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Oregon
Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA)
[The
office of Oregon's Attorney General has, by law, provided the ballot title
summary below.]
Ballot Title: Permits State-Licensed Cultivation
of Marijuana, Sale of Marijuana to Adults Through State Liquor Stores
Results Of "Yes" Vote: "Yes" vote permits state-licensed cultivation
of marijuana and sale to adults through state liquor stores; ninety percent
of net proceeds to state general fund.
Results Of "No" Vote: "No" vote retains all existing prohibitions
against the cultivation, manufacture, possession, and delivery of marijuana;
retains current statues that permit regulated use of marijuana.
Summary: Current law prohibits cultivation, manufacture,
possession, and delivery of marijuana, but permits regulated medical use of
marijuana. Proposed measure replaces state, local marijuana laws except
driving under the influence laws. Directs renamed Oregon Cannabis and Liquor
Control Commission to license marijuana cultivation by qualified persons and
to purchase entire crop. Commission sells marijuana at cost to pharmacies and
medical research facilities for medical purposes, and to qualified adults for
profit through state liquor stores.
Ninety percent of net proceeds goes to state general
fund; smaller percentages for education, drug abuse treatment, promotion of hemp products.
Bans
sales to, and possession by, minors. Bans public consumption except where
signs permit and minors barred. Commission to regulate illicit use, set
price, other duties. Provides penalties. Other provisions.
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The Proposed Law:
The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act
Whereas the people of the State of
Oregon find that Cannabis hemp is an environmentally beneficial crop that:
(a) Yields several times more fiber,
for paper and textiles, and healthier protein and oil than any other plant;
(b) Yields cloth and paper of
superior strength and durability without the application of pesticides during
cultivation and without producing cancer-causing pollutants during
processing;
(c) Yields more biomass than any
other plant outside the tropics, though it grows well in the tropics too, and
grows faster than any other plant on earth in the temperate and cooler
climates;
(d) Yields a substance that relieves
the suffering of many ill people without life-threatening side effects; and,
Whereas the people find that federal
and corporate misinformation campaigns that economically benefit small groups
of people have suppressed the information above and the fact that:
(a) George Washington grew cannabis
for more than 30 years and, while he was President, said, “the artificial
preparation of hemp is really a curiosity” and told his Secretary of the
Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, that he was, “suggesting the policy of
encouraging the growth of Hemp”;
(b) Thomas Jefferson invented a
device to process cannabis, and cannabis fiber was used for most clothing and
paper production until the invention of the cotton gin;
(c) Gouverneur Morris of
Pennsylvania, who spoke at the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787 more
than any other delegate and of whom James Madison said, “the style and finish
of the Constitution properly belongs to the pen of Gouverneur Morris,” wrote
a paper he sent to Thomas Jefferson called, “Notes Respecting Tobacco” that
compared cannabis and tobacco and concluded that cannabis “is to be preferred”;
and,
Whereas the people find that cannabis
is Oregon’s largest cash crop, indicating that cannabis prohibition has
failed; and
Whereas the people find that, despite
misinformation concocted to justify cannabis prohibition, the courts of
Alaska, Hawaii and Michigan have noted presidential commission findings,
scientific studies, and learned treatises
which:
(a) Characterize cannabis as a
relatively nonaddictive and comparatively harmless euphoriant used and
cultivated for more than 10,000 years without a single lethal overdose;
(b) Demonstrate that moderate
cannabis intoxication causes very little impairment of psychomotor functions;
reveal no significant physical, biochemical, or mental abnormalities
attributable solely to cannabis use; and that long-term, heavy cannabis users
do not deviate significantly from their social peers in terms of mental
function;
(c) Disprove the “stepping stone” or
“gateway drug” argument that cannabis use leads to other drugs; rather, that
lies taught about cannabis, once discovered, destroy the credibility of valid
educational messages about moderate and responsible use and valid warnings
against other truly dangerous drugs;
(d) Indicate that cannabis users are
less likely to commit violent acts than alcohol users, refute the argument
that cannabis causes criminal behavior, and suggest that most users avoid
aggressive behavior, even in the face of provocation; and
(e) Declare that cannabis use does
not constitute a public health problem of any significant dimension; finds no
rational basis for treating cannabis as more dangerous than alcohol;
and
Whereas the people of the State of
Oregon find that cannabis does not cause the social ills that its prohibition
was intended to guard against; rather, that most of the social ills attributed
to cannabis result from its unreasonable prohibition which:
(a) Provides incentives to traffic in
marijuana instead of limiting its prevalence, since almost all cannabis users
evade the prohibition, even though drastically expanding public safety budgets
have reduced funding for other vital services such as education;
(b) Fosters a black market that
exploits children, provides an economic subsidy for gangs, and sells cannabis
of questionable purity and uncertain potency;
(c) Generates enormous, untaxed,
illicit profits that debase our economy and corrupt our justice system; and,
(d) Wastes police resources, clogs
our courts, and drains the public budget to no good effect; and,
Whereas, the people recall that
alcohol prohibition had caused many of the same social ills before being
replaced by regulatory laws which, ever since, have granted alcohol users the
privilege of buying alcohol from state licensees, imposed strict penalties
protecting children, delivered alcohol of sure potency, and generated
substantial public revenues; and,
Whereas the people hold that cannabis
prohibition is a sumptuary law of a nature repugnant to our constitution’s
framers and which is so unreasonable and liberticidal as to:
(a) Arbitrarily violate the rights of
cannabis users to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure as
guaranteed to them by Article 1, Section 9 of the Oregon Constitution;
(b) Unreasonably impose felony
burdens on the cannabis users while the state grants special privileges to
alcohol users, which violates Article 1, Section 20 of the Oregon
Constitution;
(c) Unnecessarily proscribe
consumption of an “herb bearing seed” given to humanity in Genesis 1:29,
thereby violating their unqualified religious rights under Article 1, Section
3 and their Natural Rights under Article 1, Section 33 of the Oregon
Constitution;
(d) Violates the individual’s right
to privacy and numerous other Natural and Constitutional Rights reserved to
the people under Article 1, Section 33 of the Oregon Constitution;
(e) Violates the state’s right to
regulate and tax an intoxicant market as reserved to states under the 10th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, thereby abdicating control to illicit
markets; and,
(f) Irrationally subvert the ends to
which, in its Preamble, the Oregon Constitution was ordained and the
purposes, in Article 1, Section 1, for which our government was instituted;
now,
Therefore, the people find that the
constitutional ends of justice, order, and the perpetuation of liberty;
the governmental purposes of preserving the peace, safety, and happiness of
the people; and the vitality of the other constitutional provisions cited
above, demand the replacement of a costly, self-defeating prohibition with
regulatory laws controlling cannabis cultivation, potency, sale, and use;
defining and prohibiting cannabis abuse; protecting children with a
comprehensive drug education program and strict penalties for the sale or
provision of cannabis to minors; funding a state drug abuse treatment
program; and raising substantial revenue for public use.
Wherefore, be it enacted by the
people of the state of Oregon, the laws relating to cannabis are revised as
follows:
Section 1. This Act shall operate
uniformly throughout Oregon and fully replace and supersede all statutes,
municipal charter enactments, and local ordinances relating to cannabis,
except those relating to operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. The
name of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is hereby changed to the Oregon
Cannabis & Liquor Control Commission. This Act is a scientific experiment by the people of the state of Oregon to lower the misuse of, illicit traffic in and harm associated with cannabis and will set up voluntary studies of cannabis users under ORS 474.045 (b) and other studies.
Section 2. Section 3 of this Act
creates an ORS chapter 474 titled the “Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.” Legislative
Counsel shall move and renumber existing provisions of chapter 474.
Section 3. 474.005 Definitions. As
used in this chapter:
(1) “Abuse” means repetitive or
excessive drug use such that the individual fails to fulfill a statutory or
common law duty, including but not limited to the duties owed by parents to
children, by motorists to pedestrians and other motorists, and by employees
to employers, fellow employees, and the public.
(2) “Cannabis” means the flowering
tops and all parts, derivatives, or preparations of the cannabis plant, also
known as “marijuana,” containing cannabinoids in concentrations established
by the commission to be psychoactive, but does not include “hemp” as defined
by ORS 474.005(5).
(3) “Commission” means the Oregon
Cannabis & Liquor Control Commission, or OCLCC, formerly the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission.
(4) “Cultivation” means growing the
cannabis plant.
(5) “Hemp” means the seeds, stems,
and stalks of the cannabis plant, and all other parts, products, and
byproducts of the cannabis plant not containing cannabinoids in
concentrations established by the commission to be psychoactive. Seeds and starts
of all cannabis strains shall be considered hemp.
(6) “Person” means a natural
individual or corporate entity of any kind whatsoever.
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474.015 Short Title. This chapter may be cited as the “Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.”
474.025 Purpose of the Oregon Cannabis
Tax Act. This chapter shall be liberally construed so as to minimize the
misuse and abuse of cannabis; to prevent the illicit sale or provision of
cannabis to minors; and to protect the peace, safety, and happiness of
Oregonians while preserving the largest measure of liberty consistent with
the above purposes.
474.035 Powers and duties of the
commission, licenses for cultivation and processing. Hemp fiber, protein, oil
not regulated.
(1) The commission shall have the powers necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter. It shall make such rules and regulations as will discourage and minimize the diversion of cannabis to illicit sale or use within the state, the illicit importation and sale of cannabis cultivated or processed outside the state, and the illicit export or removal of cannabis from the state. The commissions jurisdiction shall extend to any person licensed under this chapter to cultivate or process cannabis, but shall not extend to any person who manufactures products from hemp. Hemp production for fiber, protein and oil shall be allowed without regulation, license or fee. No federal license shall be required to cultivate hemp in Oregon.
(2) The commission shall issue to any
qualified applicant a license to cultivate cannabis for sale to the
commission. The license shall specify the areas, plots, and extent of lands
to be cultivated. The commission shall equitably apportion the purchase of
cannabis among all licensees. The commission shall purchase and sell cannabis
products of the quality and grade set by market demand.
(3) The commission shall issue
licenses to process cannabis to qualified applicants who submit successful
bids. Licensed processors shall, as specified by the commission, contract,
cure, extract, refine, mix, and package the entire cannabis crop and deliver
it to the commission’s physical possession as soon as possible, but not later
than four months after harvest.
474.045 Commission to sell cannabis
at cost for medical purposes. The Commission shall sell cannabis at cost,
including OCLCC expenses:
(a) To Oregon and other states’
pharmacies for use under a physician’s order for glaucoma, nausea related to
chemotherapy, AIDS, or any other condition for which a physician finds
cannabis to be an effective treatment; and,
(b) To recognized Oregon medical
research facilities for use in research directed toward expanding medical and
sociological knowledge of the composition, effects, uses, and abuse of
cannabis, to include studies of cannabis
purchasers voluntarily participating through OCLCC stores under ORS 474.055.
474.055 Commission to set price and
sell through OCLCC stores. The commission shall sell cannabis through OCLCC
stores and shall set the retail price of cannabis to generate profits for
revenue to be applied to the purposes noted in ORS chapter 474 and to
minimize incentives to purchase cannabis elsewhere, to purchase cannabis for
resale or for removal to other states.
474.065 Qualifications of purchasers
and licensees, effect of conviction. To be qualified to purchase, cultivate,
or process cannabis, a person must be over 21 years of age and not have been
convicted of sale of cannabis to minors or convicted under this chapter of
unlicensed cultivation or sale of cannabis.
(2) Conviction for cultivation or
sale of cannabis to other than minors, when committed prior to the effective
date of this chapter, shall not be grounds for denial of an application for a
license under this chapter.
474.075 Disposition of license fees
and profits from sale of cannabis by state.
(1) The commission shall collect
license fees which shall be calculated and continually appropriated to defray
the commission’s administrative costs of issuing licenses under this chapter
and the Attorney General’s costs of litigation in defense of the validity of
this chapter’s provisions and in defense of persons subjected to criminal or
civil liability for actions licensed or required under this chapter.
(2) All money from the sale of
cannabis shall be remitted to the State Treasurer for credit to a cannabis
account, from which sufficient money shall be continually appropriated:
(a) To reimburse the commission for
the costs of purchasing, processing, testing, grading, shipping, and selling
cannabis; of regulating, inspecting, and auditing licensees; and of research
studies required by this chapter; and,
(b) To reimburse the Attorney
General’s office for costs of enforcing this chapter’s criminal provisions.
(c) To reimburse OCLCC contractors
for their expenses and labor with 15 percent of gross sales.
(3) All money remaining in the
cannabis account after reimbursement of the related commission and Attorney
General costs shall be profits which the State Treasurer shall distribute
quarterly as follows:
(a) Ninety percent shall be credited
to the state’s general fund to finance state programs.
(b) Eight percent shall be credited
to the Department of Human Resources and shall be continually appropriated to
fund various drug abuse treatment programs on demand.
(c) One percent shall be credited to
create and fund an agricultural state committee for the promotion of Oregon
hemp fiber, protein and oil crops and associated industries.
(d) One percent shall be distributed
to the state’s school districts, appropriated by enrollment, and shall be
continually appropriated to fund a drug education program which shall:
(I) Emphasize a citizen’s rights and
duties under our social compact and to explain to students how drug abusers
might injure the rights of others by failing to fulfill such duties;
(II) Persuade students to decline to
consume intoxicants by providing them with accurate information about the
threat intoxicants pose to their mental and physical development; and,
(III) Persuade students that if, as
adults, they choose to consume intoxicants, they must nevertheless
responsibly fulfill all duties they owe others.
474.085 Commission to establish
psychoactive concentrations of cannabinols. The commission, based on findings
made in consultation with the Board of Pharmacy and cannabis and hemp farmers
to cannabinoid and cannabidiol concentrations which produce intoxication, the
economics of residual cannabis extraction, and strains of hemp that produce
better quality and quantity of fiber, protein and oil, shall establish
reasonable concentrations of cannabinols deemed psychoactive under this
chapter.
474.095 Commission to set standards,
test purity, grade potency of cannabis, label contents.
(1) The commission, in consultation
with the State Board of Pharmacy, shall set standards which the commission
shall apply:
(a) To test and reject cannabis
containing adulterants in concentrations known to harm people; and,
(b) To grade cannabis potency by
measuring the concentrations of psychoactive cannabinoids it contains.
(2) The commission shall affix to
cannabis packages a label which shall bear the state seal, a certification of
purity, a grade of potency, the date of harvest, a warning as to the
potential for abuse, and notice of laws prohibiting resale,
removal from the state, public consumption, and provision and sale to minors.
474.105 Commission may limit
purchases. The commission may limit the quantity of cannabis purchased by a
person at one time or over any length of time and may refuse to sell cannabis
to any person who violates this chapter’s provisions or abuses cannabis
within the meaning of ORS 474.005(1). The commission will require persons
convicted of violating this act, any criminal statute while under the influence
of cannabis, or neglecting any statutory or common-law duty by reason of
cannabis intoxication or abuse, to complete a program prior to reinstating
their privilege to purchase cannabis.
