Election 2014: Oregon Ballot Measure 91

For me, Measure 91, which would legalize possession, manufacture, and sale of moderate amounts of marijuana for recreational use in Oregon, is not as easy a call as 92 . . . or as it would have been ten or twenty years ago.

I’m no great fan of marijuana. I was exposed to it fairly early, as a high school freshman or sophomore. Basically, I succumbed to the blandishments of a couple of older girls when we were away from school and home at a speech tournament (on the streets of the state capital, Salem, I believe). In the 40 years since, the number of times I’ve smoked pot could be counted on the fingers of my two hands.

Just like the first time, partaking -- whether it was with a friend, smoking dope supplied by U.S. Marines in Mauretania; at the foot of the Jerry Garcia statue at McMenamins Edgefield with some other longtime Gentle Giant fans; or most recently, before attending a Laurie Anderson concert -- had more to do with enjoying the company I was with than any interest in getting high.

As a former long distance runner, I just don’t like putting foreign substances in my lungs.

At the same time, I was always in favor of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for the usual reasons:

• It appears to be much less harmful than tobacco smoking or alcohol abuse
• Prosecution and imprisonment of casual users and even many growers amounted to overkill and a dreadful waste of public resources
• Legalizing marijuana would not only reduce the direct “crimes” of possession, use, and sales, but largely get organized crime out of the pot business because much of the customer demand would shift to legitimate businesses
• Tax revenues brought in by legalized farming and sale would help pay for law enforcement and drug and alcohol abuse treatment

None of that’s changed. As with abortion in past decades, and same-sex marriage now, public attitudes have shifted instead.

A combination of weariness with needless prosecutions (and persecution), the aging of generations who had either direct experience with pot or decades to observe its relative harmlessness -- at least in comparison to tobacco and alcohol -- have led to a sea-change in the electorate.

Law enforcement officials, from police officers and sheriff’s deputies to district attorneys and judges, have seen firsthand how poorly enforcement of anti-pot laws works, and too often destroys the lives of otherwise law-abiding and productive citizens. A fair number of law enforcement officials publicly support legalization or decriminalization. Crime appears to be down in Colorado over the nine months since that state legalized recreational marijuana use.

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who was my representative in Washington for a while until either our 2005 move across town or redistricting took us out of his region, has long advocated legalization. And our junior U.S. senator, Jeff Merkley, said just last week that he’ll vote yes on Measure 91.

And me? I will vote yes as well . . . but with less enthusiasm than I would have in the past. I don’t know why, exactly.

Perhaps I’m fed up with public smoking of any substances whatsoever. I smell marijuana in my neighborhood less often than cigarettes, but I do smell it, and I’m tired of both. I’m tired of smokers of both kinds littering our streets and parks.

(Personally, I’m so disgusted with smoking that I wouldn’t mind if tobacco were banned outright. And if someone were seriously to advocate that alcohol is also such a public health threat -- after all, many lives could be saved, domestic violence would be substantially reduced -- I could live with prohibition of alcohol, and willingly if grudgingly give up the beer, wine, and bourbon in my fridge . . . but that’s a topic for another blog.)

I’m tired of drug dealers hanging out in the South Park Blocks three blocks from where I write this. I have to walk through and past them not only on my own business but every time I lead a bunch of visitors on a Portland Walking Tour. That always makes a great impression.

Maybe fewer teens will try marijuana because it’ll stop being so dangerously cool; maybe street people will find it harder to get their hands on it because legitimate businesses will corner the market and illegal dealers will have to concentrate on other substances.

Who knows? But if this particular legislation is unworkable or not well designed (a perennial criticism of any ballot measure that calls for change), it’ll be easier for us to make adjustments and control the use and misuse of this particular drug if it’s open and legal instead of hiding in the shadows.

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A brand-new poll says support for Measure 91 is trailing, so damn it, get your ballots filled out and mailed or delivered, my Oregon friends!

Support for Measure 92, which I wrote about earlier this week, is also in trouble, according to the same poll. A blog on the Washington Post site has some interesting insight into the GMO issue, as well as initiative voting patterns in general, if you ignore the snotty-sounding headline (which, as any experienced journalist knows, is not typically written by the author of the piece below it).