Congressman Blumenauer: Oregon Could "Break the Dam" on Marijuana Prohibition

[RainDog]

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/05/marijuana_legalization_in_oreg_1.html

(Democratic) Congressman Earl Blumenauer said Oregon could be the "explosion that breaks the dam" in allowing states to handle marijuana legalization during a speech at Saturday's Global Cannabis March in downtown Portland.

The veteran legislator was the keynote speaker at the rally, which comes amid several initiatives to get marijuana legalization measures on the November 2014 ballot. His brief remarks drew cheers and the ringing of a tambourine at a rally that saw several hundred people march and listen to speakers through intermittent rain.

Blumenauer called on government to "reappraise what can be only described as a failed war on drugs." The current U.S. approach to marijuana legalization is an "upside down world," he added.

Oregon should be at the forefront of making the call on legalization, Blumenauer said. He joked that Alaska, which will vote on legalization there in November, won't necessarily lead the way for other states: "I don't think the land of the midnight sun and Sarah Palin" is up to that, he said.

http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/10/with_national_backing_marijuan.html

With national backing, marijuana advocates file legalization measure

New Approach Oregon said it will first push for legislators to refer their new measure to the November, 2014 ballot. If that doesn't work, the measure's chief petitioner, Anthony Johnson, said his group will have the resources to collect the 87,213 signatures needed to put the initiative before voters.

Washington and Colorado in 2012 became the first states to legalize the drug for recreational purposes. At the same time, Oregon voters rejected a legalization measure that was much looser. It would have, for example, allowed drinking-age adults to possess unlimited amounts of marijuana and an industry-dominated board would have regulated sales.

New Approach Oregon's measure would allow 21-and-over adults to possess up to eight ounces of dried marijuana and four plants. In addition, sales of the drug would be regulated by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

It's your time to shine, Oregon!

We the people can put an end to prohibition.

[hobbit709]

1. Unfortunately TX will be one of the last 5.

[KatyMan]

2. well at least Govenor Goodhair

has made some noise about being in support of decriminalization...it's a start at least. Not soon enough tho!

[hobbit709]

3. Icky Ricky is coming in behind "None of the above" even in TX polls.

[RainDog]

4. I know, at one point

some Republicans in the Texas legislature discussed medical marijuana for PTSD for vets - but I suppose the Landover Baptist faction has much more power in the party.

But, even in 2011, editorials like this one were showing up in Houston:

Dr. Kenneth Hendrickson: Legalizing Marijuana May Be For the Best

http://www.houstonianonline.com/viewpoints/legalizing-marijuana-may-be-for-the-best-1.2628535#.TuXDZUqXNW5

I don't use cannabis. I did during college, but it has been over 20 years since my last toke and I have no plans to return. I have familial and contractual obligations that make breaking the law with cannabis out of the question for me.

That being said, I understand that cannabis is a permanent part of our society. I have also come to believe that our current cannabis laws and policies do not achieve reasonable public health goals, are cost inefficient, are corrosive to the Constitution, and have contributed to the destabilization of governments around the world and communities throughout the United States.

...I do not support drug abuse. In reforming drug laws including the legalization of marijuana, I believe we can achieve better public health and public security results than we do now. My goals are the same as most people: reduction in health hazards associated with drug use including marijuana; special focus on keeping young people and children from beginning drug habits; reduction in drug related crimes; stabilization of neighbors like Mexico by reducing and eventually eliminating the power of organized crime.

I also wish to strengthen our Constitutional liberties and work for a more efficient government here at home. These goals can be better achieved not with heavy handed prohibitionist policies, but with a blended mix of law enforcement, public education, treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts, and in some instances like marijuana legalization.

[Dustlawyer]

18. I agree! I suffer from Small Fiber Sensory Neuropathy, a chronic disease

that is extremely painful but responds well to marihuana. They have me taking 3 very powerful and expensive drugs with terrible side effects. I can only hope that we can turn this state blue soon so we can start some much needed common sense reforms!

[RainDog]

21. That's what is so crazy about current law

It is OBVIOUS marijuana has medical use - and has been used to help people with a variety of issues in this nation for decades.

The intransigence from the DEA and Congress just makes them look like idiots - or else entirely corrupt and willing to put law abiding people in jail, confiscate their assets, use those citizens to fund LEOs whose arrests are overwhelmingly for possession - it's disgusting and creates disdain for the law - as it should.

They have lost the support of the American people - their disregard for the will of the voter makes them petty dictators.

[Eleanors38]

5. Poll released today on FLA med marijuana ballot measure:

88% favor legalization of pot for medical use with doc's prescription. Survey indicated 53% of respondents favored legalization for recreation use (not yet on ballot).

That's the damn ready to burst.

www.sunshinestatenews. My device won't link.

[RainDog]

6. here ya go

I'll cross post in the drug policy forum. Thanks for the heads up!

http://www.postonpolitics.com/2014/05/medical-marijuana-gets-88-support-in-new-florida-poll-53-back-personal-use-of-pot/

Medical marijuana gets 88% support in new Florida poll; 53% back ‘personal use’ of pot

Nearly 9 out of 10 Florida voters say adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor prescribes it, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

An amendment to the Florida constitution to legalize medical marijuana goes before voters in November and needs 60 percent support to pass. The Quinnipiac poll didn’t specifically ask about the ballot question, but found 88 percent support for permitting medical marijuana. That’s up from 82 percent support in November.

The same poll found 53 percent support for “allowing adults in Florida to legally possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” with 42 percent opposed. Voters were more evenly divided in November, with 48 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed.

Asked if they’ve ever tried marijuana, 45 percent of Florida voters say they have and 54 percent say they have not. The age group with the highest percentage of reported marijuana use was 50-to-64-year-olds, with 62 percent saying they have tried pot.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Wow, put THIS in your bong and toke it:

"The age group with the highest percentage of reported marijuana use was 50-to-64-year-olds, with 62 percent saying they have tried pot."

Actually, I'd guess that the 65+ age group has something of a J-shaped curve (a backward-J, that is), with a decreasing frequency from 65 to 99 or whatever. If you were 20 in the Summer of Love (1966), you're about 68 now. People who were 40 then are 88 now, and much less likely to have done the weed deed in their lifetimes.

[RainDog]

10. recreational mj use peaked in the mid to late 70s

Marijuana use among high school seniors peaked in 1979. At that point, nearly 60% of high school seniors had tried mj at least once. Once the tail end of the baby boomers started to settle down, btw, mj usage rates fell as well...or, after Carter, with Reagan's War on Drugs, fewer were willing to admit to it. But, according to the MPP, the highest rates of mj usage before age 21 is for those who were born between 1961-1965... however, the figures are really close, for that sort of usage, for those born between 1956-1970. Those born between 1966-1970 showed 51.4% who tried marijuana before age 21- and that was the lowest figure between the three age groups.



During the "Summer of Love" years - far fewer teens used mj than after, tho, as the report below indicates, by 1970, 43% of college students had ever tried - while only 28% were regular users.

iow, most people did not attend Woodstock (contrary to what they may now say, lol) while those who listened to the Woodstock album in high school were more likely to have been stoned while doing so...

The earliest survey data on marijuana use in the U.S. was obtained through a Gallup Poll in the spring of 1967. The nationally-based telephone poll of college students found a 5% lifetime prevalence of marijuana use. Two years later, this proportion jumped to 22%. A Gallup Poll of the adult population in the summer of 1969 found a 4% lifetime prevalence, with 12% of those in the 21-29 year old age group, 3% in the 30-49 year old group and only 1% of those aged 50 and over reporting ever trying marijuana. In the fall of 1970, another Gallup Poll of college students found 43% reported trying marijuana, with 39% reporting use in the past year and 28% reporting use in the past 30 days. By 1971, over half (51%) of the nation's college students reported lifetime use, and annual and thirty day prevalence rates stood at 41% and 30% respectively. These Gallup telephone polls document the explosion in marijuana use among college students during the late 1960s, with a leveling occurring in the early 1970s, such that by 1971, over half of the nation's college students had at least tried marijuana. It is commonly hypothesized that marijuana use first burgeoned among college students, and then spread to younger ages. A national survey of males in their finalyear of high school (aged 17-18 years) in 1969 found a 22% lifetime prevalence of use.

In 1970-1971, the New York Narcotic Addiction Control Commission conducted a major general population survey of New York State (Chambers and Inciardi, 1971). The research study used state-of-the-art techniques and, to that time, gave one of the best assessments (albeit limited to New York State) of the nature and extent of drug use. The study found that 12.3% of the New York State population had ever used marijuana. They further found that regular users (defined as at least 6 times per month) made up 3.5% (487,000 individuals) of the State's population. Of these regular users, over 70% were under the age of 25 and nearly half defined themselves as students at the high school or college levels.

[Eleanors38]

16. Thanks for getting the link up.

[RainDog]

20. my pleasure! n/t

[Blanks]

8. Once they start throwing these 'domestic terrorist' militia types...

Into prisons for tax evasion, terroristic threats and carrying a firearm without a license etc.