474.115 Unlicensed cultivation for
sale, removal from the state, penalties. Cultivation for sale, removal from
the state for sale, and sale of cannabis, without commission authority, shall
be Class C felonies, and removal from the state of cannabis for other than
sale shall be a Class A misdemeanor.
474.125 Sale or provision to minors,
penalties, exception. The sale of cannabis to minors shall be a Class B
felony, and gratuitous provision of cannabis to minors shall be a Class A
misdemeanor, except when to a minor over 18 years of age under the same
conditions provided by ORS 471.030(1) for alcohol.
474.135 Fine as additional penalty.
In addition to other penalties and in lieu of any civil remedy, conviction of
sale or unlicensed cultivation for sale under ORS 474.115 or 474.125 shall be
punishable by a fine which the court shall determine will deprive an offender
of any profits from the criminal activity.
474.145 Acquisition by minors,
penalty. Except as provided by ORS 474.125, the purchase, attempt to
purchase, possession, or acquisition of cannabis by a person under 21 years
of age shall be a violation punishable by a fine of not more than $250.
474.155 Public consumption
prohibited, penalty, exception. Except where prominent signs permit and
minors are neither admitted nor employed, public consumption of cannabis
shall be a violation punishable by a fine of not more than $250. 474.205
Commission to study methods of use, potential for abuse, establish cannabis
levels for presumption of intoxication. The commission, in consultation with
the Board of Pharmacy and by grants to accredited research facilities,
shall:
(a) Study methods of use and the
potential for, and ill effects of, abuse of cannabis, the possible damage of
throat and lungs from inhaling cannabis smoke, less harmful methods of administration,
including but not limited to filtration of smoke and non-combustive
vaporization of the psychoactive agents in cannabis, and shall report its
findings in pamphlets distributed at OCLCC stores; and,
(b) Study cannabis intoxication and,
if practicable, shall establish by rule levels of impairment above which a
person shall be presumed intoxicated.
474.215 Presumption of negligence. In
civil cases, a rebuttable presumption of negligence shall arise upon clear
and convincing evidence that a person is found to be intoxicated at the time
of an accident and if the person’s actions materially contributed to the
cause of injury.
474.305 Disclosure of names and
addresses prohibited. Information on applicants, licensees, and purchasers
under this chapter shall not be disclosed except upon the person’s request.
474.315 Attorney General’s duties.
The Attorney General shall vigorously defend this Act and any person
prosecuted for acts licensed under this chapter, propose a federal and/or
international act to remove impediments to this chapter, deliver the proposed
federal and/or international act to each member of Congress and/or
international organization, and urge adoption of the proposed federal and/or
international act through all legal and appropriate means.
474.325 Effect. This Act shall take
effect on January 1, 2011. Any section of this Act being held invalid as to
any person or circumstance shall not affect the application of any other
section of this Act that can be given full or partial effect without the
invalid section or application. If any law or entity of any type whatsoever
is held to impede this chapter’s full effect, unimpeded provisions shall
remain in effect and the impeded provisions shall regain effect upon the
impediments removal.
Campaign for the Restoration
and Regulation of Hemp CRRH P.O. Box 86741 Portland, OR 97214 (503) 235-4606 http://www.crrh.org crrh@crrh.org |
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) 2008
Addictions are a Cost of War: Marijuana Speech #31
31st
speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 5-9-2012;
Honorable Commissioners:
Last
week, Mr. Ford took offense to my previous speech, saying that I had tarred all
Vietnam vets with the same brush, and “We didn’t all come back drug-crazed
maniacs.”
I
didn’t say that anyone came back a “drug-crazed maniac”; I said that some men
came back with “habits”. I also confined
such remarks to people who were protesting that war, and who had such habits,
in talking about the origin of our modern “drug culture.” Mr. Ford can rest assured that I was not
talking about him or people like him.
I talk
about what I know, in this case, men who were drafted to ‘Nam with drug habits
and came back with more reason to use them.
In the case of my late husband, Randy Brown, when he was drafted, he had
a wife and two sons, and owned a bar in Georgia. During his first tour, his wife divorced him,
kept the kids, and sold the bar. He
stayed for a second tour.
Before
he owned the bar, he had a roofing business in Kansas; he was a natural
entrepreneur. After he was drafted, he
never started another business; all his efforts were focused on get-rich-quick
schemes. Why work hard and save your
money when the government can pick you up at any time and take it all
away? Being in the black market, that
threat always hung over his head.
Since
the discovery of opiates, addiction to such pain-killers has been a cost of
war. A war on those who take marijuana, opiates
and other pain-killers and stimulants does not help our soldiers recover from
their experiences overseas; it just makes them the enemy in their own country.
Many of
us are said to be primed for drug addiction by trauma in childhood. We are not helped with our addictions by
being made the enemy by our government.
I was well on my way to being a social alcoholic when I smoked pot in
college at 18—in a state where the drinking age is 19. Your ban on youth drinking didn’t stop me; it
just taught me to get drunk. I was drunk
when I tried pot. Your ban on marijuana
didn’t stop me from finding my drug of choice; your ban on harder drugs didn’t
stop me from trying them to see what they really do. All it did was put me outside the rule of
law, afraid to report an attempted rape.
