Pubdate: Fri, 30 Mar 2007
Source: Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Copyright: 2007 Statesman Journal
Contact:  http://www.statesmanjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/427
Author: Matt Love
Note: Matt Love of Pacific City is a writer and teacher.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?161 (Marijuana - Regulation)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

In his speech to open the 2007 session of the Oregon Legislature, 
Gov. Ted Kulongoski spoke eloquently about green things such as 
sustainability and dollars. Unfortunately, he didn't discuss 
something else "green" that could be the answer to many, if not all, 
the fiscal problems in this state. I thought by now some brave 
legislator might have brought it up for consideration, but it hasn't 
happened. So I will.

Marijuana. Legalize marijuana and tax it. Shouldn't everything be on 
the table this session, including raising taxes on a vastly more 
powerful recreational drug, say alcohol?

Thinking differently about marijuana is hardly new to Oregon. In 1971 
Oregon Gov. Tom McCall read an incredible 4,500-word statement before 
the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse urging nothing 
short of a revolution in the way the country handled the so-called 
marijuana problem.

An excerpt: "In my ... rapping with thousands of young people at the 
Oregon State Capitol, I encountered many delegations urging reduction 
or elimination of legal controls of marijuana ..."

In 1973 Oregon became the first state in the nation to decriminalize 
marijuana, making the sentence for possession of less than an ounce 
akin to receiving a traffic ticket. The law became a national model. 
That's the way we used to solve problems in Oregon, meaning devising 
solutions that other states copied.

Really, the question is not whether marijuana should be legalized. 
The question is how it should be legalized. In the past, several 
ballot measures have asked Oregonians if they want to make marijuana 
legal. They have been fringe-led efforts and ill-conceived. They all 
failed because they lacked the state's imprimatur.

Thus, I call upon the Oregon Legislature and Gov. Kulongoski to adopt 
a new law establishing the Oregon Marijuana Legalization Commission.

This body would meet this fall, study the idea and make 
recommendations on every aspect of legalization from potency to 
market or state-controlled distribution. The Commission would also be 
authorized to present a slate of referendums providing Oregon voters 
with ballot options on how marijuana is to be legalized, taxed and 
how the revenue will be spent. Each referendum should have a sunset 
provision so it can later be revisited.

I know what many of you are thinking: The health risks, right? Let me 
offer a visual rebuttal. As I write this from an Oregon tavern, a man 
is halfway through a pack of cigarettes, on his third pint of ale and 
pumping dollars into a state sponsored video poker machine.

Moreover, in the past year I have been in social situations where the 
following people have used or confessed use of marijuana within the 
past three months: doctor, nurse, teacher, professor, biologist, 
winemaker, journalist, editor, land use planner, lawyer, logger, 
farmer, fisherman, contractor, real estate agent, clergyman, speech 
therapist, small business owner, painter, librarian, chef, 
landscaper, masseuse, and of course, an elected official. Not one of 
these people had a medical marijuana card.

Oregonians, kill the double standard. Let common sense prevail. Let 
the people decide. Get government off marijuana smokers' backs and 
into their pockets. The potential revenue stream looks nothing less 
beautiful than amber, no, emerald, waves of leaves.

Yeah, I know again what many of you are thinking. I don't even use 
the stuff! I use other drugs, you know, the kind whose trade 
organization flies a state's lawmakers to Hawaii and then pumps them 
full of their deadly product to assure it remains socially accepted 
and lightly taxed.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake