This was just forwarded to me from Jennifer Alexander at Oregon NORML.
A volunteer group in Oregon is working to gather the signatures necessary to get the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act on the ballot for the November 2010 election. 82,769 valid signatures are required to be submitted to the Secretary of State by July 2, in order to qualify for the November election. If it makes it to the ballot, Oregonians will be voting to legalize hemp without a DEA permit, to allow adults to grow their own marijuana for noncommercial use, and to create a system of state-run stores to regulate the sales of marijuana much like Oregon regulates alcohol currently. The profit from the sale of marijuana will be divided between the State General Fund for education, health-care and public safety (90%), drug education and treatment (8%) and industrial hemp promotion (2%).
The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is projected to bring in $140-300 million in tax revenue on the sale of cannabis alone, which is worth noting, since the Oregon legislature is currently considering further budget cuts to offset a $557 million dollar budget deficit. These projections do not include the increases in revenue to the state from the creation of new jobs and industries relating to hemp. Hemp was called the “New Billion Dollar Crop” in 1938 by Popular Mechanics magazine; in today’s dollars, that would be approximately a $15 billion dollar crop. With improvements in technology and efficiencies in production, the potential for hemp to stimulate our Oregon economy could be immense.
Because the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is unfunded and relying solely on volunteers, it is hard to gauge the current position of the effort. While there are only about 10,000 signatures submitted as of last week, there are hundreds of volunteers working on gathering the signatures throughout the state. Since volunteers are mailing in their signatures, it is likely that many will wait until they are “finished” gathering signatures to mail them in all at once. However, as the deadline approaches, it becomes even more crucial to remind volunteers to mail the signed petitions into the OCTA office before June 30. Signed petitions can be mailed or hand-delivered before 6pm to:
Oregon Cannabis Tax Act
5220 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland, OR 97213
If you would like to sign the petition, you can download a single-signature petition from https://www.cannabistaxact.org/content/sign-petition
If you would like to get the forms necessary to help circulate the petition and gather signatures, please email Jennifer Alexander at [email protected]. Help end cannabis prohibition by circulating the petition and getting this important issue on the ballot.
Go to NotDwightHolton.Com to find out why you should not vote for Dwight Holton for Oregon Attorney General, and ‘like’ the Not Dwight Holton Facebook Page!