Please
help stop the war on us and our habits and support the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act
as a first step toward peace and freedom of medicine.
Rycke
Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
Save Our Children by Legalizing: Marijuana Speech #30
30th
speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 5-1-2012;
Honorable Commissioners:
Last
week, I returned to the subject of legalizing marijuana and other drugs. Commissioner Reedy, you refused a copy of my
speech and answered me in Matters from Commissioners. Thank you for arguing.
Your
remarks boiled down to the fact that you couldn’t understand why I am so
concerned about weeds and not about saving our children from drugs. I didn’t say a word about weeds; I did decry disorder and say that police should be
more concerned with catching thieves
and getting people to clean up their
properties than with keeping us up on the latest teenage slang.
Why are
the cops concerned with teenage slang?
Because the kids are using and selling illegal drugs. Our laws that supposedly protect children by
allowing higher penalties for selling to children and lower penalties for
children generally, make children our street dealers. They can’t even get a job until they are 16;
they often start dealing drugs and making big bucks long before that. They get hooked on easy money and don’t get
real jobs. By the time they are in their
mid-twenties, they couldn’t get a job if they wanted to, having no work
experience to put on a resume, and they can’t rent a place, because they have
no pay stubs. They are trapped in the
black market.
I have
seen this happen to too many kids. Mothers marched against Prohibition because
their kids were getting drunk. Our kids
are getting high and dealing. We have
wasted 3 generations of entrepreneurs on the black market since Nixon declared
War on Drugs in the 70’s, pushing up prices faster than inflation.
Our
black market in marijuana has collapsed in recent years, thanks to medical pot;
the only place one can get high prices is out of state or in tolerated dispensaries,
selling to people with cards but no grower.
I used to tell people who asked me where to get pot to ask any scruffy
kid. Now the scruffy kids are asking me.
What’s a dealer to do when
his drug of choice is no longer profitable?
He moves on to harder drugs.
Soldiers are coming back from Afghanistan hooked on heroin, and getting
opiates for their injuries. Kids are
selling to them and each other.
Overdoses are rising among young adults.
To
protect our children from dealing drugs, we need to legalize all drugs,
starting with marijuana. We are
collecting signatures to put marijuana under essentially the same regulation as
liquor. Please support the Oregon
Cannabis Tax Act, now petitioning for the fall ballot.
Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
Drug Culture v. Cop Culture: Marijuana Speech #29
29th
speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 4-25-2012;
Honorable Commissioners:
Last week we had a
presentation from our local cops through the ladies of our Department of Public
Health, titled, “You can’t fight what you don’t know.” It was about the drug culture in our high
school and on our streets: slang; acronyms and logos; clothing lines with such
logos. The one I found most amusing was
“SRH: Stoners ‘Reaking Havoc.” Stoners
don’t wreak havoc.
Nonetheless, the cops are
exceedingly interested in their culture, clothing, and the places one might
stash a pipe, like a bracelet, or a belt buckle. One wishes that they were as versed in the
culture of thieves.
But theft culture isn’t in
your face. Thieves don’t advertise
themselves, even to each other. People
are not proud of being thieves. They
don’t celebrate theft in song and clothing; they stay very quiet about their
activities.
Thieves we have always
had. Drugs we have always had. We have not always had drug culture. That began to really develop as people who
used illegal drugs protested the Vietnam War and at the same time rejected the
culture of war on their habits, including the habits they brought back from
‘Nam. Those men were yanked out of their
lives and made slave soldiers in a foreign land for no good reason; they had
plenty of reason to take opiates and cannabis.
In thanks for their
involuntary service, Nixon declared war on drugs and the people who take
them. Reagan, a few years later,
declared zero tolerance.
As those men who went to
‘Nam become grandfathers and great-grandfathers and their sons and grandsons
return from Afghanistan with heroin habits, the drug culture has become more
bold. We put pot leaves and only
slightly cryptic acronyms and logos on our clothing, to irritate the Powers
That Be. As government tries to do too
much and thus neglects the basics of law, which is keeping order, it loses
power to harass and jail us for mere habits.
Perhaps police should stop
trying to keep up with teenage slang and start getting people to clean up their
properties. Stop making war on
substances and start concentrating on catching thieves. Stop riding around in cars, stopping
speeders, and start walking neighbourhoods, talking to people. It isn’t the distance one covers in a day
that counts; it’s the amount of disorder one stops.
I ask this Board to tell our
sheriff that you think that marijuana laws should receive the lowest level of
enforcement, and support the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, now collecting signatures
for the 2012 ballot.
Rycke
Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
Pot Prices Collapse! Marijuana Speech #28
28th
speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 5-25-2011
Dennis Roler this week
editorialized in the Daily Courier,
“Police and marijuana supporters are duelling over proposed tighter regulations
in Salem, but they are missing the point.”
HB 3664 is apparently the last
of two dozen such bills introduced this year that is still alive; it would
tighten eligibility for cards and give police more access to OMMP records—too
much access for Mr. Roler. He thinks
that the “old” program of growing one’s own should be scrapped in favour of
state-grown pot sold in state-owned dispensaries, which would bring the
collapsing prices for pot in our in-state black market back with a roar.
