Oregon lawmakers consider legalizing & taxing marijuana

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url: hMPp://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/03/oregon_lawmakers_consider_lega.html


Oregon lawmakers consider legalizing, taxing marijuana as pot advocates ponder 2014 ballot initiative

SALEM -- State lawmakers scrounging for money for schools, mental health and public safety could find the solution to their funding woes to be green.

No, not more cold, hard cash, but pot. Legalize it and tax it. That's the plan under House Bill 3371, which is scheduled for an April 2 public hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill would allow the production, processing and sale of marijuana and marijuana-infused products. Individuals 21 or older would be allowed to keep up to six mature marijuana plants and 24 ounces of marijuana at a time, the same amounts allowed under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.
Under the bill, the Oregon Health Authority would be charged with licensing marijuana producers, processors, wholesalers and retailers.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission would oversee taxation of marijuana, according to the bill. Marijuana producers would be taxed $35 per ounce. The money would go to a "Cannabis Tax Account," with 40 percent of proceeds going to schools and 20 percent each to Oregon State Police, the general fund, and services for mental health, alcoholism and drugs.

The bill would go into effect July 1, 2014.

Washington and Colorado already allow the legal use of marijuana. It remains illegal under federal law.

"Soon, we may have our neighbor to the north collecting tax revenue from Oregon residents, when Oregon should be collecting that revenue," said Anthony Johnson, director of New Approach Oregon, a new political action committee formed by a coalition of groups seeking legalization of marijuana and hemp in Oregon. "Marijuana is safer than alcohol, and it makes sense to regulate it like alcohol."

Johnson said the coalition includes Madeline Martinez of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Paul Stanford, the man behind November's unsuccessful Measure 80, which would have legalized marijuana in the state.

If the bill doesn't pass this year, Johnson said the coalition would seek to place an initiative on the November 2014 ballot.

"We believe that with changing demographics, the fact that Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana, the fact that gay marriage might be on the ballot, that 2014 might be a possible venue to legalize marijuana at the ballot box," he said.

Another pro-legalization group, the Marijuana Policy Project, is prepared to place an initiative legalizing pot on the 2016 ballot, said Roy Kaufmann, the group's Oregon representative.

House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said she is interested in exploring the possibilities the bill offers but wondered aloud whether it's too "complex" to get through this Legislature.

"Maybe it's something we start this session" but finish in 2014, she said.

"That's a pretty big lift for us. I don't think we could get it done this session."

It's unclear which lawmaker introduced the bill. It was introduced as a House Revenue Committee bill, but the committee chairman, Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene, said he doesn't know which legislator was behind it.
Nevertheless, he said he thinks the Legislature should look at it.

It has become "quite obvious" that the status quo of prohibiting marijuana "is about to change, whether we like it or not," he said.

"We'd better make sure the system we have in place is protecting kids and is built in such a way that you have regulatory capacity," he said. "If we can manage it, I'd like some tax revenue out of it."

The bill says it is intended to direct the state's limited law enforcement resources more constructively and to eliminate the problems caused by the prohibition and uncontrolled manufacture, delivery and possession of marijuana.

Many law enforcement officials oppose legalization.

"Oregon sheriffs are opposed to the measure and will be active in the legislative process opposing it," said Holly Russell, executive director of the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association, who declined further comment.
House Bill 3371 would not prevent employers from prohibiting the manufacture, delivery, possession or use of marijuana in the workplace.

It would allow the Oregon Department of Agriculture to issue industrial hemp licenses and agricultural hemp seed production permits.
Hemp is a non-narcotic cousin of marijuana. The United States is the world's largest consumer of hemp, which is used in a wide variety of products. But it remains the only major industrialized country that bans farming the product.

In Congress, Oregon's two Democratic senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, are pushing a bill that would remove federal restrictions on the domestic cultivation of industrial hemp.


 

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