Oregon Medical Marijuana Program - OCTA Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012

The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 is trying to break a record qualifying for the ballot by turning in enough signatures to qualify by September 2011 – less than three months away. This will ensure that we have plenty of time to organize campaign promotion and education to ensure voters pass the act in 2012.

In order to help YOU help US qualify, I will be traveling the state holding volunteer meetings in a few different areas. This is also a great opportunity to come and ask questions about the act, get advice on how to circulate the petition, drop off completed petitions, meet up with other volunteers to coordinate going out in teams, etc.

Monday, June 27 Portland, OR
OCTA 2012 Headquarters
2712 NE Sandy Blvd at 4 pm

Tuesday, June 28 Eugene, OR
Voter Power building
687 River Ave at 2pm

Wednesday, June 29 Grants Pass, OR
THCF Clinic
558 NE F St. Suite 1 at 11:30 am

Thursday, June 30 Bend, OR
(waiting for confirmation – but expecting to hold a meeting here at 11am – please email me to confirm the time and location)
Bend Community Center
1036 Northeast 5th Street

I will be traveling around these regions regularly, and scheduling volunteer training in each of these cities every 1-2 weeks.

If you are located in a different region of Oregon and would like to try to schedule a volunteer training event in your area, please let me know and we will try to accommodate.

Thanks for your hard work! Together, we can end the drug war in Oregon in 2012!

Jennifer Alexander
Campaign Manager
Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012
jen@cannabistaxact.org

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oregon: Advocates To Begin Gathering Signatures For OCTA 2012

By Paul Stanford, Chief Petitioner, OCTA 2012

Oregonians for the Cannabis Tax Act 2012 (OCTA 2012) will soon begin gathering the initial 1000 registered Oregon voters' signatures needed to sponsor the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 petition. After gathering these required first signatures, the Office of the Secretary of State will certify a ballot title with the Attorney General, proposing a statutory initiative for the General Election of November 1, 2012.

OCTA 2012 will set aside two percent of the profits from the sale of cannabis in adult-only stores for two new state committees that will promote Oregon industrial hemp biodiesel, fiber and food.

It will also legalize the sale, possession and personal private cultivation of marijuana. People who want to cultivate and sell marijuana, or process commercial psychoactive cannabis, would be required to obtain a license from the state. Adults could grow their own marijuana and the sale of all cannabis strains' seeds and starter plants would be legalized with no license, fee nor registration. The profits from the sale of cannabis to adults will add hundreds of millions of dollars into the state general fund, as well as drug treatment and education.

This versatile plant, cannabis, can be put to use as fuel, fiber, medicine, delicious and nutritious food and thousands of other products. It will resolve many needs and put Oregon on a path to lead the way toward economic and environmental sustainability. Legalizing hemp and cannabis will create tens of thousands of new jobs, revitalize our farming communities, boost tourism, and create millions of dollars in revenue for the state. If you don't know much about cannabis, we urge you to take the time to learn about the plant.

Please tell ten friends about OCTA 2012 and get involved! We will need 90,000 valid signatures by July, 2, 2012 to qualify for the November 2012 ballot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't use cannabis, so why should I care?

We know prohibition doesn't work. Public money is being spent on enforcing laws that do not reflect the times. Violent offenders are being released from prison early to make room for non-violent, cannabis-related offenses. Through enacting the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA), the state will generate reliable annual income for education, health care and public safety (just to name few benefits) for all Oregonians.

OCTA is not just about state-sanctioned cannabis use. 90% of the funds generated through the sale of cannabis will go to the general fund, and the other 10% will go to drug education and treatment programs and industrial hemp promotion. Hemp will revolutionize our agricultural industry, job market and economy, with seemingly infinite potential to generate additional revenue as Oregon's new cash crop.

How much reliable, annual income can Oregon expect?
According to conservative estimates, state revenue will increase by at least $30 million, while other estimates place the revenue increase upward of $300 million*. In addition, Oregon will save over $61.5 million** Oregon will save by no longer enforcing out-of-date cannabis laws.

If cannabis use is a matter of personal freedom, why allow government regulation?
An estimated 300,000 cannabis users reside in Oregon, in addition to the 23,000 registered medical marijuana cardholders***. In other words, 1/10 of Oregonians use cannabis that currently is controlled by the black market. OCTA will take the control out of the hands of the drug lords and into the hands of the people.

In addition, OCTA brings about government regulation regarding the sale and distribution of cannabis, not the growth and consumption. The law extends personal freedoms by giving people the choice to grow their own cannabis, as well as choosing who and where they purchase it.

What about children?
OCTA stipulates that cannabis is only availabe to adults 21 years of age and older in state-sanctioned retail outlets. This will reduce the availability on cannabis of the streets and, therefore, to minors. A percentage of the revenue generated by OCTA goes to drug education programs in high schools, promoting responsible usage among legal adults.

* Estimates based upon revenue generated in California since the enactment of its Compassionate Use Act of 1996.
** Estimates based upon annual state law enforcement expenditures.
***Numbers taken from the 2000 United States Census.

Regulate
Currently, the black market controls cannabis growth, sale and distribution, meaning anyone of any age can buy or sell it. Regulations puts Oregonians in control.

According to in-school survey data from 2007, 37.4% of eighth-graders, 69% of tenth-graders, and 83.9% of twelfth-graders report that cannabis is "easy to get." The regulation of the sale and distribution of cannabis will dramatically reduce those numbers.

According to the Oregon Healthy Teen Survey of 2007, cannabis use among Oregon teens has dropped 1/3 since the enactment of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act of 1998, showing that regulations works.

Reform
Oregonians value personal freedom AND direct democracy. Hence, Oregon was the first state to consider, and subsequently pass, a Death with Dignity law. now, Oregon will be the first state to consider updating cannabis use laws to reflect the times.

Oregon spends $61.5 million on enforcing out-of-date cannabis laws, diverting policy energy away from violent and often repeat offenders.

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 for Policy on Illegal Drug in 2008 all conclude that cannabis is NOT a gateway drug: Of the 114,275,000 nationally reported cannabis users, only 2,685,000 (2%) went on to use cocaine and only 153000 (0.1%) went on to use heroin.

Revenue
Oregon's General Fund will receive between $30 million and $300 million annually, paying for education, health care, public safety and other publicly funded programs.

Industrial hemp has the power to revolutionize Oregon's ecology and economy through re-opening paper mills to produce hemp paper, creating clean fuel sources with hemp biodiesel and providing additional food sources with ground hemp protein. A 2000 report by the U.S. 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 during the past eleven years.

Oregon has a rich history of taxing vices: alcohol, gambling and tobacco. It's time that Oregon stopped enforcing out-of-date prohibition-style laws regarding cannabis and tap into the ecological and economical possibilities of cannabis and hemp.

OCTA

Oregon: Advocates To Begin Gathering Signatures For OCTA 2012

All rights reserved. Web Hosting by Yahoo!

All rights reserved.
Web Hosting by Yahoo!