We will need to let the folks out who have some piddly marijuana charge. That'll shake up alliances between the private prison industry and the pro-second amendment crowd.

We definitely need to free up some space for these guys in Nevada.

[RainDog]

13. I hope militia types stay away from mj

They would seem to be the sort that would develop paranoia - on top of their paranoia - so it would be sort of like paranoia cake with paranoia icing on top...overkill.

But yes, it's INCREDIBLE these guys can aim guns at federal agents while the reality is that:

Study: 1 in 3 American Youth Are Arrested By Age 23

By age 23, at least a quarter of all youth in the U.S. — and perhaps as many as 41% — are arrested at least once for something more serious than a traffic violation, according to a new study of American teens.

Researchers have not completed an analysis of the data by race, but prior studies suggest that minorities are arrested more frequently than whites. Previous research finds, for example, that black youth are arrested at double the rate of white youth for drug crimes, even though a larger proportion of white youth actually use and sell drugs.

Although it may seem shocking that at least one-third of U.S. youth has an arrest record, those who study juvenile crime don’t find the figure to be out of line. Since the 1970s, America has become much tougher on crime, lengthening sentences, increasing the police force and quintupling the number of people incarcerated. During that time, the number of Americans in prison has gone from half a million to 2.3 million, with approximately 93,000 incarcerated youth. Given the changes in the criminal justice system, some increase in youth arrests was to be expected.

Although the literature is mixed, several previous studies indicate that kids who are incarcerated do significantly worse later on, compared with those who are given alternative sentences that allow them to remain in their communities. One study, for example, compared children who committed the same crimes but wound up with harsh or lenient sentences: those who were sentenced to juvenile detention were three times more likely to be re-incarcerated as adults, compared with those whose judges gave them lighter, alternative sentences


http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/19/study-1-in-3-american-youth-are-arrested-by-age-23/#ixzz1h5ABwEvo

Raw Story's Headline Put the Blame on Harsher Drug Laws

Tougher drug laws mean nearly 1/3 arrested by age 23
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/19/tougher-drug-laws-mean-nearly-13-arrested-by-age-23/

A study analyzing data from the federal government’s National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that 30.2 percent of 23-year-olds reported being arrested for something more serious that a traffic violation.

It’s the first time since the 1960s that researchers have tried to determine how often young people are arrested. A similar study in 1965 found that only 22 percent reported being arrested by age 23.

“I was astonished 44 years ago,” Carnegie Mellon University professor Alfred Blumstein told USA Today. “There’s a lot more arresting going on now.”

Researchers believe that a toughening of drug laws and the increased size of police forces contribute to the the increase. Five times more Americans are incarcerated now than in the 1960s.

from Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/06/rep-steve-cohen-the-war-on-drugs-has-been-a-terrible-mistake/

Democratic Rep. Cohen (TN) said: "Marijuana use has not skyrocketed in the last year (2011), but arrests are vamped up and they use arrest as a basis to get people, particularly people of color where it’s 7 times more likely you’ll be arrested if you’re African American and 4 times more likely you’ll be arrested if you’re Latino and more likely if you’re African American or Latino that you’ll spend a night in jail than if you’re Caucasian,” he noted.

[Lizzie Poppet]

9. We'd have probably legalized recreational use here in Oregon in 2012...

...if not for the fact that the proposal was a complete mess, with several really bad provisions. I'm a staunch legalization advocate...and I voted against it. Get the bill right, and full legalization is a slam dunk here in Oregon.

Besides, it's embarrassing to get beaten to the punch by Washington. Colorado, we're cool with...the noisy neighbors up north are another mater!

[snort]

12. It will be almost impossible to enforce

considering Vancouver and Portland are joined at the hip. I know I will be driving 10 minutes north on a regular basis.

[RainDog]

14. I hope they got it right this time! n/t

[ProSense]

11. Kick! n/t

[RainDog]

15. evening kick n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

17. Didn't Colorado already do that? Everyone I know there is growing their own.

[RainDog]

19. Congress will not address the Polis and Blumenauer bills

to remove cannabis from the drug schedule, put it under the oversight of the ATF, regulate it like alcohol, and allow the states to determine its legal status rather than the federal govt.

Two states (CO & WA) are now in conflict with federal law. The more states that legalize, the more pressure upon Congress to address this issue.

So Blumenauer was talking about this situation - we need to have an overwhelming number of states that will vote to change their laws to force Congress to stop treating marijuana like heroin.

Alaska will likely vote to legalize in November - hopefully Oregon, too.

This is the way alcohol prohibition was overturned - states changed their laws first.