Search Results: octa 2012 (26)

Michael M.
The United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555, with 18,000-plus members, has endorsed the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, which would legalize marijuana in the Beaver State

There’s good news and bad news from the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, OCTA 2012. The good: OCTA has received the endorsement and support of Oregon’s largest private sector union, the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 555, and their 18,000-plus members. On Thursday, June 14, UFCW Local 555’s board of directors voted unanimously to endorse the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act initiative.
“We are working with their leadership to mobilize their membership to sign and circulate the petitions,” said OCTA 2012 sponsor Paul Stanford “Thank you UFCW Local 555!”

Citizens for Sensible Law Enforcement

By Ron Georg
Special to Toke of the Town
While the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA 2012) is riding a wave of publicity following Willie Nelson’s recent endorsement, a second legalization initiative is quietly garnering signatures across Oregon, and chief petitioner Bob Wolfe said his group Citizens for Sensible Law Enforcement is on track to collect the 116,000 signatures they’ll need to get Initiative Petition 24 on the November ballot.
Oregon’s first attempt at legalization by citizen initiative — 1986’s Ballot Measure 5 — failed by a three-to-one margin. In part, that was a reflection of the times; Reagan-era America probably wasn’t quite ready. Many advocates also believe voters were frightened at the prospect of an unregulated, anarchistic marijuana industry.

Houston Press

​Country music legend Willie Nelson has endorsed the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 (OCTA 2012), which is gathering signatures to qualify for the November general election ballot. If passed by the people of Oregon, OCTA 2012 would regulate the legal sale of marijuana through state-licensed stores, allow adults to grow their own, license Oregon farmers to grow marijuana for state-licensed stores and allow unlicensed Oregon farmers to grow hemp for fuel, fiber and food.

OCTA 2012 will raise an estimated $140 million a year by taxing commercial cannabis sales to adults 21 and older, and save an additional estimated $61.5 million as law enforcement, corrections and judicial attention can focus on violent crimes and theft.
“We estimate this will amount to $200 million a year more funding for state government,” the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH) said. Ninety percent of those proceeds will go into the state general fund, seven percent for drug treatment programs, with one percent each going to drug education in public schools and to two new state commissions to promote hemp biofuel, hemp fiber and food.

Graphic: OCTA 2012

​Organizers of a new Oregon state marijuana legalization initiative campaign, Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 (OCTA 2012), are kicking off their petition drive and opening a new office. The Oregon Secretary of State’s Election Division just announced the approval of the petition, Initiative Number 9, for circulation and signature gathering on March 24.

Initiative organizers will have until July 7, 2012 to gather 90,000 registered Oregon voters’ signatures to qualify for the November 6, 2012 ballot.
Petitioners rallied at their new office in Portland starting at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, March 28 and held a news conference at 10 a.m. The state campaign committee is working to achieve ballot status in three ways: hiring paid petitioners, organizing volunteer petitioners and soliciting Oregon registered voters’ signatures online.
“We’re wasting a lot of money right now on prohibition of marijuana,” said campaign manager Jennifer Alexander, reports KPTV. “We’re losing a lot of industrial benefits from not having hemp.”
The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act of 2012 would regulate the legal sale of marijuana to adults through state-licensed stores, allow adults to grow their own, license Oregon farmers to grow marijuana for state-licensed stores and allow unlicensed Oregon farmers to grow cannabis hemp for fuel, fiber and food.
OCTA 2012 will raise $140 million a year by taxing commercial cannabis sales to adults 21 years of age and older, and save an estimated $61.5 million as law enforcement, corrections and judicial attention can focus on violent crimes and theft. 

OCTA 2012

Initiative 9 Signature-Drive Completion Press Conference Set For Friday, July 6
 
Friday, July 6 marks the deadline for Oregonians to submit signatures in order to qualify an initiative for the November ballot. The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act campaign will be submitting its final group of signatures to the Secretary of State and discussing next steps for allowing Oregonians to vote to support common-sense cannabis and hemp policy.
Initiative 9 will regulate cannabis for adult use, license cannabis for commercial sale, and re-allow Oregon farmers to grow hemp for biofuel, food, sustainable fiber and medicine.

