Posted on 08/28/2014 11:26:39 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
Oregon has had a wink-wink, nudge-nudge relationship with recreational marijuana use since 1998, when legalization for medical purposes created a wide, open system that distributes pot cards to just about anyone with a vague medical claim and the signature of a compliant physician. We're not suggesting that marijuana has no palliative value to those with genuine medical problems. But let's be honest: Recreational marijuana is all but legal in Oregon now and has been for years. Measure 91, which deserves Oregonians' support, would eliminate the charade and give adults freer access to an intoxicant that should not have been prohibited in the first place.
Opponents of the measure are right about a couple of things. Allowing retail sales of recreational marijuana inevitably will make it easier for kids to get their hands on the stuff, as will Measure 91's provision allowing Oregonians to grow their own. It's also true that outright legalization will increase the number of people driving under the influence, which is particularly problematic given the absence of a simple and reliable test for intoxication. There is no bong Breathalyzer.
As real as these consequences are, Oregonians should support outright legalization. No responsible adult wants kids using pot, but legalization would simply add another product to an "adults-only" category that includes tobacco and alcohol. There is no movement to ban alcohol in order to keep it away from kids, so why use that justification to prevent the legalization of marijuana, which in many ways is no worse? The potential increase in intoxicated driving is, again, a reason for concern, and the measure directs the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to recommend appropriate changes to the vehicle code by 2017.
Let's not pretend, however, that Oregon isn't dealing with both of these problems already thanks to the state's (wink, wink) medical marijuana program, which the Legislature itself has made more user-friendly by legalizing dispensaries. And let's not forget what's happening right now in Washington, where adults – including Oregonians – may buy pot at retail outlets. A completely legal high is only a short drive away for anyone in the Portland metro area.
Measure 91 would move Oregon from a hazy condition of almost-legalization to one of rational access guided by straightforward regulations and subject to sensible taxation. In other words, it would force Oregon's 16-year-old marijuana experiment out of adolescence and into legal adulthood. The measure appropriately leaves the task of regulating the new industry to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which knows a thing or two about the distribution and sale of intoxicants. The OLCC would adopt the necessary rules by 2016.
The tax burden imposed by Measure 91 would be more modest than that adopted in Washington. Taxes would be levied at the point of sale by producers and would range from $5 per immature plant to $35 per ounce for flowers. These rates might strike some as too low, but taxing legal pot too heavily would merely give people an incentive to keep buying on the black market. In any case, the measure directs the OLCC to review tax rates regularly and recommend appropriate changes to the Legislature.
Legalizing recreational marijuana probably sounds like a revolutionary concept to a lot of Oregonians, including many of those who can't wait to fill in the "yes" bubble on their ballots in a couple of months. Given everything that's happened on the ganja front since 1998, though, it's really not as big a step as it might seem. As of July 1, almost 65,000 Oregonians had medical marijuana cards, and many of those 65,000 have friends with whom – just a guess! – they share the fruits of the system. So widely accepted has this form of shadow legalization become that the Legislature OK'd dispensaries in 2013 even though voters defeated related ballot measures in 2002 and 2010. And then, there's the big pot shop across the river, aka Washington.
Measure 91, far from revolutionary, would simply allow Oregon adults to obtain something they may obtain now, but without having to stroll through a "medical" loophole or drive over a bridge to a neighboring state. The measure would be worth supporting for reasons of honesty and convenience alone, but it also would raise millions of dollars per year for schools and other purposes. For that reason, it deserves support even from those who aren't normally high on taxes.
Pot smoking is not contagious - it's a choice some people make and others don't.
Truth hurts, doesn't it?
Summed you up pretty good, didn't it?
It didn't - but it nicely summed up your hypocrisy.
The recreational use of mind altering chemicals is for LOSERS (alcohol included).
Pot smoking is not contagious - it’s a choice some people make and others don’t.
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Isn’t that essentially the same argument you were making ealier this week regarding child porn?
Why yes. Yes it is.
Right! It’s to “save the environment” because the average Oregon citizen can’t possibly pump gas safer and better than unskilled, minimum wage, idiots.
Why yes. Yes it is.
Lying about me again. You need professional help.
I don’t feel sorry for people like you because your confusion and radical beliefs would cause much harm to the populace. You are no different that a lot of these extreme politicians who push harmful legislation / more than it could ever help the people. I see it as the wacked - out libertarians are like the liberal republicans because they never can build a consensus of a majority due to they don’t believe in responsibly and or say a standard. A standard dates back to the Founding Fathers. You can’t leave that out for a society to survive.
You wish. Any rational person who has bothered to look at addiction knows this assertion is utter nonsense. China climbed to 50% adult male usage by 1900, according to DrugLibrary.org.
Then, in 1906, the incredible happened. After over a hundred years of steady demoralization, with half her population opium addicts, or worse still, making enormous profits out of the trade, China determined to give up opium. In all history, no nation has ever set itself such a gigantic task, with such a gigantic handicap. China, a country of immense distances, with scant means of communication; with no common language, a land where only the scholars can read and write, suddenly decided to free herself from this vice. The Emperor issued an edict saying that in ten years' time all opium traffic must cease, and an arrangement was made with Great Britain whereby this might be accomplished. To the honor of America be it said that we assisted China in this resolution. We agreed to see her through.
According to this article it was 90% in some Provinces.
In the early part of twentieth century there were many changes in the opium trade. China and India reached an agreement for cessation of Indian opium imports. By 1920's opium had infiltrated every part of Chinese life, 90% of males in some provinces smoked, morphine was called "Jesus opium" because of its introduction by Western Missionaries as a cure for opium addiction. China was a country divided-up into many different political units with "control" ceded to Japan, America and various European nations.
You are an irresponsible man doing your d@mnedest to contribute to the destruction of our society, and you are so ignorant about the danger you are pushing.
Pot was legal at the time of the Founding Fathers - and for a century and a half afterward.
Any rational person who has bothered to look at addiction knows this assertion is utter nonsense. China climbed to 50% adult male usage by 1900
Any rational person who has bothered to look at a globe and a calendar knows that modern America is not 19th century China.
Homegrown chemical weapons are just as dangerous as foreign made. The Feds still have a responsibility to interdict them, especially those crossing state lines.
Oh look, back again, with nothing but insults and lies. thus, once again, proving everyone else right. If you have fact use them, if you don’t follow your own advice and sit down and shut up.
Nonsense - libertarianism is a political philosophy and as such doesn't address the moral compass of God other than to say imposing it is not the proper function of government.
States like Washington, Colorado, and soon Oregon, are on
their way to becoming malignant zones of failure - just like Somalia.
Which clause of the Constitution says that? And what defines a "chemical weapon"?
We can't trust the States to make decisions, because they might not always make the right ones.
Not contagious? How did you catch it then?
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