Oregon Governor Supports Legislative Legalization of Marijuana
For decades, the late Jack Herer pushed for the legalization of marijuana in his home state of Oregon. He preached the benefits of cannabis for years to anyone who would listen. He put his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes into the hands of hundreds of thousands. In 1986, at the height of drug war hysteria, he helped put the Oregon Marijuana Legalization for Personal Use Act on the ballot, only to be soundly defeated by an almost 3-to-1 margin.
We all wish Jack were alive today to read how nearly everyone in Oregon, from the Governor on down, is pressing for marijuana legalization by the end of this year.
Governor John Kitzhaber, a medical doctor, was the latest to jump on the legalization bandwagon, telling the state’s newspaper editors, “I hear the drumbeats from Washington and Colorado,” as he voiced support for a legislative act, rather than a citizen initiative, to legalize marijuana. “I want to make sure we have a thoughtful regulatory system,” Kitzhaber said. “The Legislature would be the right place to craft that.”
Those newspaper editors are also pressuring the legislature to act. The state’s largest newspaper, The Oregonian, has called on legislators to work with Anthony Johnson of New Approach Oregon to craft a legalization referral, lest Paul Stanford and the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp gets a more liberal legalization on the ballot as an initiative. “Lawmakers should remember that they’ll have to live with the results of the November 2014 election,” the editorial board wrote, “So why not refer a measure of their own to the November 2014 ballot?”
The Salem Statesman-Journal, home newspaper in the capital city, reported on Sen. Floyd Prozanski’s new bill that would ask the voters in November if marijuana should be legalized. If approved, the legislature would be tasked with creating marijuana regulations in their 2015 legislative session. The paper reports Gov. Kitzhaber saying that marijuana legalization “is probably inevitable, and I think we need to start thinking about how we are going to manage it.”
Even the legislators themselves see the inevitability of legalization. House Revenue Committee Chair Rep. Phil Barnhardt told The Oregonian last fall that legislators ought to write a legalization bill. “We have the best shot of actually getting it right as compared to somebody writing an initiative,” he said, “and if we don’t do this it’s very likely that there will be an initiative on the ballot.”
How lucky are we in the Beaver State to know that it’s not a matter of if or when legalization will happen, it’s which version of legalization will we have come November?
