cannabisnews.com: Why Oregon Should Legalize Marijuana
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Why Oregon Should Legalize Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on September 20, 2009 at 05:36:09 PT
By Laird Funk
Source: Mail Tribune
Oregon -- Authorities seized $3 million worth of illegal Mexican drug cartel marijuana in Josephine County, $1 million in Marion County, $2 million in Deschutes County. An astonishing $1 billion was found just across the border. In the words of Sen. Everett Dirksen, "Pretty soon you're talking real money."Accepting the estimate that less than 15 percent of the illegal crop is found, there really is "real money" out there, and that's just the wholesale value. 
The Mexican drug cartels consider that 15 percent as the cost of doing business, and they quickly turn the remaining crop into "real money," selling it to the Americans who readily seek it out, and then just as quickly they ship the money off to Mexico.So, not only do we lose those billions of dollars to the criminal world, we also lose the millions of dollars a year wasted just in Oregon in the fruitless effort to prosecute marijuana use out of existence. The overall affect of these efforts is to provide the Mexican gangsters with an extraordinarily effective free price-support program for which they surely thank the stupid gringos as they laugh their way to "the bank" with our money.Given the situation, one might forgive the stupid gringos for thinking that there must be a better way to deal with the domestic market than assigning it to the gangsters. Fortunately, many gringos do think so, and for a good reason. There really is a better way. Legalize marijuana.The benefits of legalization are manifold.The first, of course, is that money spent for marijuana would be removed from foreign criminal enterprises and kept within our economy, allowing it to circulate and increase commerce in other goods. Without the billions of dollars derived from unlawful marijuana sales, the Mexican cartels are deprived of their primary reason to be here. It would be easier to starve the cartels out than drive them out.Second, there are clear savings for law enforcement by not wasting funds on the annual marijuana eradication efforts and the ongoing arrest, prosecution and incarceration of otherwise law-abiding adults, increasing funding for more important, currently underfunded activities.While the monetary rewards of marijuana legalization are obvious, other less obvious rewards are as important. Primary among these is the ability to forge a new relationship between our overextended law enforcement friends and the significant number of citizens who use marijuana. Domestic criminals would lose the partial protection accorded them by responsible marijuana users being reticent to report crimes to the police because of the real fear that they would become the ones arrested.Other societal benefits also would come about. Those whose task is to educate our children would no longer be forced to lie about marijuana as part of a perhaps otherwise useful drug education curriculum. Families would no longer be split apart by the state to "protect" children from the artificially defined "child abuse" supposedly caused by their parents' marijuana use. The social and monetary costs of those actions are nearly incalculable. Those who pass our laws could spend more time on genuinely pressing statutory needs.OK, how do we go about legalization? Two areas to address are private production for personal use and commercial production for sales to those who do not self-supply.Addressing commercial production, one useful idea proposes regulated, licensed production of marijuana by private persons and sales through state liquor outlets. Proceeds would be distributed to various state programs as part of their annual budgets. Other possibilities not currently addressed are a free-market approach, with the state's role limited to quality assurance and tax collection, or the state acting as both producer and distributor and retaining all proceeds.Private production for personal use would not necessarily provide any monetary returns to the state, but laws could be formulated to do so. Initiatives in 1988 and 1990 called for a small payment to various state programs in return for the right to produce marijuana for personal adult use. Such a concept has a strong precedent in Oregon's 10-year-old, highly successful Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. In that act, individuals with medical marijuana cards pay a $100 annual fee to the state in return for the right to produce marijuana for their personal use.Oregonians have volunteered to me that they would happily pay the same for the right to produce their own marijuana for recreational use. I suggest that this process is a useful beginning move. Oregon should step up and become the leader in marijuana reform again. Oregon should make that beginning move.Laird Funk of Williams has been an advocate of marijuana reform efforts since 1983.Source: Mail Tribune, The (Medford, OR)Author: Laird FunkPublished: September 20, 2009 Copyright: 2008 The Mail TribuneContact: letters mailtribune.comWebsite: http://www.mailtribune.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/ecpBrQUrCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by museman on September 21, 2009 at 09:08:22 PT
Hope
"FoM is the petite blonde woman. I'm the brunette of a more Amazonian stature. Can't you see?"Now that the fog has cleared, yes, I can see.
