Oregon Will Vote On Cannabis

[Truth Seeker]

Oregon will soon qualify as the third U.S. state to ask voters in November to legalize marijuana for recreational use, proponents said Friday, a move that would put the state on a collision course with the federal government.

Backers of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act said they have collected 165,000 signatures on petitions seeking to put the measure on the November ballot, nearly double the 87,000 they were required to submit by Friday's deadline to qualify.

“We believe we're going to make it easily,” said Paul Stanford, the chief petitioner and founder of the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation, which runs medical marijuana clinics in several states.

The state has 30 days to verify if enough signatures are valid to qualify any measure for the ballot, said Steve Trout, Oregon elections director. Stanford said some signatures had already been disqualified.

If passed by voters in November, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act would allow marijuana sales in the state to people over age 21, and would create jobs in the hemp industry by allowing it for clothing, food and other uses, the campaign's website said.

Similar ballot measures to legalize marijuana for recreational use already have qualified in Washington state and Colorado, which, like Oregon, already allow marijuana for medical purposes.

No state has legalized marijuana for recreational use but 17 states and the District of Columbia allow medical cannabis even as marijuana remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law.

The Oregon move comes as federal authorities have cracked down on medical marijuana operations in several mostly western states, seeking to shut down storefront dispensaries and greenhouses they deem to be drug-trafficking fronts, as well as those located near schools and parks.

The Obama administration has said it would not single out individual patients who possess or grow their own marijuana in states with medical marijuana statutes. But federal prosecutors have warned they will continue to go after operations that support for-profit, illegal drug dealing under the guise of medical pot.

The Oregon initiative, if passed, would create a Cannabis Commission that could limit the amount of marijuana a person could purchase and would oversee cultivation and retail sales at special marijuana stores. Net proceeds from sale of marijuana would go to the state general fund.

Under the proposal, public consumption of marijuana would be prohibited and subject to a fine of $250. The initiative, if passed, would take effect on Jan. 1.

Proponents of legalizing marijuana say prohibition of the drug simply enriches criminal cartels.

Tom Parker, spokesman for the substance abuse group Lines for Life, said he was concerned about greater availability of marijuana that could result from a vote to legalize it.

“Teen brains are still developing,” he said. “Greater availability of marijuana is not a good thing for youth.”

Sheriff John Trumbo of the rural Umatilla County in northeastern Oregon said he opposed to legalization, like many other members of law enforcement.

“Legalizing marijuana will be the downfall of society as we know it,” he said.

A competing marijuana legalization proposal would have asked Oregon voters to approve a state constitutional amendment to allow pot. But organizer Bob Wolfe said he expected that effort to fail due to a high number of disqualifications on signatures collected so far.



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Source: iol.co.za
Author: Reuters
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Website: http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/oreg....1336145Oregon Will Vote On Cannabis

[Nerdmaster]

I can't figure out why people are assuming this will make the ballot "easily".

From the Oregon Secretary of State's site, I did a little math.

On May 25, we turned in 107,992 signatures. Of those, only 95,556 were accepted for validation (i.e., entire sheets were tossed out due to the circulator missing a step or something). We ended up with 55,869 valid signatures. This is a 58.47% validity rate of the signatures accepted. It works out to under 52% validity of the total signatures submitted.

If you look at the real validity rate and multiply it by the final total, we actually end up about 400 signatures short. Maybe our final signature drive was done more carefully and circulators double-checked their work. Maybe we got more registered voters signing with valid information. We definitely still have a real shot. But it's not a slam dunk no matter how you look at it.

[skyhighrobert]

here is the thing nerd, weather its this year or next we are trending up word, not just here(i love oregon and our new AD) but across this great land of ours. skyhighrobert

[Nerdmaster]

here is the thing nerd, weather its this year or next we are trending up word, not just here(i love oregon and our new AD) but across this great land of ours. skyhighrobert

If I were a religious man, I'd be praying to every deity out there for this measure to make the ballot and pass. But you are correct, even if it doesn't make it this year, it will eventually. My main concern is the brainwashing from the anti-pot crowd. They have a lot of money as well as a lot of precedent, and if we don't get it legalized somewhere this year, things could go badly for us in 2014 - more time for the feds to wage an even stronger war, plus a non-presidential election year means fewer young voters will turn out (although in Oregon I'm not sure if that's true since ballots are done by mail, so there's really no lost time in voting). By 2016, the economy might even be doing "well enough" again that the average voter doesn't see legalization as a priority -- somehow wasting tax dollars on pot isn't important to some people when we aren't in a recession.

It'll happen eventually, but I sure hope the OCTA gets on the ballot this year. Of all the legalization initiatives I've seen, ours is by far the best in terms of personal freedom.

[Nerdmaster]

...sometimes it's good to be wrong Way to go OCTA!!