Yes On 80 Campaign Says Marijuana Prohibition Is The Problem

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Darryl James/Willamette Week
The Human Collective director Sarah Bennett (right) helps a client at the dispensary in Tigard. The Human Collective was raided Thursday morning.

Campaign Makes Statement on Oregon Medical Marijuana Raids: ‘Regulation is the solution.’
Washington County, Oregon sheriffs’ officers on Thursday morning raided The Human Collective, a medical marijuana facility in Tigard. Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Ray claimed The Human Collective dispensary, which opened in April 2010, was selling marijuana.
Two people were detained during the search, reports Noelle Crombie of The Oregonian. No arrests were made, and nobody has been charged with a crime.

“We have been the most legally compliant place in the whole state,” said Don Morse, a co-director of the dispensary. “We are a model.”
Investigators seized plants at a home in the 1100 block of SW 63rd Avenue in Tigard, in addition to serving a search warrant at The Human Collective’s offices.
Attorney and medical marijuana advocate Leland Berger said after the raid that it was “disappointing that the Washington County Sheriff’s Office would choose to interrupt the supply of medicine to patients.”

Roy Kaufmann
Roy Kaufmann, Yes On 80: “Marijuana prohibition is a failure, and it’s time to repeal it”

“This is just the latest in an increasing number of raids on medical marijuana operations across Oregon,” said spokesman Roy Kaufmann with the Yes On 80 campaign, which backs a legalization measure which will be on November’s general election ballot. “These raids are symptomatic of a larger problem: marijuana prohibition is a failure, and it’s time to repeal it.
 
“The effects of prohibition are as destructive as they are wasteful: until marijuana prohibition is repealed, medical marijuana will always be at best a gray market, where business owners are caught in the web of confusing and often contradictory federal, state and local laws,” Kaufmann said. “Law-enforcement agencies will remain entangled in the same web, unclear on which laws to enforce and how to enforce them.
 
“Prohibition continues to force states, cities and counties to waste precious, limited public-safety resources on marijuana-related offenses, rather than on dangerous drugs like meth and heroin, and on dangerous criminals,” Kaufmann said. “In a time when public-sector budgets are being cut, sheriffs’ offices are cutting deputies in record numbers, and jails are shuttering cells, the priority for Oregon should be on encouraging new tax revenues and prioritizing public-safety spending. Regulating marijuana will accomplish these priorities.
 
“We strongly condemn the failure of the war on marijuana and call on all Oregonians to vote yes on Measure 80, which will bolster Oregon’s economy, repeal prohibition, regulate marijuana for adults 21 and older, and re-introduce agricultural hemp into Oregon’s sustainable economy,” Kaufmann said.
 
To learn more about Measure 80, visit www.Vote80.org.
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