Pubdate: Thu, 02 Oct 2014
Source: Eugene Weekly (OR)
Copyright: 2014 Eugene Weekly
Contact:  http://www.eugeneweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/136
Author: Ben Stone

TRAVEL SAGE RICK STEVES TO SPEAK IN SUPPORT OF MARIJUANA REFORM

With a disarming smile and a lilting baritone made for public radio, 
Rick Steves has been making traveling the world less frightening for 
the past 30 years. Through his European travel guidebooks and public 
radio and television programs, he has introduced Americans to a 
kinder, more accessible world outside of our own.

This October, Steves is taking a different kind of trip - a six-day 
tour around Oregon to calm our nerves in regards to November's 
Measure 91, which would legalize, tax and regulate recreational marijuana.

Steves tells EW that he's spent a third of his life in countries 
where the United States' policy of locking up drug offenders is 
foreign. "In Europe, they've taken the crime out of the equation, and 
they treat drug abuse as a health and an education challenge," Steves 
says. "In many countries in Europe, the word for 'addicted' is the 
same as 'enslaved.' People are enslaved to drugs, and they're sick 
people - they're not criminals and they need to be helped."

Steves says he is extremely proud that his home state of Washington 
was one of the first to legalize marijuana, though the law is not a 
perfect one, and he is excited at the prospect of Oregon following 
suit. "What I wanted to do in Washington state was just get it so we 
stop arresting pot smokers. Others will learn from us and make 
smarter laws. And that's just the natural process."

As other states begin to slowly perfect marijuana legalization laws, 
Steves says he sees it as his civic duty as a "church-going, 
tax-paying, hard-working" citizen to tell stories about societies 
that are at peace with their marijuana-using population. "The typical 
Dutch person has never even smelled marijuana," Steves says. "It's 
just musicians and bohemians; when they want to get high they smoke 
down at the coffee shop. But it's not really an issue. It's not scary."

Steves will speak on "Travel as a Political Act - Ending marijuana 
prohibition in Oregon" at the McDonald Theatre 7 pm Thursday, Oct. 9. 
He will present a pro-legalization argument through the paradigm of 
European countries he's traveled in and then field questions from the 
audience. Free, but registration required at aclu-or.org/ricksteves. 
He will also speak at noon Oct. 9 in Corvallis at the Unitarian 
Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 N.W. Circle Blvd.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom