As my local fans know, I am very involved in the signature drive for OCTA - The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.  We’re proposing to the State of Oregon to tax and regulate the production and sales of cannabis to adults 21 and over through state liquor dispensaries.  It’s been all over our local news and I got quoted extensively in the local weekly, Willamette Week.

I went out to Saturday Market on my way to an errand, just to spend 90 minutes gathering signatures.  I only got 27.  I had my notebook with the big OCTA logo held out for all to see, plus my seven-second “Tax Marijuana to fund the State - sign my petition” announcement to any who I approached.  Most people either eagerly signed, weren’t from Oregon, or politely refused.  I had only one aggressively-opposed person, and it was a guy I didn’t even approach.

I’m sitting on the MAX, with my OCTA logo visible (and my Oregon NORML hat), minding my own biz (I won’t solicit on the train, I think it’s rude and I think it may be against their rules), when this older dude with severely f’ed-up teeth approached me, saying something.  I couldn’t make it out, because I was transfixed on the massive overbite of his bottom jaw and its eight millimeter gap.  Seriously, this guy had gargoyle teeth.  Oh, and a huge distended alcoholic seven-days-from-cirrhosis-death belly, disheveled white hair, and dirty clothes.

“We don’t need to have marijuana killing more people in Oregon!”  I finally deciphered he was saying.

Now, before I can go into full-blown encyclopedic “Radical” Russ mode, a handsome young twenty-something dude sitting across from me say, “Man, marijuana’s never killed anyone in history!”

I asked the toothy one, “Do you really believe marijuana is killing people?”
From there, me and handsome lad gave this guy a clinic on cannabis.  Lung cancer?  Tashkin.  Polls?  Zogby.  Gateway?  Institute of Medicine.  You know the show.  But by now, the mom and dad with their kids in tow are listening, as are the retired couple to my right, and an empty-nester couple standing nearby.

I was very polite and calm in my delivery, as was handsome lad.  He turns out to be a visiting student from Florida; I gave him contact info for UCF NORML.  But I did have to go a bit alpha male on Toothy when he said, “We don’t need no more stupid stoners not contributing to society.”

I said, “Mister, I’ve been polite so far, but as someone who has smoked marijuana at least once a week since July 4, 1990, I can tell you that not only have I worked continuously in corporate America managing high-tech networks, paying my taxes, and now running two small corporations (OK, he doesn’t need to know that “small” equals “1″) and hosting a talk radio show, not only do I contribute far more to this economy than you do, but as far as ’stupid’ goes, name the test — SATs, IQ, crossword puzzles, Trivial Pursuit — and I’ll whup you like Steven Hawking on a second grader.”

Seriously, I said that.  I think, probably not a perfect transcription (cuz I was mad), but I know the smoking, working, and Steven Hawking were in there.

Toothy walked away at that point and I got to have wonderful conversations with the parents, retirees, and empty-nesters.  None were able to sign (Vancouver couple and the others from California), but all of them were very supporting of OCTA.  They were giving me MY lines — drug dealers don’t ask for ID, alcohol prohibition didn’t work, how much money the state could make, etc.  It made me feel very confident that the people are way ahead of the politicians on this issue.