Pubdate: Tue, 28 Oct 2014
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2014 The Register-Guard
Contact: http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/#contribute-a-letter
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362
Author: Keith Blevins

IGNORE THE MEASURE 91 SCARE TACTICS

I recently received a mailer from the No on 91 campaign. It may as 
well have read, "Be afraid! Be very afraid!"

The piece of propaganda was chock full of sensationalism, misleading 
statements and outright lies.

Sensationalism - "Increase of 268 percent in poison control center 
calls for children (ages 0-5) for marijuana." The numbers behind "268 
percent" are 5 and 18, which don't seem extremely large compared with 
Colorado's population.

For some context, what are the comparable numbers for alcohol and 
other household substances? Also, the mailer references children age 
5 and under; how many infants are getting into their parents' stash? 
That's just inflammatory.

Misleading - "No standard for driving while stoned: Washington has a 
limit. Measure 91 has no such limit." Oregon already has standards 
for driving while stoned; there's no need to repeat them in Measure 91.

Outright lies - "Youth use of marijuana increases when availability 
increases." And, "Colorado's 12-17 year-old marijuana use rate is 39 
percent higher than the national average." Several studies - most 
recently by economists Daniel Rees, Benjamin Hansen and D. Mark 
Anderson - found no increase in teen use in states that legalized 
medical marijuana.

In surveys post-legalization, Colorado's teens reported last month's 
use at 20 percent; the comparable national number is 23.4 percent. 
And the number of Colorado teens who've tried marijuana is 37 percent 
compared with 40.7 percent nationwide.

Sadly, some voters will be swayed by such dishonest fear tactics.

Keith Blevins

Eugene
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom