Thank you for attending the 2015 Oregon Medical Marijuana Business Conference in Portland. More notes from the conference coming soon…
General Information:
Oregon Medical Marijuana Program
Oregon Medical Marijuana Dispensary Program
Oregon Recreational Marijuana FAQ
Cities and Counties that have banned recreational marijuana businesses or referred a ban to voters
On the heels of the CNN poll showing that he is just 10 points behind Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in nationally polls, a new Reuters poll has Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders just trailing by 8 points. This is an amazing shift in voter sentiment as Clinton has been handily beating Sanders in national polls, even as the anti-establishment candidate has made great strides in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. From Reuters:
Clinton leads Sanders nationally among Democrats by eight percentage points, 39 percent to 31 percent, her smallest cushion since the nominating battle began for the November 2016 election. She led Sanders by 20 percentage points in the online poll a week ago. (Reuters/Ipsos poll: bit.ly/1L6Tpwu)
Clinton’s support among Democrats has steadily eroded for weeks amid questions about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Her support was at 45 percent one week ago.
Clinton apologized for the email practice earlier this week, but the controversy has helped knock her support among Democrats to its lowest level since Reuters/Ipsos began polling on the 2016 election almost three years ago
First, the conventional wisdom was that Bernie Sanders didn’t stand any chance against Hillary Clinton. As the Vermont Senator surged ahead in New Hampshire and then in Iowa, the conventional wisdom was that he was trailing so big nationally, that those two early state victories couldn’t be matched elsewhere. It will be very interesting to see how the media reacts to these two latest national polls and how things will shake out if more polls show similar gains for Sanders. By all indications, Democratic primary voters have liked Bernie Sanders the more that they get to know him and as his national stature increases, more voters will get more familiar with him, his history and his platform.
It will be very interesting to see for sure, especially after Sanders announces more concrete agenda items, such as his bill to abolish private prisons. Many marijuana law reformers have also predicted that a federal legalization or decriminalization bill may be unveiled by the Sanders’ campaign as well.
The 2016 election is just underway, but it has already had many unexpected developments. Stay tuned to Marijuana Politics as we will continue to break down this pivotal presidential race for the cannabis community.
Congressman Earl Blumenauer has been traveling coast-to-coast recently, drumming up support for marijuana legalization nationally and supporting the Oregon cannabis community in every way that he can. From introducing expungement legislation based upon Oregon’s recently passed expungement law to working on sensible federal banking reform, Blumenauer has been leading the way for the cannabis law reform movement nationally. The Portland, Oregon, representative was in Maine, working with local officials to move sensible cannabis legislation forward and here in the Beaver State, he recently spoke at the Portland Women Grow Event, providing a little preview of his speech on federal law this weekend at the Oregon Medical Marijuana Business Conference:
Video Credit: Sunnie Day Sanchez
Congressman Blumenauer’s campaign commercial urging the legalization of cannabis:
Clearly, it has become a detriment to support enforcing marijuana prohibition at the federal level, especially when that enforcement means that armed federal agents will be overriding the will of state voters that have passed marijuana measures. Marijuana Majority commissioned polls, conducted by Public Policy Polling, already found that a strong majority of Iowa and New Hampshire voters want state cannabis laws respected and now they have found that South Carolina voters agree that the federal government should not trample voters’ intent when it comes to cannabis. It is great to see that the first-in-the-South primary state agrees with voters in the Hawkeye and Granite States.
The survey of 1,115 voters found that 65% agree that “states should be able to carry out their own marijuana laws without federal interference.” A mere 16% think that “the federal government should arrest and prosecute people who are following state marijuana laws.” No wonder Chris Christie and Marco Rubio are having trouble escaping single digits while candidates with more progressive cannabis positions surge. Poll after poll shows that voters, across demographics, want state marijuana laws respected. Marijuana Majority, is doing a great service commissioning these polls and we hope that they continue. Is a Nevada poll next? We certainly predict so and predict that this is a polling trend that will continue in state after state. If you want to see polls like this continue and support the great work that Marijuana Majority is doing, be sure to contribute if you can.
Full press release from Marijuana Majority:
Poll: South Carolina Voters Want Next President to Respect State Marijuana Laws
Posted on
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 10, 2015
CONTACT: Tom Angell — info@marijuanamajority.comPoll: South Carolina Voters Want Next President to Respect State Marijuana Laws
Voters in Three Early 2016 Primary States Want to End Federal Marijuana Prohibition
New polling data reveals that voters in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina overwhelmingly support ending federal prosecutions of people acting in accordance with state marijuana laws. Among respondents, 65% agree that “states should be able to carry out their own marijuana laws without federal interference.” Just 16% think that “the federal government should arrest and prosecute people who are following state marijuana laws.”
The survey, commissioned by Marijuana Majority, is a follow-up to other recent polls from the organization that showed supermajority support for respecting local marijuana laws in Iowa and New Hampshire, which are also key early presidential primary states.
