Pubdate: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 Source: Portland Tribune (OR) Copyright: 2003 Portland Tribune Contact: http://www.portlandtribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2056 Author: Matt Love Note: Matt Love, 38, is a freelance writer who lives in southern Tillamook County. He does not smoke marijuana. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) IT'S TIME TO SET THE WHEELS IN MOTION TWO VIEWS . Does legalizing marijuana make financial sense, or is it the way to ruin? It is time. It is obvious. No one in Salem is talking about it. They should. If legislators return for a special session, they should take immediate action. Here's the idea. It's not mine. It's not fresh. It bucks conventional wisdom. That's exactly what Oregon needs. Legalize marijuana and tax it. Put the revenue generated from the sales and the money saved from ending absurd marijuana-related prosecutions and incarcerations into the general fund. Or earmark the dollars for rebuilding the many things in Oregon on the verge of a quick, ugly collapse. The point is to tap the underground marijuana economy. It is worth millions. Drill it hard, and drill it deep. Strike leafy green. Then start another drill into law enforcement agencies' marijuana-related budgets. Let them keep the money for legitimate public safety needs, and when U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft comes calling, take him on. This is Oregon, man! In 1973 we were the first state to decriminalize marijuana. Later we rejected a ballot measure to re-criminalize it. We also passed a medical marijuana law. It's in our lungs! It should be legally in our fields. The question is not whether marijuana should be legalized. The question is how it should be legalized. In the recent past, several ballot measures have asked Oregonians if they wanted to make pot legal. These have been fringe-led efforts that were ill-conceived. They all failed. This time the stakes are higher. Everybody knows this except the people who make laws. Thus, I call upon the Oregon Legislature and Gov. Kulongoski to pass and sign a law establishing the Oregon Marijuana Legalization Commission. Let it get to work, and get out of its way. This body would meet this fall, study the idea and make recommendations on every aspect of legalization, from potency to market or state-controlled distribution. The commission also would present a slate of referendums providing Oregon voters with ballot options on how marijuana is to be legalized and taxed, and how the revenue will be spent. Each referendum should have a sunset provision so it can be revisited. Let the people decide. They have said no to income and sales taxes. This would be a user fee, plain and simple. I volunteer to serve on this commission. Recently, I heard Sen. Ken Messerle, R-Coos Bay, say in Salem that he believes the way to fix Oregon is to get rural Oregonians working. Senator, I agree. Legalization would be an absolute boon to the state's rural economies. It would explode like craft breweries and bakeries did in the '90s. Senator, get on board. I live in rural Oregon, too, and I agree with the necessity of getting rural Oregonians re-engaged with the natural resources economy. But this time it has to be something new, unsubsidized and free from environmental group lawsuits. I know what many of you are thinking. The health risks, right? Let me offer a visual rebuttal. As I write this from an Oregon tavern, a man is halfway through a pack of cigarettes, on his third pint of ale, chasing it with coffee and pumping dead presidents into a video poker machine. The state allows him to do this and allows advertising to persuade him to do it more. Furthermore, I would love to see what prescription pain-relieving medications he has lined up in his medicine cabinet. Oregonians, kill the double standard. Murder the hypocrisy. Let common sense prevail. Get government off marijuana smokers' backs and into their pockets. We need less government to fund more government. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin