TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

In his speech to open the 2007 session of the Oregon Legislature,
Gov. Ted Kulongoski spoke eloquently about green things such as
sustainability and dollars. Unfortunately, he didn't discuss
something else "green" that could be the answer to many, if not all,
the fiscal problems in this state. I thought by now some brave
legislator might have brought it up for consideration, but it hasn't
happened. So I will.

Marijuana. Legalize marijuana and tax it. Shouldn't everything be on
the table this session, including raising taxes on a vastly more
powerful recreational drug, say alcohol?

Thinking differently about marijuana is hardly new to Oregon. In 1971
Oregon Gov. Tom McCall read an incredible 4,500-word statement before
the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse urging nothing
short of a revolution in the way the country handled the so-called
marijuana problem.

An excerpt: "In my ... rapping with thousands of young people at the
Oregon State Capitol, I encountered many delegations urging reduction
or elimination of legal controls of marijuana ..."

In 1973 Oregon became the first state in the nation to decriminalize
marijuana, making the sentence for possession of less than an ounce
akin to receiving a traffic ticket. The law became a national model.
That's the way we used to solve problems in Oregon, meaning devising
solutions that other states copied.

Really, the question is not whether marijuana should be legalized.
The question is how it should be legalized. In the past, several
ballot measures have asked Oregonians if they want to make marijuana
legal. They have been fringe-led efforts and ill-conceived. They all
failed because they lacked the state's imprimatur.

Thus, I call upon the Oregon Legislature and Gov. Kulongoski to adopt
a new law establishing the Oregon Marijuana Legalization Commission.

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 would also be
authorized to present a slate of referendums providing Oregon voters
with ballot options on how marijuana is to be legalized, taxed and
how the revenue will be spent. Each referendum should have a sunset
provision so it can later be revisited.

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 and
pumping dollars into a state sponsored video poker machine.

Moreover, in the past year I have been in social situations where the
following people have used or confessed use of marijuana within the
past three months: doctor, nurse, teacher, professor, biologist,
winemaker, journalist, editor, land use planner, lawyer, logger,
farmer, fisherman, contractor, real estate agent, clergyman, speech
therapist, small business owner, painter, librarian, chef,
landscaper, masseuse, and of course, an elected official. Not one of
these people had a medical marijuana card.

Oregonians, kill the double standard. Let common sense prevail. Let
the people decide. Get government off marijuana smokers' backs and
into their pockets. The potential revenue stream looks nothing less
beautiful than amber, no, emerald, waves of leaves.

Yeah, I know again what many of you are thinking. I don't even use
the stuff! I use other drugs, you know, the kind whose trade
organization flies a state's lawmakers to Hawaii and then pumps them
full of their deadly product to assure it remains socially accepted
and lightly taxed.