One might wonder why, after
so many years, so many legislators introduced so many bills to do something to
tighten up OMMP, and their fellows threw cold water on them. Wonder no longer; the answer is in those
collapsing prices. A lot of people who
have formerly made a living off their risky behavior are hurting now that it is
not so risky and a lot of other people have gotten into the act.
Under OMMP the prices have
fluctuated from a low right after harvest, back to high prices before harvest. A brave grower could hold on to the bulk of
his crop until prices recovered and still make good money. But that price recovery point has gotten
later every year, and this year, they have not yet recovered.
Have no doubt that many of
these braver growers talk to their legislators, probably posing as rabid
anti-pot-people for protective coloration.
But marijuana consumers also talk to their lawmakers, and more
legislators appear to support consumers than support black marketers. They know that tightening up eligibility for
medical marijuana and making it more dangerous to grow can only revive the
black market and make life harder for consumers of weed.
Now that people are getting
used to the idea that they can’t make a lot of money off a few plants anymore
and young pot dealers are looking for real jobs, it is time to put pot on the
same footing as alcohol and pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act. That will allow a few licensed farmers to
make a living off of marijuana, allow any of us to grow our own without license,
and drive a stake through the heart of the black market in marijuana. This Board should ask the legislature to pass
it now, and not wait for the People to pass it next year. There’s still time in this session; they can
gut and stuff HB 3664.
Rycke
Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
Indoor Cultivation Sucks: Marijuana Speech #27
27th
speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 4-27-2011
An
article appeared in the April 15th Oregonian, “Pot growing gobbles power.” Eric Mortenson tells us about research by
Californian Evan Mills that indicates that indoor marijuana growing uses a full
one percent of electricity consumed in the United States.
I
have long held that growing pot indoors is stupid. It’s a huge full-to-part-sun plant that
cannot grow with normal indoor lighting, and it takes a lot of water as
well. 1000-watt lights were the standard
twenty years ago when I was interested in indoor growing. The heat from these lamps and the humidity
from rapidly transpiring plants has to be vented, which uses still more power.
If
it isn’t properly vented, it is hard on a house, as is water that spills on the
floor. It can cause mold and dry
rot. This is a major problem for
landlords screening potential tenants; tenants generally don’t tell their
landlord that they plan to grow pot in a house, even with a license.
Cannabis is a big plant for which a
pot is never big enough. Once its roots
fill the pot, it cannot get enough water and gets stressed, which encourages
indoor pests like whitefly and spider mites.
This encourages the use of insecticides that lower the quality of the product,
and can harm consumers.
Indoors
is a very expensive, difficult way to grow marijuana. It makes electricity more expensive for
everyone and ruins rentals. The only
reason that anyone grows pot indoors is fear of police and/or thieves. Medical marijuana has reduced fear of cops, but
it has brought the work of thieves into the open; legal growers report thefts.
A
greenhouse is the best option for growing marijuana safely in Southern Oregon:
it keeps the crop hidden; gives it lots of the heat and humidity it loves; it
can have no floor, allowing roots to spread freely in the soil beneath; and it
protects the heavy buds from fall fogs and rain that can cause mold.
When
Oregon passes the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, it will end the black market within
our state, and the fear of cops and pot thieves with it. People will grow a few plants in their yards
for themselves; licensed growers will grow it in fields, where it belongs, for
sale to the state. Farmers will grow
hemp in fields for the world market. One place you may be sure it will not be
grown very much will be indoors, under lights.
Landlords will have one less worry, and we won’t be wasting electricity
growing a plant that loves the sun.
Rycke
Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
End Nixon’s War on Us: Marijuana Speech #26
26th speech in
this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 4-13-2011
I
recently received new petition sheets for the Cannabis Tax Act 2012; I will be
petitioning for this as well as All-Non-Partisan Elections in Oregon at my
weekly protest on Saturdays between noon and 2 PM at 6th and G in
Grants Pass, and before that at the Growers’ Market entrance between 10:00 and
11:30.
But
we are in a deep budget hole, and I ask this Board and others to ask our state
representatives to pass this measure now because we need it now, to end the
violence and corruption of the marijuana black market and stop spending our
money on unnecessary, counterproductive evil.
Speaking
of counterproductive evil, I’d like to remind my tea party compatriots that the
War on Drugs was named such by Richard Nixon, following Johnson’s War on
Poverty, around the time he instituted wage and price controls against the
inflation he’d unleashed by expansion of the Vietnam War. He created the Drug Enforcement Administration
and turned it into a cabinet-level department, just as he did the Department of
Education. At the point when states were
starting to de-emphasize drug-law enforcement because it filled prisons with
low-level offenders and got in the way of stopping real crime, he got Congress
to give the states money for his war on us and our habits.
People
in Mexico are protesting Mexico’s intensified war on drugs, which is tearing
their country apart and making it particularly dangerous to work for the
Mexican government, as well as to visit or live there. They should legalize marijuana, license the
manufacture of other U.S.-controlled substances, and let US deal with the
consequences of our own black market while they profit off it.
Oregon
should do a little of the same, by passing the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, and
letting the rest of the nation deal with their black markets in pot while we
eliminate ours. Our state can stop
spending money enforcing stupid laws and concentrate on real crimes like
theft. Our people can stop spending so
much on a weed that we can grow ourselves, and have more money for other
products and services.
Now,
when newly elected tea-party congressmen are looking for portions of the
federal budget to cut, we should remind them that there are whole Cabinet-level
departments, like the DEA, committed to unnecessary evil that should never have
been created and would not be missed by most of us if they were
eliminated. Frankly, if they can’t get
rid of the DEA and the Department of Education, they won’t get far with
balancing our budget.
(You may contact your Congressman by calling
202-224-3121; you don’t even have to know his name. Put this number in your cell phone for easy
use; it’s rather satisfying to call and leave a message for your public servant.)
Rycke
Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
Persecuting Us on Borrowed Money: Marijuana Speech #25
25th
speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 2-23-2011
On
Monday, KDRV Channel 12 told us that House Bill 2982 had been introduced to
scrap the OMMP law and re-write it without protections for patients from
over-enthusiastic cops, and disqualifying anyone with a controlled substance
conviction from having a card.
After Jeopardy, I turned to RVTV Channel 14,
and found Jackson County cops selling this bill or something similar, telling
us about all the evils of medical marijuana, and saying that more controls on
it would somehow stop those evils. The
trouble is, all of the evils that they cited are part of the black market
preserved by OMMP: theft of pot; growing indoors in rental housing; selling
illegally; selling to minors; minors selling to anyone who wants it. All of these evils happened before OMMP; they
have simply become more open as the legal jeopardy of growing and possession
has been reduced for those with a license.
Tightening up the rules won’t stop these evils; it will only make them
worse.
Week
before last, 50 JOINT Josephine County and Oregon State Police officers spent
400 man hours arresting 7 people and closing down 3 “compassionate care
centers” in Grants Pass that had been selling medical pot to OMMP card holders. OSP Lieutenant Darin Lux said, “We’re trying
to enforce the law on the books.
Sometimes it isn’t cheap. We
don’t let that dissuade us from conducting business.”
There
are so many laws on the books that police cannot enforce them all equally; they
should stick to those that are necessary.
We got along well enough for thousands of years without banning cannabis,
which was once mandated to be grown. Our cops are apparently more interested in
arresting pot sellers than thieves, because the feds pay them to arrest pot sellers, skewing the priorities of our
police. The federal government is paying our cops to persecute us with borrowed
money; we already owe over $100,000
per citizen on the national debt. Because
of that borrowed subsidy, 50 officers were taken away for a full work day from
enforcement of laws against theft, vandalism, and littering, among other evils
that they could be stopping.
If
we want our cops to stick to the business of necessary evil, this Board and all interested citizens should ask
the Legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012, which would put pot
under the same kind of rules as liquor in Oregon. While it would retain the OMMP, it would end
the in-state black market in pot with all of its evils. The evils of Mexican gangs growing weed in
remote areas of our state for the national black market won’t stop until the
rest of the nation follows, but one state has to start the ball rolling. Oregon is good at that.
Rycke
Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Stop the Nonsense! Marijuana Speech #24
24th
speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners,1-12-2011
Last Friday night, I heard a report on KDRV Channel 12 (http://kdrv.com/page/201884 ) that two
bills had been introduced in the legislature that would require drug testing
for public assistance in Oregon. I went looking for bill numbers and more
details, and found them on Examiner.com in a piece by Jennifer Alexander (Two
bills in Oregon legislature to require drug testing for ... ) .
I found summaries but not the full text on the legislature's website.
The first, SB 538 by Senator Bruce Starr of Hillsboro, would
require drug testing for all public assistance, including unemployment, not
just welfare and food stamps as reported on KDRV, who reported that recipients
would have to pay for the tests. It would deny public assistance to anyone who
tests positive for a "drug of abuse;" it does not appear to include a
treatment option to receive assistance.
The second bill, HB 2995, introduced by Representative Dennis
Richardson of Central Point, would apply only to unemployment compensation. It
provides that anyone who tests positive would be offered treatment, and would
deny those who refuse. I can't tell if it requires one to pay for the test
and/or treatment.
Citizens, please call these gentlemen, and remind them that we
didn't give Republicans exactly half the House because we love their social
policies or the drug war, and that they should stop reminding us why we gave
Democrats control in the previous session. Their seats might be safe; other
Republicans are not. I don't normally give out phone numbers, but Starr's Salem
office number is 503-986-1715; Richardson's is 503-986-1404.
While you are at it, please talk to them about passing the Oregon
Cannabis Tax Act 2012, and call up your local representative and senator as
well, or write them an e-mail. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses are available
on the web; search for the Oregon legislature.
This Act will take the most widely used illegal drug out of the
"drug of abuse" category and at the same time save us from the
corruption caused by medical marijuana and the black market that it preserves.