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Comment #8 posted by museman on September 21, 2009 at 09:06:33 PT
Hope
"Yet nearly anything would be a vast improvement over the way things are in some places."Well, of course, but why is it so hard to see that money is the tool of evil minds? That every weight and measure of 'wealth' was invented by kings -who still rule through corporate proxy? That the poverty, sickness, war, death, and disease is related directly to this system and consciousness? That the 'cannabis' culture that has labored long, hiding and dodging the bullet, has at its heart a different set of values?I must accept being an unwilling conduit of dead presidents - I handle them on a daily basis, and because the government is unwilling to admit their evil deeds -in connection with me- they pay me a monthly stipend- I am better off than many. I certainly appreciate not starving, having a roof, and a nice hot shower, but I'm not going to go out and drool, and fawn all over the naked emperor because of it.Current regulation and control schemes -of everything- have nothing to do with health, safety, quality control, fairness, distribution, or a lot of other stuff. Its all about profit and empowering the rich, with special consideration in keeping the non-rich un-rich. Prove me wrong and I'll gladly change the subject.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #7 posted by museman on September 21, 2009 at 08:50:48 PT
Rancher
"We are very close to a tipping point on marijuana laws. The details of exactly how we legalize are going to become critically important. We can control the future and make it much brighter if we legalize marijuana in ways that do not concede the industries to the wealthy and powerful, to the corporations and the well connected. We can legalize marijuana in ways that protect and expand the liberties of the average citizen. We can create systems where the little guy has a chance. "Absolutely. And we will not achieve that balance if so many throw over their conscience for the status quo ways and means of -paid-for-privilege- versus plain old personal liberty.Here in Oregon, we do have a chance to do just what you say, and I agree with the intended outcome, but even here the money talks pretty loud. Obviously there are going to be 'legal' compromises on the road back to Earth, but the pure goal of liberty must never be given second chair to truth and freedom. Never.I am going to toss this word in again;"Empowerment."Who we allow to be empowered by the trends towards commercializing cannabis, will be what the next 2 or 3 generations have to live with. I haven't seen any increase in personal liberties as yet, even given the current 'wild-west' status of pot growing in the Northwest. I am familiar with initiative 28. Half my adult children were/are out there getting signatures. I have issues with it. I do not feel that it addresses the personal growing issues clearly enough for me to support at this point. If you are connected with the drafters, you can pass that on.As long as money is the ultimate qualifier, there is no more freedom or liberty. If you can still go to jail because you didn't pay the extortion fee for your 'privilege' to grow cannabis, what is the difference?Free is free. Fee is not.As I stated, all that is, and was ever necessary, is to REPEAL THE DAMN LAW -not make new ones to ensure that the status quo (the rich elite) maintain power and control.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on September 21, 2009 at 05:53:31 PT
 50,000 signatures
Sounds good, Rancher.Museman. We've got to try to keep freedom for the least powerful among the world's peoples. For sure. Yet nearly anything would be a vast improvement over the way things are in some places. Decriminalization would be nice, if we had it, here in Texas. We have noting but spies and open and armed assault on the citizen here, as far as laws concerning cannabis use are concerned. Nothing! Nothing but SWAT Teams and Task Forces and paramilitary home invasion and throw downs on the sides of the roads and jails, prisons, fines, and various forms of persecution.FoM is the petite blonde woman. I'm the brunette of a more Amazonian stature. Can't you see?:0)
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Comment #5 posted by rancher on September 20, 2009 at 21:15:26 PT:
Legalization
I think we should keep things in perspective. Legalization will have its flaws. It will no doubt create lots of new government bureaucrats and lots of red tape. There will probably always be underground markets selling to kids. There will be be people who get fined for violating arbitrary license requirements or possession limits. But compare that to the current situation where armed men take cannabis users prisoner. Prohibition is the government using force and vilence to physically control and encarcerate people for anything to do with marijuana. Red tape and fines are paradise compared to that.Legalization will also bring competition and promotion to cannabis and sometimes that business will be cut-throat and sometimes greedy people will rise to success over more compassionate souls. This is already happening in the quasi legal marijuana businesses like dispensaries and clinics. But again, it is way beeter than prohibition.We are very close to a tipping point on marijuana laws. The details of exactly how we legalize are going to become critically important. We can control the future and make it much brighter if we legalize marijuana in ways that do not concede the industries to the wealthy and powerful, to the corporations and the well connected. We can legalize marijuana in ways that protect and expand the liberties of the average citizen. We can create systems where the little guy has a chance. There are many proposals out there now. California and Oregon both have at least three legalization initiatives each in the works. One initiative that is likely to make the Oregon 2010 ballot and pass is Initiative 28 which will create a regulated supply system for medical marijuana. We drafted this amendment to the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act to ensure that patients can get medical marijuana. But we were careful to make sure they could continue to grow their own if they so choose. We also make it relatively easy for anyone to become a producer. When this law passes, it will give small independent entrepreneurs and innovators the opportunity to create medical cannabis products that can really compette with pharmaceuticals. Right now the Oregon law bans all commerce in marijuana even for medicine. Marijuana isn't competing against pharmaceuticals on a level playing field. We hope to change that. Money will be involved and it may be the carrot that gets cannabis legalized faster. But compassion, freedom and liberty are the real driving force.I 28 is headed for the ballot. We already have about 50,000 signatures. Stay tuned for updates!
