cannabisnews.com: Putting Dope Dealers Out Of Work In Oregon & Wash.





Putting Dope Dealers Out Of Work In Oregon & Wash.
Posted by FoM on September 11, 1999 at 08:25:21 PT
Preston Peet - Special to HT News
Source: High Times
The Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp has put together two comprehensive Cannabis Tax Act initiatives aimed for the the ballots of Nov. 7, 2000, in the states of Washington and Oregon.
Painstakingly extending the scope of previous medical-use and decriminalization statutes enacted throughout the Pacific Northwest, these new measures will provide for taxed, closely regulated sales of cannabis to adults, and the growing of industrial hemp by licensed cultivators.Bruce McKinney, a Seattle software tycoon, last month donated $100,000 to help CRRH gather the 179,848 signatures needed to put the Washington initiative onto the Y2000 ballot. He has also pledged to give more if needed before the petitioning deadline of December 31 this year. Once the deadline is met, the measure will go before the state legislature in Olympia, which can decide to sign it into law then and there. If the legislature chooses to ignore the initiative, as expected, then the measure will go before the voters in the following November.Grassroots MathematicsBegun in 1995 to push through the ultimately successful Oregon medical-marijuana initiative, CRRH has been a strictly grass-roots organization, all volunteers active in both Washington and Oregon. Now in Washington at least, thanks to McKinney's major donation, they can actually hire professional signature-gatherers to go door-to-door, and also to take the issue to the public. In both states, the number of signatures required is determined by the number of ballots cast in the last elections; in Washington they need 8 percent of the number of votes cast, and in Oregon it's 6 percent--meaning the Oregon organizers need 66,748 petition signatures before the their deadline of July 7, 2000.Both Cannabis Tax Acts would create essentially the same legislation, by which marijuana would be allowed to be sold in state-licensed liquor stores, under regulations identical to those imposed on alcoholic spirits. Liquor is sold by the state to licensed dealers, who retail it in government-regulated stores strictly to adults. While privately owned, these stores are strictly controlled by the state.Paul Stanford of Portland, executive director of CRRH, tells HT, "Some people do not like the idea of selling pot in liquor stores. We thought that it would be better to comply with international treaties, which regulate the sale of liquor, rather than try to create entirely new regulations for pot, at least in the beginning."Washington's Cannabis Tax Act, Initiative 229, would tax marijuana sales and put 90 percent of the resulting revenues in the general state government fund. Eight percent would go to drug treatment, one percent would go for school drug education, and the remainder would set up a state committee to promote industrial hemp for fiber, protein and oil. Marijuana sales would be limited to people over 21, and sales to anyone younger would remain a criminal offense. Public smoking of marijuana would be prohibited, as would cannabis advertising on TV, radio and billboards.Do Pot Radicals Shun Legal Controls?Oregon's OCTA, or Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, is pretty much the same initiative as Washington's. Another grass-roots effort in the state, independently working on this for the last four years, is the Cannabis Liberation Society, also gathering signatures for OCTA.The president of the CLS, Dan Koozer of Springfield, (canlibsoc hotmail.com) tells HT that the main thing hurting the effort is the lack of cooperation among pro-pot activists: "So many of these people let their own personal issues get in the way of reaching the goal. The biggest problem right now is getting all of the activists together to work together." Without naming any names, Koozer complains that "none of the well-known pot activists in the area have come out in support of this initiative, for whatever reason. They will not endorse, or at least have not endorsed, any legalization initiatives in Oregon."In 1998 the Oregon state legislature tried to boost the penalty for simple marijuana possession from an offense to a felony, and 67 percent of the voters opposed it in last November's election, telling the legislature that they did not want to recriminalize pot. (This was only achieved by the record gathering of 96,000 signatures in 32 days.) At the same election, Oregonians voted to enact a medical-marijuana law, some of the ambiguities of which will be cleared up in the forthcoming OCTA, if it passes. As it stands now, patients are allowed to possess a "60-day supply" of cannabis medications; and besides the fact that chronic-pain patients obviously need much more of a "supply" than, say, cancer patients using it strictly for week-long chemotherapy courses, the law also fails to facilitate the supply of medicine to people who can't grow their own, since sales of pot are still illegal, and so is simply giving it away.The new initiative would allow those 21 and over to buy pot, with its provision closely regulated and taxed by the state. It would enable farmers to grow cannabis, and it would allow doctors to prescribe medical preparations of it through pharmacies.There is a second effort in Oregon right now pressed by Oregonians for Personal Privacy, which is a bid to put legalized marijuana into being as a constitutional amendment, which would mean that the state legislature could not touch the measure. If voted in, it would be law no matter what. This year's effort is the second try for this measure, and needs 100,000 signatures to make it on the ballot.Again: the deadlines for the signatures to get the Cannabis Tax Act initiatives onto the ballots for the Y2000 election are December 31, 1999, for the state of Washington, and July 7, 2000, for Oregon. As it stands now, Washington has over 17,500 signatures, and Oregon has 16,500 already collected. It is time to get your signature on the petitions, if you live in either of these states, and want to be free to smoke herb without the prerequisite of being deathly ill first.Pubdate: September 8, 1999Preston Peet - Special to HT Newshttp://www.crrh.org/http://www.hightimes.com/ht/new/9909/cantaxact.htmlFinancial Backer Says Prohibition Doesn't Work - 8/24/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2603.shtml
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