In the process, it will create an entire new legal industry with legal
employment for growers, processors, and sellers. It will stop our teenagers
from becoming pot dealers and being ruined for real work. It will allow all
adults to grow their own pot and reduce the price of commercial pot
drastically, leaving more money in the legal economy. And it will save our law
enforcement resources for real criminals like thieves, while eliminating the
violence and theft associated with the marijuana black market and the medical
privilege.
This Board should also talk to the legislature, by passing A
Resolution Regarding Marijuana. At the very least, tell these gentlemen to
stop the nonsense, and stop threatening the assistance that keeps our
businesses alive in this recession.
Rycke
Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
A New Cannabis Tax Act: Marijuana Speech #22
22nd
speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, June 18th,
2010.
My
apologies to this Board and the County for not bringing this matter up two
months ago, when the new petitions came out for the Cannabis Tax Act 2010. Only
about 2 weeks remain in the petitioning season, but it is not too late to do
your part.
I
am petitioning for the Cannabis Tax Act
at the Growers’ Market’s Southwest entrance on 4th Street every
Saturday from about 9:30 to 11:30 AM, and then on 6th and G at my
regular No More Drug War protest from noon to 2 PM. I also have petitions to repeal the latest
gas tax hike, and for All-Non-Partisan Elections in Oregon.
Unlike
the previous version of this Act, the state will be selling marijuana in state
cannabis stores rather than state liquor stores. The liquor stores no doubt objected, because
where pot is more available, liquor is less used, and having cheap weed in the
same stores with heavily taxed liquor would definitely cut into their more
lucrative business.
Some
people are put off by the “Tax Act” portion of the name, and I have to admit
that it is a bit of a misnomer; it actually allows state profit on sale of
marijuana. Rather than a set percentage
of the price or so much per ounce, the state will be making whatever profit it
can off the sale of its marijuana in state cannabis stores while competing with
the relatively cheap homegrown that anyone over 21 will be able to grow for
personal use. After a few years, the
state may find that it cannot compete with homegrown pot, any more than it can
compete in the tomato market, and will close the state cannabis stores and
allow sale of marijuana in other stores, as it does with cigarettes.
Do
you want teenagers to stop being our pot dealers and get their weed from
adults, rather than vice-versa? Then
you should support this Act. Do you want
to stop sick people from getting rich off the rest of us with their present medical
privilege? Then you should support this
Act. Do you want the police to
concentrate on catching thieves, rather than weeding the forest and busting
farmers? Then you should support this
Act. Do you want more money freed from
the black market and Mexican gangs and spent in legitimate stores, lifting the
entire economy? Then you should support
this Act.
There
is now a measure heading to the ballot which would allow cannabis dispensaries;
it would only continue the problematic system of medical privilege that creates
so much corruption. I ask this Board to
ask the legislature to pass the 2010
Cannabis Tax Act, or to put it on the ballot, so we can at least have a
better choice in November.
Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
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
Support Your Local Sheriff: Marijuana Speech #20
20
th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, November
25, 2009.
Another
reason you should pass A Resolution
Regarding Marijuana, urging the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, is that this is
a fast-moving issue, and you ought to give the legislature your support for a
better idea before they do something that will only prolong our troubles with
weed.
The
Oregon Cannabis Tax Act was 2008’s
Measure 28, but it never made the ballot, because hardly anyone, including me,
bothered to read it; it was a presidential election year. The legislature is currently considering this year’s Measure 28, which is not
half so ambitious; it would only tweak our medical marijuana system, retaining
the medical privilege that is so problematic for law enforcement, and unjust
for the rest of us.
Last
Thursday, an AP article appeared in the Oregonian,
headlined, “Former US Attorney favors drug law review.” John McKay, former U.S. Attorney for Western
Washington, has joined the chorus of ex-cops, former prosecutors, retired
judges, and even some currently office-holding officials like Sheriff Richard
Mack and Congressman Ron Paul, calling for major changes in our drug laws,
particularly regarding marijuana.
McKay
appeared at a recent panel discussion of drug laws, where he and others decried
the lack of courage on the part of legislators and other elected officials, who
are afraid of being labeled “soft on crime” if they favor repealing “stupid
laws,” as McKay called the laws banning cannabis. He said that pot should be treated a lot more
like liquor, and a lot less like heroin and meth.
Not
all of our local elected officials are cowards on this issue. At last Tuesday’s meeting of the John Birch
Society, our Sheriff, Gil Gilbertson, told us, “Marijuana should be treated
just like liquor.” The crowd, a room
full of our local constitutional conservatives, applauded loudly.
Our elected officials should stop being afraid of being labeled
“soft-on-crime” and start fearing being called “stupid-on-crime.” The people have come to realize that there is
only so much money available for law enforcement, and that laws against
personal habits interfere with enforcing laws against real crime—especially when
the state and feds subsidize the enforcement of stupid laws, but not of real
laws against theft and assault.
We are soon going to have to pay for our own law enforcement in
this county. It would be easier to get
the voters to give the Sheriff and DA money if they had fewer stupid laws to
distract them from the business of fighting real crime. Please ask the legislature to start by
passing the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act,
so our many pot users and growers can sleep easier at night, knowing that the
cops are not going after them.
Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener 541-955-9040 rycke@gardener.com
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