Oregon
Perspective
11/6/98
(Editor's Note: Bear Wilner, flush with the heady glow of victory, sends us his observations on the elections from his perch in Eugene. This week, we're letting him wax editorial... being that we're all in such a good mood. Thanks again, Bear, for keeping us abreast as the campaigns unfolded in the Beaver state.) The election of 1996 was the most important in the history of US drug policy reform to date. We must continue to give credit to the tremendously revitalizing impact of the passages of California's Proposition 215 and Arizona's Proposition 200. Yes, they built on decades of activism and countless hours of hard work, but their demonstration of massive popular support for change was what dealt the deathblow to so many years of Drug War status quo. Still, hard beset as they were by federal and state officials hostile to any weakening of the prohibitionist edifice, California's and Arizona's new situations were close to succumbing in recent months. Now, with the universal ballot-box victory of the reform legislative positions that were up for a vote and with the election of a number of more reform-minded candidates across the nation, California and Arizona will never again be forced to stand alone on this issue. I am deeply proud to be able to announce that the state of Oregon has joined the rest of the US jurisdictions that have signaled their intent to begin moving toward a new approach to drug law -- and not a moment too soon. Final results have been delayed by the count of many hundred thousand absentee ballots, but it is clear that Oregonians rejected Measure 57, which would have recriminalized the possession of under an ounce of cannabis, by an even larger margin than they passed Measure 67, which will allow severely ill Oregonians and their caretakers to grow and possess cannabis in order to alleviate their symptoms. Even a last-minute infusion of money could not salvage the poorly run anti-reform campaigns; this election was about decency, not dollars, and voters were acting on a real understanding of the issues at stake. Nevertheless, the same governor and essentially the same state legislature will continue in office with the new year. For that reason, Oregon reformers must continue to work, to organize, and to remain vigilant against any tampering with the people's will. The state's largest newspaper, the Portland Oregonian, which had printed a blistering anti-67 editorial as well as voicing support for 57, has begun urging lawmakers to tinker in the guts of the medical-cannabis legislation even before it has gone into full effect. With its editorial board expressing their fear of "the prospect of a plague of pony-tailed doctors prescribing reefer for the blues," the Oregonian's language is a far cry from the kind of balanced journalism to be found in Phoenix's normally quite conservative Arizona Republic (http://www.azcentral.com) two days after the election. Oregon activists were expecting this sort of sore-loser response, though, and had already begun planning their campaign in support of the newly approved Oregon Medical Marijuana Act well in advance of November 3rd. The sorts of extra-constitutional legerdemain that the likes of outgoing California Attorney General Dan Lungren loved to practice in response to the people's mandates are not foreseen as having much impact here in fiercely independent-minded Oregon.
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