The People Are Way Ahead Of You: Marijuana Speech #21

21 ^st speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, December 30, 2009.    

Another reason you should pass A Resolution Regarding Marijuana, urging the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, is that the people are way ahead of you on this issue.  In a democracy, it is proper that the people lead and their public servants follow, but the public servants really shouldn’t fall too far behind public opinion.

When it comes to marijuana, the people have had to drag their public servants along kicking and screaming.  In both Arizona and Oregon, medical marijuana had to be passed twice before the politicians stopped calling the voters idiots while trying to gut their voter-passed initiatives. 

In this state, there are politicians who are still trying to go backwards on this issue, like Rep. Ron Maurer, who wants to put all pot growing on state-owned farms and supply pharmacies through them, saying that pot will then be as well controlled as other prescription drugs—as though prescription drugs are well controlled.

But Rafael Caso, our county’s main drug crime prosecutor says, "Either [marijuana] needs to be legalized or make it completely illegal. Where it is now, it creates litigation."  (Apparently he has no problem with laws that create persecution.)  This medical privilege does not work for law enforcement; it’s no fun enforcing rules that don’t work for anyone.

Still, others, notable Voter Power and marijuana clinics, are pushing the Regulated Medical Marijuana Supply System, which would retain the current problematic system of medical privilege and its thriving black market, and tack on state-licensed growers and special medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, on the other hand, would repeal all state laws regarding marijuana, including the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, and replace them with state-licensed growers and processors, who would sell to the renamed Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Control Commission, which would sell graded weed to pharmacies at cost and in state liquor stores at whatever price the legal market could bear.  This would be a good deal less than the black market price, because the OCTA would also allow growing for personal use, just as we do with liquor production.    No special system of dispensaries would be needed, and Oregon’s domestic black market would be gone.

We don’t need tweaks to the current problematic medical privilege, and we don’t need to take giant steps backward.  As James Bowman said in the Courier, “Cannabis is like a wrongly-convicted felon that has been in prison for 40 years and needs to be set free.”  This Act is more like parole in a half-way house, but please help free God’s green herb, and pass this Resolution, asking the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com