Cascade Policy Institute Endorses Legal Weed Ballot Measure

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

By Shelby Sebens, GoLocalPDX Reporter

Legal Weed

Cascade Policy Institute endorses legal recreational weed measure.

A Portland-based libertarian think tank is throwing its support behind the Oregon ballot measure to legalize recreational weed.

Cascade Policy Institute’s Board of Directors voted to support measure 91, which will ask voters in November to legalize, tax and regulate recreational marijuana. Though the organization has always supported the decriminalization of cannabis, this is the first legal weed ballot measure Cascade has endorsed, according to a press release.

“There is a simple reason to support the Measure 91: consenting adults should be allowed to make informed decisions about cannabis use on their own, without undue interference by the state,” Cascade President and CEO John Charles said in the press release.

But, he emphasized the measure is not perfect. Charles argues there are problems with weed being under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, “a state monopoly that should have been abolished long ago.”

He also said the use of marijuana tax revenue for schools, police and others creates a “moral hazard” problem.

Twenty states and Washington D.C. have legalized medical marijuana. Washington and Colorado made recreational weed legal in 2012. Oregon legalized medical marijuana in 1998 and the legislature passed a law last year allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to sell pot to patients.