TAKING OVER MEDICAL MARIJUANA WOULD BE A WASTE OF MONEY

There is muttering in the state Capitol proposing that Oregon should
take exclusive marketing of "medical" marijuana.

This action is supposed to eliminate the criminal marketing of this
"crop" and provide the state with funds - similar to money realized
through alcohol sales. Ahem.

Of course, such reasoning presumes that the criminal cabal will
voluntarily close up shop when the state competes with them. If your
tongue is in your cheek, well, so is mine (and a lot of other people's).

I was part of a law enforcement task force that spent a concentrated
period of time scouring the shores of the Columbia from Hood River, to
the coast, then down the coast to the California border. We located
and "harvested" marijuana "grows" that filled a continuous fleet of
Army "deuce-and-a-halfs" for delivery to an incinerator. And we only
scratched the surface of that money-making illegal enterprise.

The public funds needed to operate the agency needed to administer
marijuana sales can be better spent on more law enforcement, since
marijuana merchants haven't gone away - and won't.

When you consider that Interstate 5 is known to law enforcement as
"meth alley" (since state patrols have decreased), morphing Oregon
into "marijuana acres" is unthinkable. Wake up, legislators, and smell
the rose buds.

Thomas T. Schavland

Salem