Medical Marijuana Becomes Major Issue in Oregon AG Race

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The Oregonian
Oregon attorney general candidates Dwight Holton (left) and Ellen Rosenblum. Holton is unfriendly to medical marijuana, while Rosenblum supports it

Candidate Rosenblum Supports Will of Oregon Voters and Safe Access for Patients, While Candidate Holton is Hostile and Threatens Popular Law
 
Drug Policy Action — Group That Played Key Role in Passing 1998 Ballot Initiative — Throws Weight Behind Former Judge Rosenblum
 
 
Medical marijuana has become a major issue in the Democratic primary for Attorney General in Oregon — and the candidates have staked out starkly different positions on the issue, with former judge Ellen Rosenblum supportive of patients’ right to safe and legal access to medical marijuana, and former Interim U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton sharply critical of the program.

With no Republican having filed for the office, the winner of the Democratic primary will be the state’s next Attorney General, and the fate of Oregon’s medical marijuana program may hang in the balance. Oregon’s voting is done entirely by mail. Ballots went out on April 27 and must be posted by May 15.
 

DPA
Jill Harris, Drug Policy Action: “Oregon voters approved the medical marijuana law 14 years ago, and it should be respected”

Drug Policy Action, a driving force behind the initiative that first legalized medical marijuana in Oregon in 1998, has thrown its support behind the Rosenblum campaign.
  
“Drug Policy Action supports Ellen Rosenblum for Attorney General because she supports the rights of Oregonians who are medical marijuana patients to have safe and legal access to their medicine,” said Jill Harris, managing director of strategic initiatives for Drug Policy Action. “Oregon voters approved the medical marijuana law 14 years ago, and it should be respected. 
 
“Drug Policy Action worked with local activists to pass the Medical Marijuana law back in 1998,” said Harris, who grew up in Eugene, Ore. “We are now acting to protect the law from a candidate who poses a major threat to it. 
 
“Dwight Holton’s hostility to this landmark Oregon law is unacceptable,” Harris said. “As a federal prosecutor and as a candidate for attorney general, Holton has made it clear that he does not respect Oregon’s medical marijuana patients and providers.
“We will not stand by and let Holton seize a new platform to undermine and attack a program that Oregon voters passed and continue to strongly support,” Harris said.
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