Pubdate: Mon, 28 Sep 2015
Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR)
Copyright: 2015 Lee Enterprises
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/HPOp5PfB
Website: http://www.democratherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/7

POT BANS MAY RECALL PROHIBITION

The offices of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission must be busy 
these days: Not only are employees hammering out the rules under 
which recreational marijuana will be sold, they're also keeping track 
of those local governments that are working to ban the pot sales.

That list gets longer by the week. Currently, it includes mid-valley 
communities such as Sweet Home and Brownsville. It also includes 
seven of Oregon's 36 counties. More governments will join the list, 
possibly including Albany, where the City Council last week made some 
noise about maybe pursuing a permanent ban on recreational sales.

The topic has been in the news lately because cities and counties 
have been dealing with a smaller, but related, question: Whether to 
ban the early sales of recreational pot by licensed medical marijuana 
dispensaries. In the absence of some kind of governmental action, 
those dispensaries have the green light to sell recreational pot 
beginning Oct. 1.

But these early sales are just a warmup for the main event, the 
question of whether to ban recreational sales entirely even after the 
OLCC works up the rules for governing sales.

When we've finally taken stock of these bans, it's likely we'll have 
a statewide patchwork of regulations that will be reminiscent of how 
we had "wet" counties and "dry" counties in the years after 
Prohibition. It will, for example, be difficult to find legal outlets 
to buy recreational marijuana in the 15 Eastern Oregon counties in 
which more than 55 percent of voters rejected Ballot Measure 91, the 
legalization initiative. Governments in those counties can ban 
recreational sales without taking the issue to the ballot.

In other counties - and this includes both Linn and Benton - any ban 
on recreational sales will have to be approved by voters, most likely 
in the November 2016 general election.

Marijuana advocates argue that communities banning pot sales will be 
losing their share of the tax revenue that could be generated. But 
that argument is a nonstarter with government officials: The amount 
of tax revenue that will be going to the local governments, at least 
initially, isn't nearly enough to make much of an impact on 
anti-marijuana sentiment on the local level.

At the same time, of course, other communities will be moving ahead 
with marijuana sales: Attempts to push through any kind of ban in 
Corvallis and Benton County, for example, simply haven't gotten any traction.

This patchwork of bans and differing regulations throughout the state 
about the sale of marijuana could have at least one benefit: We'll be 
better able to track how legalized pot plays out in Oregon by 
comparing what happens in the "dry" counties with what happens in the 
"wet" ones. (Of course, it will remain legal to smoke pot in all 36 counties.)

But history shows that Prohibition wasn't particularly successful 
during its run. And the federal government's long-running battle 
against marijuana has little to show for its efforts. Communities 
that ban marijuana sales are within their rights, and we could learn 
something useful from their work. But in the long run, they might be 
swimming against the tide. (mm)
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom