politics

Advocates Say Legal Marijuana Is About Justice

By Conrad Wilson (OPB)
June 30, 2015 11:35 p.m.

Oregon will be the fourth state in the country to allow recreational marijuana, after Washington, Colorado and Alaska.

Though some have taken to planning parties as the law takes effect Wednesday, other backers of legalization said Tuesday that Measure 91 is about criminal justice reform.

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“Legalization of marijuana in Oregon is in fact about justice,” said David Rogers, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon. “The war on marijuana has been carried out with staggering racial bias across the country and the same is true here in Oregon.”

Rogers, speaking at a press conference on the looming legalization, said blacks and whites use marijuana at about the same rates.

“But blacks are more than twice as likely in Oregon to be cited or arrested for marijuana than are whites,” he said.

Oregon Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer has long advocated for the federal government to regulate marijuana like alcohol. And he said Oregon could be a model for those changes.

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“We’re in the midst of a dramatic change all across the country,” he said. “New states will be voting on (marijuana). The federal government, over the next five years, will be modernizing based on what you’ve seen.”

In Oregon, adults 21 years and older will be allowed to use and possess pot. But buying it will be tricky because a functional retail market is still months away. Lawmakers are still in the process of deciding on when exactly that market could open, and how much to tax marijuana.

As the law stands Wednesday, Oregonians will be allowed to carry up to an ounce of marijuana in public, but can have more at home — a lot more: up to 8 ounces of dried marijuana, four plants, 72 ounces of liquid products or 16 ounces of edibles.

Members of the cannabis industry will be keeping a close eye on federal law, even as the Oregon market opens. They say they've been treated unfairly because even in states where some form of marijuana is legal, they cannot access banking services. They also want a change in federal law to allow tax exemptions for businesses selling pot.

“Both those concepts have broad, bipartisan support, and we’re confident that things can happen in this Congress to make a difference,” Blumenauer said. “We’ve got this crazy patchwork at the federal level, leftover vestiges of a failed policy of prohibition that simply doesn’t work.”

Advocates of Oregon’s new law claim it will also allow police to put resources where they’re needed.

Leah Mauer, founder of Moms for Yes on 91, said right now adults across the state are being arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

“Under Measure 91, all those law enforcement resources will be freed up to focus on violent crimes and issues that I feel far more strongly about as a parent.”

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