Oregon parents concerned that legalizing pot for adults will harm their kids kicked off a campaign this week to fight a measure that would allow adults 21 and up to possess up to eight ounces of pot at a time and grow up to four plants.
Their biggest fear: pot retailers are going to be targeting their kids, even though you can’t buy put without an ID showing you’re of age (and in Colorado not one underage sale has been reported, even with attempted police stings).
Mandi Pucket, director of the No on 91 campaign kicked off her push by standing next to a table of marijuana edibles like candies and fruit drinks. Things she and Bob Doylse, a “tobacco prevention expert” from Colorado says are marketed to children, because we assume in her world adults never eat candy or drink fruit-flavored beverages.
“The marijuana industry wants us to believe that marijuana gummy bears and fruit punch are not targeting children,” Doyle told OregonLive.com. “Are we really going to go in this direction again?”
Doyle is playing out the same tired argument put forth by Project SAM that legalizing recreational marijuana will mean the rise of “big marijuana” who will apparently not learn from tobaccos decades of past mistakes and heartlessly target children to create “addicts”.
Opponents of legalization also say that the eight-ounce limit allowed to Oregonians are too much. They point out that Colorado recreational law allows for the possession of one ounce of cannabis, though they aren’t exactly telling the truth.
Like the Oregon proposal, Colorado law allows for adults to grow their own and keep all that they harvest. It’s just in public that people are limited to one ounce purchases and public possession in Colorado.
“This is an appaling amount,” Puckett said at the press conference, holding up eight ounces of brewing hopps to demonstrate the size of eight ounces of herb. “Where is this much marijuana going to go? It’s going into our kids’ hands.”
It’s more likely, into the lungs or stomach of the person who took the time to grow it. The eight-ounce possession limits only apply to home-grows. Those who would purchase cannabis at a retail store would be limited to much less.
