I am a mother, a Christian, and a Republican, and I don’t smoke dope. But I’m telling you right now that we need to do a better job dealing with marijuana in Oregon.
A big, black cloud hangs over a little green plant that God created with the ability to take people’s pain away. As far as I’m concerned, it’s medicine that could be helping people.
We should not be treating marijuana as a crime, ruining people’s lives, when we could be treating it in a more sensible way, improving people’s lives.
You might say, “Medical marijuana is already legal here.” That’s true, but that doesn’t mean medical patients have it easy. Our current approach is damaging to medical patients — and all Oregonians.
Measure 91 will keep medical marijuana rules the same, and it will help remove the stigma and allow easier access to patients. It will improve regulation of growers and ensure quality control so growers have more credibility and can be trusted by the community.
Even more important, it will allow rigorous research on marijuana. This research is hardly being done now because marijuana is illegal. But to people suffering from seizure disorders and other diseases, marijuana has the potential to help make their lives more bearable. Until we bring marijuana out of the shadows, scientists’ hands are tied.
I have two daughters. One of them is a high school senior this year. I’ve seen how drug dealers have too much access to teenagers like her. Getting marijuana out of the black market will make it harder for kids to buy it. Tax money from regulated marijuana sales will provide money for schools to do more drug education, so teenagers will say “no.”
What I’d like us to do is to use the system in place to regulate and sell beer and wine. Measure 91 doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It uses that system, and that’s going to save us money.
This issue keeps coming into my heart. It’s God’s calling to me. I have a passion for making this medicine mainstream, reducing the power of violent drug cartels and using our police resources more intelligently. I’m making it my mission to tell people about the good Measure 91 can do if we all vote yes!
By Susan Kelly