EFFORT TO GET LEGALIZATION MEASURE ON BALLOT GROWS

Petition Needs 95,000 More Signers by July to Get Cannabis Measure on
November Ballot

The campaign aiming to tax and regulate marijuana through the Oregon
Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) is circulating petitions to get the measure
on the ballot for November's general election.

By creating a committee to oversee the taxation and regulation of
marijuana, OCTA would effectively decriminalize the cultivation,
possession and personal use of marijuana in Oregon. The measure would
be the first law of its kind in the nation.

However, OCTA advocate Matt Switzer said cannabis regulation is a
nascent movement, with Californians set to vote on the legalization
of cannabis in November and Washington and Oregon cannabis
legalization advocates in a similar predicament: scrambling to pool
enough signatures to give the proposals life on election day.

OCTA supporters admit they have a long way to go before the measure
can be brought to the ballot for a vote.

"The proposed initiative needs 100,000 signatures by July before it
can be placed on the November ballot," Switzer said. "We have less
than 5,000 signatures."

OCTA supporters reference an alliance they have with Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition to fortify their case against the current
criminalization of cannabis.

LEAP Executive Director Jack Cole, a 26-year New Jersey state police
officer, said the injustice perpetuated by the current marijuana law
has him fighting in California to assure the passage of cannabis legalization.

"When you prohibit any drug, you create an underground market for
that drug, and that attracts criminal activity," Cole said.
"Marijuana -- it's just a weed; it has zero value until we say it's
illegal, then the price artificially inflates, becomes so obscenely
high, that up until about a year ago when the economy took a turn,
marijuana was worth more, ounce for ounce, than gold."

Cole said movements toward taxing and regulating cannabis were
fighting for ballot measures in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New
Hampshire, Nevada, California, Washington and Oregon.

The changes proposed by OCTA would not interfere with current medical
marijuana laws defined by the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Switzer
said the proposal, which would be ballot measure 73 if enough
signatures are gathered come July, does not yet face any organized
opposition, but opposition will probably develop if the proposal
gains traction in the state.

"There will most likely be some backlash from those agencies who will
likely see a decrease in revenue, along with marijuana farmers who
may see the exorbitant price they charge decrease as the black market
no longer will have a monopoly on the plant," Switzer said.

Cole predicted opposition would stem from law enforcement agencies,
who he said receive 20 percent of their current budget from state
revenue provided for the war on drugs. Switzer said the challenge
precluding the revolutionary changes proposed by OCTA is not only
opposition from without, but hesitation from within.

"Stoners are chronically bad at engaging with the political process,
and many have reservations signing their names and addresses
endorsing the legalization of a substance the government has for
years lied about," he said. "We are trying to stress that this is a
civil rights issue and that American citizens should not be
imprisoned because of harmless beliefs and actions simply because
someone saw they could make money from persecuting a large portion of
the country."