New Oregon Laws In 2022 Include Police Reform, Cold Medicine, Pot

PORTLAND, OR — Here's the scenario. You're living in Oregon. You have a bad cold. You stop in the drug store hoping to get some medicine with pseudoephedrine and you're told that you need a doctor's prescription.

That's been the law in Oregon for several years because pseudoephedrine is a main ingredient in methamphetamine.

Now that there's a national database that tracks purchases, legislators concluded that Oregon's law is now redundant. So, they've repealed it.

That's just one of the hundreds of new laws that goes into effect on January 1.

Here are some others:

The state now requires election offices to count ballots that are mailed on election day. That's a change. Currently, many counties stop counting if it's not received ON election day;

Nurses are now allowed to discuss using medical marijuana with patients;

Companies like Uber and Lyft now have to get additional insurance;

School districts must now negotiate with teacher unions over class size in certain circumstances;

Displaying a noose can be a hate crime;

The current habit of making mug shots public is over. From now on mug shots can only be released if making them public serve a legitimate law enforcement purpose;

If a police officer makes a false statement to get information from a juvenile, any statement from the person will be considered involuntary;

It will be easier to develop affordable housing; and

Government agencies must do what they can to stream meetings online.