Marijuana initiative Oregon

Oregon Marijuana Initiative Approaches Required Number Of Signatures To Be Placed On Ballot

Share This Page

May 16, 1996 - Portland, OR, USA

An Oregon state campaign to regulate the sale of marijuana to adults appears to be well on its way toward qualifying for the November 1996 general election.
Headed by local NORML activists and the Political Action Committee Pay for Schools by Regulating Cannabis (PSRC), a proposal to comprehensively reform marijuana laws in the state has gathered in excess of 65,000 signatures -- more than three quarters of the number needed to place the initiative on the ballot. The PSRC must gather at least 73,261 registered Oregon voters' signatures by July 5, 1996 to qualify.
Known as the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA), the PSRC proposal would tax and regulate the sale of marijuana to adults, license farmers to cultivate the drug for sale to the state, permit physicians to prescribe marijuana as a therapeutic agent to seriously ill patients, and allow farmers to grow industrial hemp for fiber, oil, and protein production.
The OCTA would authorize the sale of marijuana to take place in state-run liquor stores where the age limit of 21 can be strictly enforced. The PSRC estimates that the profits generated from the regulated sale of marijuana could amount to $500 million a year or 20 percent of Oregon's total state budget. The OCTA would direct 65 percent of that money toward funding primary and secondary education. In addition, 30 percent of the revenue would go to state and community colleges, four percent would go to fund drug abuse treatment programs, and the remaining one percent would be used to implement realistic drug education programs in the schools.
According to Chief Petitioner Paul Stanford, the pending Oregon legislation is drafted to effectively stand up to the barrage of court challenges that it will presumably face. The OCTA is written in compliance with the restrictions imposed by several international anti-drug treaties and the bill provides numerous constitutional protections in its comprehensive preamble to ensure that the act will be upheld in court. Moreover, the OCTA even provides funding for the inevitable legal battles that await it by collecting revenue through the issuing of cannabis license fees, Stanford notes.
Preliminary surveys indicate that the OCTA has a realistic chance of passing. School funding is a very urgent issue in Oregon and a poll conducted by the state's largest television station, KATU-TV, showed that 55 percent of the respondents answered yes when asked, "Should marijuana be sold in liquor stores to fund education?"
"The war on drugs is the issue on which the future of freedom in America swings," stated Stanford. "Families and individuals are being destroyed by this misguided civil war. The war on drugs is not about drugs, it's about money and the continued centralization of economic and political control. The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is the first big step toward a solution."
For more information, please contact the PSRC at (503) 235-4606 or write P.O. Box 86741, Portland, OR 97286. The organization may also be contacted via the Internet at: http://www.pantless.com/~octa