BY SARAH ROSS
PORTLAND- The campaign for Measure 74 announced Wednesday that they have received support for their cause from the Democratic Party of Oregon.
Co-Author and Co-Chief Petitioner Anthony Johnson said he expects this endorsement to help his campaign by getting the word out to voters that the measure is on the ballot and that it “further legitimizes medical marijuana as medicine.”
Bruce McCain, although not calling himself a voice against Measure 74, suggested that the measure could be seen as “political cover” for legislation that would further regulate and decriminalize marijuana. McCain, an attorney, is also a retired Captain from the Multnomah County Sherriff’s Office.
“I’m just trying to give an objective analysis of what 74 is going to do, and 74 is simply the next step to Prop 19,” said McCain, citing the California proposal to legalize and regulate marijuana use.
Johnson called the measure “stand alone,” saying it should be debated on its individual merits.
“This is simply a medical marijuana provision to help low-income patients get access to medical marijuana, as opposed to any legalization measure or marijuana measure,” he said, denying that it could be a gateway into legalization of the substance.
The measure would allow for the licensing and regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries. It would designate the newly created Oregon Health Authority as the regulatory body overseeing the dispensaries and their producers, Johnson said.
He added that dispensaries and producers would be required to pay regulation fees to the state to fund health programs and medical research studies.
The dispensaries would be set up by non-profit organizations, be required to have a security plan, and could not be within a thousand feet of a school or in a residential area.
McCain, however, questioned the medicinal value of the marijuana plant, saying that the Federal Drug Administration has not yet approved the drug for medicinal purposes, which would allow it to be dispensed at regulated pharmacies.
“There’s a reason for that, and that reason is that the federal government hasn’t agreed to that premise,” said McCain.
Still, McCain stated that if marijuana is found to have medicinal value then it should be used, but the FDA has not yet taken the step in agreeing to that.
Johnson noted that the measure would add a “regulated supply system” to help medical marijuana patients in the state to have a safe supply of medicine, as opposed to growing their own or “risk[ing] their well-being on the black market.”
“First and foremost, it allows compassionate, safe access for Oregon medical marijuana patients,” stated Johnson.
Johnson also added that not only will the revenue generated for the state fund medical research and Oregon health programs, but also that the measure will create “thousands of jobs.”
Measure 74 has received support from a majority of the Citizen’s Initiative Review panelists. Searches for an organized opposition to the measure came up dry, yet two committees are registered through the Secretary of State’s office as supporting it.
Partnership for a Drug Free America
Sources of Funding from 1988-91
Extracted from Federal Tax Returns
(figures are approximate)
Pharmaceutical Firms
J. Seward Johnson, Sr. Charitable Trusts — $1.1 million
Du Pont — 125,000
Proctor and Gamble Fund — 120,000
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation — 115,000
Johnson & Johnson — 100,000
Merck Foundation — 85,000
Hoffman-LaRoche — 75,000
Tobacco and Liquor Firms
Phillip Morris — 125,000
Anheuser-Busch — 100,000
RJ Reynolds — 100,000
American Brands — 100,000
Prohibition is a sickening horror and the ocean of hypocrisy, incompetence, corruption and human wreckage it has left in its wake is almost endless.
Prohibition has decimated generations and criminalized millions for a behavior which is entwined in human existence, and for what other purpose than to uphold the defunct and corrupt thinking of a minority of misguided, self-righteous Neo-Puritans and degenerate demagogues who wish nothing but unadulterated destruction on the rest of us.
Based on the unalterable proviso that drug use is essentially an unstoppable and ongoing human behavior which has been with us since the dawn of time, any serious reading on the subject of past attempts at any form of drug prohibition would point most normal thinking people in the direction of sensible regulation.
By its very nature, prohibition cannot fail but create a vast increase in criminal activity, and rather than preventing society from descending into anarchy, it actually fosters an anarchic business model - the international Drug Trade. Any decisions concerning quality, quantity, distribution and availability are then left in the hands of unregulated, anonymous and ruthless drug dealers, who are interested only in the huge profits involved. Thus the allure of this reliable and lucrative industry with it’s enormous income potential that consistently outweighs the risks associated with the illegal operations that such a trade entails, will remain with us until we are collectively forced to admit the obvious.
There is therefore an irrefutable connection between drug prohibition and the crime, corruption, disease and death it causes. Anybody ‘halfway bright’, and who’s not psychologically challenged, should be capable of understanding that it is not simply the demand for drugs that creates the mayhem, it is our refusal to allow legal businesses to meet that demand. If you are not capable of understanding this connection then maybe you’re using something far stronger than the rest of us. So put away your pipe, lock yourself away in a small room with some tinned soup and water, and try to crawl back into reality A.S.A.P.
Because Drug cartels will always have an endless supply of ready cash for wages, bribery and equipment, no amount of tax money, police powers, weaponry, wishful thinking or pseudo-science will make our streets safe again. Only an end to prohibition can do that! How much longer are you willing to foolishly risk your own survival by continuing to ignore the obvious, historically confirmed solution?
If you support the Kool-Aid mass suicide cult of prohibition, and erroneously believe that you can win a war without logic and practical solutions, then prepare yourself for even more death, tortured corpses, corruption, terrorism, sickness, imprisonment, economic tribulation, unemployment and the complete loss of the rule of law.
“A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”
Abraham Lincoln
The only thing prohibition successfully does is prohibit regulation & taxation while turning even our schools and prisons into black markets for drugs. Regulation would mean the opposite!
Jesus said to treat other people the way we would want to be treated. I know I wouldn’t want my college kid to go to jail with the sexual predators, or my parents to have their house stolen by the police, if they used a little marijuana.
Let’s change the world. Let’s get registered and vote.
Citizens and college students in Oregon can register at
oregonvotes.org/votreg/vreg.htm
In California, register at
w w w . sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm .
(just fill out the form and mail it in).
And you can request a ballot by mail at
w w w . sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_m.htm .
In other states, Google your state name and the phrase, voter registration. Print off the form and mail it in (or drive it down to City Hall).
Five minutes. Register to vote. Change the world. Right now.
Pass it on
Signs of intelligence in the Democratic party… interesting.
VOTE YES ON MEASURE 74
Memo to Bruce McCain: The FDA approving something means very little in 2010.
This is, after all, the FDA that stamped oxycontin, vicodin and other synthetic heroin, along with a whole lot of amphetamines, as A-OK for prescription (and rampant over-prescription, I might add).
If Bruce McCain wants to say that cannabis is less valid for medicinal purposes than those, then I have an I-5 bridge to sell him.
“I’m just trying to give an objective analysis of what 74 is going to do, and 74 is simply the next step to Prop 19,” said McCain, citing the California proposal to legalize and regulate marijuana use.”
Yep continuing statism and destruction of individual liberties.
Medical MJ is great but we need to look at the bigger issue. We need to END prohibition!
McCain please look up patent number6630507 and who holds it. Prohibitionists need to check their facts! Cannabis cures cancer and the government knows it since 1974! Do your research please. Please vote yes on measure 74!
What a clown. McCain, if your looking for facts from gov’t, you ain’t getting it. They don’t have it. They’ve been perpetrating a blantant fraud on our nation for 73 years now. How ’bout doing some research, ok? You just might learn something. There is 10,000 years of written medical information. It was prescribed by U.S. doctors from 1850 to 1937. It was in 27 different concoctions being prescribed by our doctors. All studies has already determined, medically its much, much, safer than alcohol or tobacco, including aspirin, tylenol, etc. Cannabis, not the mexican slang, marijuana, won’t kill while aspirin, tylenol can. And lastly, it kill cancers, all types of cancer. How ’bout just google medical cannabis and cancer, ok?