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Comment #4 posted by museman on September 20, 2009 at 09:26:43 PT
Hope
I was responding to your comment, but I juxtaposed you in my mind with FoM (must be the brownies I ate last night:)
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Comment #3 posted by museman on September 20, 2009 at 09:22:21 PT
Oregon, ..and money
"Authorities seized $3 million worth of illegal Mexican drug cartel marijuana in Josephine County"When did they do this? I happen to live in this small county, have for quite a few years, and every bust that happens around here I hear about.I suspect that these statistics are created, and considering that Josephine county has had more than its fair share of legal and non-legal grows for the past 40 years, the competition is stiff. And though we like the conditions here, they do not compare with more southern climes like Humboldt. Any 'mexican cartel' looking for profit would most likely not come here.FoM, you are right when you say its always about the money, but there is one other thing that seems to always slip off the awareness radar when it comes to the real motivations behind prohibition, and the current trend to 'mainstream' cannabis value.The word is 'empowerment.'When the Jazz musicians started using it to enhance their musical interface, they became immensely popular -with young white teenagers- enter "Reefer Madness." -a 'James Anslinger' special set up by the MPCA (the president of MPCA at the time was Ronnie Reagan), the 30's equivalent of our contemporary 'tea parties' saw that through the entertainment media, Blacks were getting empowered, and young whites were losing the 'supreme' status, endangering future generations. Money empowers the rich, which is why they invented all these economic scams like banking, insurance, and a huge list of support systems- so they could maintain control.Cannabis can empower a person through the awareness that comes about through personal and social use. If the control of empowerment is out of the hands of the ruling factions, like it currently is due to the failure of prohibition, and the success of cannabis, then, according to the game plan, making cannabis a commerce regulated item gives the ability to control content, potency, distribution, as well as exclusive 'production' rights to the already wealthy, leaving 'Joe Homegrown' in almost worse condition than prohibition itself. Of course those who are conditioned to believe in the 'man behind the curtain' will argue for the merits of giving the emperor more control over our lives. If 'we the people' actually had access to the resources that the currently empowered few have, the question of making cannabis a legal, 'regulated and controlled' commodity would be moot. But from where I stand, this trend towards 'legalization' -as it is- will just replace one set of moral and ethical ambiguities with a much more precise scheme of class and economic control, just another prohibition that makes the wealthy truly 'above it all' while the unendowed still suffer persecution and prosecution, only under the guise of economics instead of civil liberties.Once upon a time, I lived in a free country. Hasn't been that way for quite some time. I've watched the rich buy up the world, fence off nature, and charge admittance for getting to experience our 'God' -given heritage. Their crime continues unabated. As far as I am concerned, no consideration for anyone but the bucksters is being shown in these 'legalize and regulate' schemes.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on September 20, 2009 at 08:27:03 PT
Money Money Money
My hope was to see the laws changed a long time ago because it was just wrong... evil, even... to treat people like they are treated over cannabis.It's going to be like Kaptinemo always said it would be though. Money is going to be the big factor in changing the laws, obviously. Either lack of funds to continue the pograms, or the state just wanting more of it and seeing that it might be more profitable for them than the regular "robbery" of people through confiscation and siezure laws and the profitablity that some greedy monsters have found through inprisoning others. 
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Comment #1 posted by Mark702 on September 20, 2009 at 07:59:22 PT
CannabisTV.org
Yes, support legalization in Oregon, go to OCTA2010.org. Also check out CannabisTV.org for more videos and information.
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