Cannabis is Almost Legal Now in Oregon, Right?

Although we legalized cannabis here in Oregon last November, it seems like various locales are trying to circumvent, control, or otherwise find some way to continue viewing cannabis as illegal, even though it no longer is. Wilsonville just extended the ban on dispensaries past the May 1 moratorium end date, and Tigard banned cannabis outlets on Main Street. Apparently they want to keep a certain look about the area and evidently cannabis outlets clash or something. Along the Pacific Highway, they’re fine with them, but imposed a minimum distance of 2000 ft between each business instead of the original 1000 feet.

Bars, liquor stores, restaurants or grocery stores that sell alcohol are everywhere. No restrictions on how close to schools a neighborhood store can be that sells alcohol. Alcohol is legal, right? Children are allowed in grocery stores that sell wine and beer..cigarettes as well. Alcohol and cigarettes are more dangerous than cannabis, are just as legal as cannabis, but cannabis has to be regulated to the point that no one can run a business, take the same business deductions that any other business enjoys, let alone have somewhere to stash the scads of money they’ll be making. Except, it’s legal now, right?

Now, if we had simply said, cannabis is no longer illegal..no restrictions on it unless you decide to open a business with it, like with any other thing you might want to sell in a business you own, would we be having these problems? Maybe, maybe not. Legalization evidently creates a separate bureaucracy just for cannabis that seems set up to impede dispensaries and recreational outlets from functioning in the same manner as any other legal businesses do. I agree there should be standards for pesticides, etc. and accurate product labeling, but distance restrictions? That’s just silly.

And if it’s legal, why again are there limits on home grows or possession amounts? We shouldn’t even need a medical program at this point. We should be free to use cannabis any way we choose. We shouldn’t have to pay money to the state in order that we can grow enough to make whatever type of medicine that helps us survive. What difference does it make how much you grow in your own home if you’re not selling it? There’s no restrictions on vegetables you grow in your garden, so why should there be any restrictions on a legal plant growing at your home? And why do folks have to wait until July 1, when we voted last November? Why July and not January? Outside grows in some areas won’t have enough time to finish properly. And since the recreational outlets aren’t going to be operational for an estimated year after that, unless you’re a medical cannabis patient, all anyone else basically has is the ability to grow and possess cannabis without normal access to seeds or clones to do so. Cannabis users are resourceful, however, and gardens will be growing in spite of this weirdness.

I hate lies. The government never should have lied about the safety of cannabis. That lie has cost so many people their freedom through endless incarceration, as well as our health. Industrial hemp could have been grown throughout the country, contributing to the health of both people and the economy. Instead, now we have to convince people that the propaganda was never true. Considering all the fear-based propaganda we’ve been inundated with over the last 80 years or so, that conversation begins at a disadvantage.

The resignation of Michele Leonhart could initiate a long overdue discussion with the nation about cannabis. We could begin with her targeting of legal cannabis patients after being told not to do so. Sanjay Gupta’s three documentaries on cannabis provide a jumping off point for the discussion as well. Legislation currently before Congress allowing states to decide their own cannabis laws without federal interference, if approved, would eliminate one avenue localities use as an excuse to prevent legal cannabis businesses from operating in the same manner as any other business. The Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2015 would protect anyone following legal cannabis laws from federal prosecution, offering a welcome relief to patients in particular. It’s hard to heal when you’re worried you’re going to be arrested for doing something legal. Sometimes these are life and death situations and it’s shameful that the federal government would ever interfere with someone trying to survive. So I hope it passes this time.

The reason both the medical and recreational use of cannabis is becoming legal is because people understand that it’s safe. The lies now fall on deaf ears. No one is listening anymore. And not because they want to sit around and get high all day, but because they’re simply tired of being lied to. Because when the government lies to the people, the assumption is that the people are too stupid to comprehend that it’s even happening. Except the joke’s on them.

The tide has turned and legalization momentum is increasing. Cannabis will be legal everywhere sooner than later. I grew up thinking cannabis was a drug that I couldn’t wait to try. People seemed so happy after smoking and bongs looked awesome, and who wouldn’t want to go to Morocco and smoke out of a hookah?. It was forbidden, so naturally, I was convinced that there was nothing wrong with it. But although I knew it was medicinal, I had no idea what it could really do to help people until I became a patient five years ago to treat my out of control rheumatoid arthritis. Even after I went into clinical remission, something all the drugs I was prescribed never achieved, it was still difficult to believe that I would stay that way. But I have, and over the last five years I’ve watched others who have regained their health using cannabis oil when they’ve been given only weeks to live, and listened to countless stories from others who, after suffering with chronic health conditions for most, if not all of their lives, suddenly achieve a level of health they’ve never experienced in their lives using conventional treatments. These stories may be anecdotal, but there’s too many to be discounted, particularly when x-rays and medical reports are offered as evidence.

I think when something is based on a lie, then you go back to the place before the lie happened, and start from there. Nothing that grew out of the lie can be part of the conversation, because it has nothing to do with the truth. One look at what children with Dravet Syndrome go through should tell us that it’s time to cut the crap and live in truth. Those precious children don’t have time for us to do anything less.

So how about we proceed from the place before the lie. Let go of the nonsense that cannabis is dangerous. We never believed it was before some idiot decided that profit was more important than integrity and then scared the crap out of everyone. For many, the damage done can never be repaired. So, it would be nice if we could simply let the law go into effect as it’s written, without trying to change it along the way into something we didn’t vote for.

It’s bad enough that legal doesn’t really mean legal.