization's work and mission.