“Regardless of whether they personally support legalization, voters in these early primary states strongly support scaling back the war on marijuana so that local laws can be enacted without federal harassment,” said Tom Angell, chairman of Marijuana Majority. “The Obama administration has made some helpful accommodations to let states start to move forward, but overarching federal prohibition laws still stand in the way of full and effective implementation. Presidential contenders in both parties would do well to make marijuana law reform a prominent issue in their campaigns, and they’d be better off doing it before other candidates realize just how much of a winning issue this is with voters.”
Across the three state polls, the new data shows majority support for letting states set their own marijuana laws without federal interference among all political persuasions and demographics, including including Republicans, 2012 Mitt Romney voters, people older than 65 and those who identify as very conservative. While support for scaling back federal prohibition is higher among Democrats than Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire, Republicans in South Carolina more strongly back states’ rights to enact marijuana laws than Democrats there do.
Voicing support for respecting state marijuana laws when pressed on the issue has started to become the default position among presidential contenders in both parties, despite the fact that no candidate has yet personally announced support for legalization. Among the major candidates in the race, only a small handful have said they’d enforce federal marijuana laws in states that have enacted legalization.
See http://MarijuanaMajority.com/polls for the full results and demographic breakdowns. Infographics displaying some of the data are also available.
Previous polling has demonstrated that there is broad national support for letting states set their own marijuana laws without federal interference. For example, a Pew survey showed that 59% of Americans do not want the federal government to enforce marijuana laws in states that allow legal use, and CBS News found 58% support for the idea that marijuana laws should be set by states instead of the federal government.
The South Carolina survey, conducted September 3-6 by Public Policy Polling, includes 1,115 voters and has a margin of error of +/-2.9%.
Marijuana Majority is dedicated to helping people understand that marijuana reform is a mainstream, majority-supported issue. More information is available at http://MarijuanaMajority.com.
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Massachusetts, with its progressive marijuana laws and voters, is certainly on the short list of states most likely to legalize cannabis in 2016. In fact, USA Today named Massachusetts the #1 state on its list of those most likely to end prohibition within its borders as the newspaper points out that the state has already decriminalized cannabis, legalized medical marijuana and enjoys very high polling number in support of legalization. The Bay State may be the first New England state to legalize marijuana, although the state could be joined by Maine and others in the northeast as the area is ripe for more sensible Drug War reform.
According to a press release sent out by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, Massachusetts advocates are likely to start collecting signatures to place legalization on the ballot in about two weeks. The state Attorney General’s office certified the activist’s initiative petition today, so Massachusetts is one step closer to legalizing marijuana:
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Contact
Jim Borghesani, Communications Director
617-833-9327, jim@regulatemass.com
Initiative to Regulate and Tax Marijuana Like Alcohol in Massachusetts Moves Another Step Closer to 2016 Ballot
The state Attorney General’s office certified the petition on Wednesday; later today, initiative backers will file it with the Secretary of the Commonwealth for final approval
BOSTON — A proposed initiative to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol in Massachusetts moved another step closer to the 2016 ballot Wednesday when the state Attorney General’s office certified the petition in support of the measure. The attorney general is required to review all initiative petitions to ensure they meet certain constitutional requirements and must prepare a “fair, concise summary of the proposed law” to appear on petitions and the ballot.
“Massachusetts is another step closer to ending marijuana prohibition and replacing it with a more sensible policy,” said CRMLA campaign manager Will Luzier. “We’re already finding a lot of support and enthusiasm among voters. People are fed up with laws that punish adults simply for consuming a substance that is objectively less harmful than alcohol.”
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) will now file the petition with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, which has 14 days to sign off on it, at which point the campaign will begin its signature drive. Initiative backers must collect the signatures of 64,750 registered Massachusetts voters over a nine-week period from September to November. The petition would then be transmitted to the Massachusetts Legislature. If the legislature does not adopt the measure, initiative backers must collect 10,792 signatures in June 2016 to place the initiative on the November 2016 ballot.
In summary, the proposed initiative would:
- allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow a limited number of marijuana plants in their homes, similar to homebrewing;
- create a tightly regulated system of licensed marijuana retail outlets, cultivation facilities, product manufacturing facilities, and testing facilities, which will be overseen by a commission similar to the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC);
- provide local governments with the authority to regulate and limit the number of marijuana establishments in their city or town; and
- create a 3.75% state excise tax on retail marijuana sales (in addition to the standard state sales tax) and allow local governments to establish an additional local sales tax of up to 2%. [Medical marijuana will NOT be subject to these additional taxes.]
“Our goal is to take marijuana out of the underground market and start controlling sales similarly to how we control alcohol sales,” Luzier said. “Marijuana should be produced and sold by licensed, taxpaying businesses, not by cartels and criminals. If Massachusetts can successfully regulate and tax alcohol, it can successfully regulate and tax a less harmful substance like marijuana.”
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The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is supporting a 2016 statewide ballot initiative to end marijuana prohibition in Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.RegulateMassachusetts.com.
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