From: Paul Stanford <[t--r--o] at [igc.apc.org]> Newsgroups: rec.drugs.cannabis Subject: Petition to Regulate Pot Halfway to Vote Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 21:41:07 -0800 (PST) From: Paul Stanford <[t--r--o] at [igc.apc.org]> Subject: Petition to Regulate Pot Halfway to Vote Help Keep Kids Off Drugs * Legalize * Regulate * Educate An Oregon initiative to regulate the sales of marijuana to adults is almost halfway to qualifying for the November 1996 general election. The petition campaign for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) is led by the Oregon political committee, Pay for Schools by Regulating Cannabis. OCTA will tax and regulate marijuana sales in Oregon's state liquor store system, allow doctors to prescribe marijuana through pharmacies, license farmers to grow marijuana for sales exclusively to the state, allow farmers to grow hemp fiber, protein and oil and allow adults to grow for personal use. We estimate that the profits from the sales in liquor stores will ammount to several hundred million dollars a year. OCTA directs 65% of that money to fund primary and secondary education, 30% to colleges and community colleges in Oregon, 4% to drug abuse treatment programs, for people with alcohol and other substance abuse problems, and 1% to implement a realistic drug education program in the schools. Just as a property tax limitation measure is phasing in and school and college programs are being cut, instructors laid off and college tuition doubled in the last 5 years, the revenue raised from regulating marijuana sales in the State of Oregon will take the largest crop in the state out of the blackmarket. OCTA will put the sales of marijuana in state liquor stores, where the age limit of 21 is strictly enforced and it will generate revenue for important services. OCTA needs to turn in 73,261 registered Oregon voter's signatures by July 5, 1996 to qualify for the November 1996 ballot. We now have 40,000 signatures turned into our office, as of December 4, 1995. Our campaign has been a completely volunteer effort to date. We don't get paid to do this, we pay to do this. OCTA was drafted to be upheld in the inevitable court challenges the federal government will file after it passes in the election on November 5, 1996. OCTA was written in compliance with the restrictions imposed by several international treaties that govern the way controlled substances can be regulated. We set many constitutional protections to assure the act will be upheld in court in our comprehensive preamble. We even fund the court battle to uphold OCTA with license fees paid by commercial cannabis growers, not from everyone else's tax dollars. Our new web site will have the complete text of the initiative, with links to the relevant text from the international treaties, the constitutional provisions and historical documents we cite and the Oregon liquor control laws we emulate. You may also print out a copy of the petition directly from our web pages, so Oregon registered voters can start gathering signatures without delay. Our web site is being laid out with video of Oregon TV news coverage, available in both PC & Mac format. Preliminary polls show that OCTA will pass. The largest TV station in the state, KATU-TV, the Portland ABC affiliate, did a poll showing that 55% of respondents said yes when asked, "should marijuana be sold in liquor stores to fund education?" We plan to do extensive polling with focus groups to allow us to structure our campaign themes and choose our spokespeople to recieve the largest yes vote. But we have to make the ballot! If you live in Oregon and are registered to vote, we urge you to get the OCTA petition and get signatures. We need all the help we can get in qualifying for the ballot next year. Call our office at (503) 229-0428 for more information. Visit our office at 3125 SE Belmont in Portland, or call to contact and help your local petitioning coordinator in Oregon. With your help, we can do it. If you are an Oregon taxpayer we urge you to take advantage of the political committee tax credit, whereby you can get $50 more in your state tax refund or pay $50 less on your state tax payment by contributing $50 to our political committee, Pay for Schools by Regulating Cannabis (PSRC). If you are married and filing jointly the tax credit is $100. Simply make a check payable to PSRC and you can claim the tax credit in your Oregon state tax return next year. Also, you can receive an OCTA/PSRC tee-shirt for $20 or a video of 40 minutes of TV news coverage OCTA has recieved this year in Oregon for $20 too. Please order our tee-shirt and video, make a donation. Give farmers the crop of the 21st century, a valuable new resource. Help us regulate the sales of marijuana to adults, pay for schools, allow sick people to get the medicine they need and allow Oregon to lead the way in pioneering sustainable hemp fiber, oil and protein industries, creating thousands of jobs. In fact, our petitions are printed on hemp paper and we print that across the bottom of each of our office printed petition sheets. Call us at (503) 229-0428, or write: Pay for Schools by Regulating Cannabis P.O. Box 86741 Portland, OR 97286 Make all checks payable to PSRC. Thank you!