Focus on Real Crime

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Proponents of The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act say police should focus their limited priorities on real crime, not marijuana users. Do you agree or disagree?

Total Agree 56%
Total Disagree 35%
Undecided 10%

Fund Vital Programs

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Proponents of The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act say we need to fund vital state programs without raising taxes on families. Do you agree or disagree?

Total Agree 55%
Total Disagree 30%
Undecided 15%

Industrial Hemp

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The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act would enable Oregon farmers to grow hemp for manufacturing purposes. Does this information make you more or less likely to support the OCTA?

Total More Likely 56%
Total Less Likely 17%
No Difference 27%

No Sale to Minors

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A Provision of The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act bans possession, sale to and consumption by minors under 21 years old. Do you support or oppose this provision?

Total Support 58%
Total Oppose 22%
Undecided 20%

Take Out of Criminal Hands

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Prohibition creates an unregulated, criminal market for marijuana where drug dealers routinely sell to kids. Regulating cannabis will take marijuana out of the hands of criminals and put it where it belongs.

Total Agree 60%
Total Disagree 34%
Undecided 5%

Talk About the Profits

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Do you support or oppose the way The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act allocates the profits from the sale of marijuana?

Total Support 54%
Total Oppose 29%
Undecided 17%

Annual Marijuana Arrests in the United States 1965-2009

Marijuana Prosecutions For Year 2009 Near Record High -- Pot Arrests Now Comprise More Than One-Half Of All Drug Arrests Nationwide

Marijuana Arrests For Year 2009: 858,408


Source: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=8342

OCTA Talking Points

Reform

Oregon has a rich history of protecting personal freedoms and implementing forward thinking policy. Reformation of our current cannabis laws is in line with Oregon sensibilities.

According to a June 2005 Harvard study by Jeffrey Miron, Oregon spends $61.5 million annually on enforcing current, out-of-date cannabis laws, diverting police energy away from violent and often repeat offenders. Reform will prioritize resources more appropriately.

Surveys conducted by the RAND Corps Public Safety and Justice in 2002, the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2006 and the National Research Council Committee for Data and Research Policy on Illegal Drug in 2008 all conclude that cannabis is NOT a gateway drug. Of the 113,275,000 nationally reported cannabis users, only 2,685,000 (2 percent) went on to use cocaine and only 153,000 (0.1 percent) went on to use heroine.

Revenue

An estimated $300 million will be generated annually for Oregon General Fund, helping to pay for education, health care, and other state services. This revenue is gained by taxing commercial cannabis sales and deregulating the hemp industry.

Industrial hemp has the power to revolutionize Oregon’s ecology and economy. Bio-diesel, paper/plastic products and food are just a few commodities that come from hemp. A 2000 report by the US Department of Agriculture states that Americans purchased 35,000 pounds of Canadian hemp in 1999, and that number has certainly grown with hemp’s popularity over the past eleven years.

This initiative will create jobs and sustainable industry. It’s time for Oregon to stop enforcing out-of-date prohibition-style laws and tap into the ecological and economical possibilities of cannabis and hemp.

Regulate

Currently, an unregulated market controls all aspects of the cannabis industry, which means anyone of any age can buy or sell it. Regulation puts Oregonians in control.

Current medical marijuana and DUII laws will still remain intact and irresponsible cannabis users will face serious consequences. By regulating the commercial market Oregon will thrive.

In-school survey data from 2007 reveals that 37.4 percent of eighth graders, 69 percent of tenth graders and 83.9 percent of twelfth graders report that cannabis is “easy to get.” Regulating the sale and distribution of cannabis will dramatically reduce those numbers.

Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States

Milton Friedman, 500+ Economists Call for Marijuana Regulation Debate; New Report Projects $10-14 Billion Annual Savings and Revenues

Replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation similar to that used for alcoholic beverages would produce combined savings and tax revenues of between $10 billion and $14 billion per year, finds a June 2005 report by Dr. Jeffrey Miron, visiting professor of economics at Harvard University.

The report has been endorsed by more than 530 distinguished economists, who have signed an open letter to President Bush and other public officials calling for "an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition," adding, "We believe such a debate will favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods."

Chief among the endorsing economists are three Nobel Laureates in economics: Dr. Milton Friedman of the Hoover Institute, Dr. George Akerlof of the University of California at Berkeley, and Dr. Vernon Smith of George Mason University.


Read the full report, see the open letter, or view the entire list of endorsing economists: http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/

History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States

A Speech to the California Judges Association 1995 annual conference

by Charles Whitebread, Professor of Law, USC Law School

Introduction

This session is going to be about the history of the non-medical use of drugs. Let me say that, because this is going to be a story, that I think it will interest you quite a bit. The topic is the history of the non-medical use of drugs and I think you ought to know what my credentials are for talking about this topic. As you may know, before I taught at the University of Southern California, I taught at the University of Virginia for fifteen years, from 1968 to 1981. In that time period, the very first major piece that I wrote was a piece entitled, "The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge - The Legal History of Marihuana in the United States". I wrote it with Professor Richard Bonnie, still of the faculty of the University of Virginia. It was published in the Virginia Law Review in October of 1970 and I must say that our piece was the Virginia Law Review in October of 1970. The piece was 450 pages long. It got a ton of national attention because no one had ever done the legal history of marijuana before. As a result of that, Professor Bonnie was named the Deputy Director of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse and I was a consultant to that commission.


View the entire speech or check out links to related documents: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/whiteb1.htm