OCTA 2012

The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 initiative petition on Friday turned in 27,401 signatures from the month of April, exceeding the minimum number of signatures for a statutory ballot measure by more than 2,000 signatures.
According to an official at the Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division [PDF], OCTA 2012 is the third initiative to meet the early turn-in requirement by exceeding the minimum number of signatures required for qualification for ballot status. 
“We are continuing our petition drive,” said initiative sponsor Paul Stanford of OCTA 2012. “We estimate that, on Monday, May 14th, another 10,000 signatures to be turned in to our office by petitioners that are gathered this week, and at least 10,000 more in each subsequent week.”

Ellen Rosenblum
Ellen Rosenblum, candidate for Oregon AG: “As Attorney General, I will make marijuana enforcement a low priority, and protect the rights of medical marijuana patients”

​​By Michael Bachara
Hemp News Correspondent
As Oregon moves closer toward marijuana legalization in November with the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 (OCTA 2012) and the Oregon Marijuana Policy Initiative 2012 (OMPI 2012) petition drives, the race for Oregon Attorney General on May 15 between Appeals Court Judge Ellen Rosenblum and former acting U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton will be crucial to the implementation of the cannabis legalization initiatives.
Earlier this month, in a debate at the Eugene City Club, Rosenblum said she supported the state’s current medical marijuana law as one that “provides vulnerable citizens with the medicine they needed to cope with their diagnoses.”
On the other hand, Holton said the law is actually “a train wreck, putting marijuana in the hands of people, kids, who are not using it for pain management purposes. Of 50,000 card holders, 30,000 got them from 10 clinics. We’ve got a broken system.”
Just last summer, Holton issued a letter to Oregon medical marijuana collectives, co-signed by 34 district attorneys, the head of the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association and the head of the Oregon Chiefs of Police. The letter stated, “The sale of marijuana for any purpose — including as medicine — violates both federal and Oregon law and will not be tolerated.”

Joe Koshollek/Oregon Live
Gary Storck of Madison, Wisconsin, has twice come to Oregon to get a medical marijuana card. He’s one of about 600 out-of-states who have gotten the Oregon card.

​You don’t have to be a resident of Oregon to get an Oregon medical marijuana card.

Hundreds of out-of-staters make an annual trip to the Beaver State to fill out an application, see a doctor and get a state-issued medicinal cannabis ID. Oregon is the only remaining state in the U.S. to issue medical marijuana cards to non-residents, according to Noelle Crombie of The Oregonian.

“It’s not a bad place to visit,” said Gary Storck, 56, who takes a 40-hour, $1,000 Amtrak ride out west from Wisconsin every year to renew his medical marijuana card. “It lifts my spirits to be in a place where medical cannabis is legal and life goes on.”

Torsten Kjellstrand/The Oregonian
Paul Stanford has dedicated his life to advocating for medical marijuana. A medical marijuana cardholder, he and others involved with THCF grow marijuana for themselves and others. There is usually a surplus from this Portland garden, and most of it goes to patients who can’t grow their own or afford to buy it from others.

​Medical marijuana advocate and businessman Paul Stanford, in an exclusive interview with Toke of the Town, has responded to a negative article by The Associated Press which on Sunday described his life as one “of error, missteps and regrets, one laden with betrayals and failure.”

Portland-based AP reporter Nigel Duara called Stanford and The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF) “the nation’s leading gateway to the drug,” even going so far as to label him a “Dope King” in the headline and to refer to his supporters as “dope enthusiasts” who regard Stanford as “something of a savior.”
So, how did we get back to 1970s or even 1960s style “evil weed” journalism in the blink of an eye? Wasn’t yesterday supposed to be the start of a new year? Aren’t we in the second decade of the 21st Century?
Apparently, only some of us are. 
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