Report
from
Oregon
10/30/98
(DRCNet wishes to thank Bear for keeping our readers up to date on the goings-on in Oregon, where voters will decide on two separate marijuana-related initiatives. We hope that post-election, Bear will continue his valuable efforts for The Week Online and for the reform community at large.) With just a few days to go before November 3rd, hundreds of thousands of Oregonians have already voted on the state's two marijuana-related ballot measures. Voting by mail is more prevalent in Oregon than in any other part of the US, and another initiative on this fall's slate seeks to make it the standard for every election, doing away with the voting booth altogether. Still, there are plenty of voters left who do plan to head to the polls on Tuesday. Oregon's voter turnout rate, even in off-year elections, remains far above the national average. This is most likely an attribute that bodes well for the campaigns against Measure 57, which would recriminalize possession of under an ounce of marijuana, and for Measure 67, which would allow the medical use of marijuana under a caregiver's supervision. These campaigns have taken to the airwaves in recent days, even as absentee voting has begun. One television ad against Measure 57 depicts two highly unsavory characters being released from prison to make way for newly convicted marijuana offenders. TV ads for Measure 67, financed by Americans for Medical Rights, feature Stormy Ray, a courageous wheelchair-bound activist, and chief petitioner Dr. Rick Bayer, among others. Meanwhile, anti-Measure 67 radio ads have just started to run, with former First Lady Barbara Bush making part of the pitch. The struggle on the ground has also continued. Dr. Bayer and attorney Dave Fidanque of the Oregon ACLU debated top prohibitionist spokesperson Rob Elkins, police chief of the town of Molalla, before the City Club of Eugene recently. Eugene is the second-largest city in Oregon and home to the University of Oregon, and its daily and weekly newspapers have editorialized in favor of Measure 67 while opposing Measure 57. The debate was polite but revealing. Although vehement in his denunciations of the reform position, Chief Elkins was forced to make statement after statement assuring the listeners that his side was not out to lock people up, and that their minds were not closed to potential health benefits of marijuana -- they simply felt that the risks outweighed these benefits. Although the state's largest newspaper, the increasingly conservative Portland Oregonian, made its endorsements on the anti-reform side, many other Oregon papers, such as the Albany Democrat-Herald, have joined Eugene's Register-Guard in calling for a Yes vote on 67 and a No vote on 57. The members of numerous citizen organizations, such as MAMA (Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse) have been putting in plenty of time on the effort. In general, Oregon appears to be poised to join California and Arizona in the camp of states where drug laws have been amended by the voters.
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