Portland Will Vote to Legalize Marijuana

Petition signature collecting starts next Friday. 27,255 signatures are required by July 7th to get Measure 8 on next year's ballot.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Portland, Oregon could be the next major U.S. city to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Measure 8's ballot caption explains that it, "Assets criminal penalty exemption for possession of marijuana in Portland."

The measure would allow possession of less than an ounce of marijuana for people over 21. Possession of less than an ounce at this time is a misdemeanor.

The ballot measure would not decriminalize pot, activist Parker Bell told reporters, it would legalize it, which means that the measure would bring commerce and money into it.

The opponents of Oregon's medical marijuana program, passed twice by voters, have been very active in recent weeks and months preparing legislation that could overturn the voter endorsed law. Police in Oregon have also been busy conducting grow raids all over the state. The DEA also moved into Oregon, bringing more pressure and scrutiny on the program. Since moving in, the federal agency has tried without success to subpoena the names and personal information of a number of OMPP patients.

It is widely suggested by anti-drug organizations that medical legalization laws are a front for proponents of total legalization. Now Bell is going to try to see what Portland voters think about exactly that, though it is not clear if it is a direct reaction to increased police intervention.

Portland would not be the first U.S. city to remove pot from the crime dockets, in fact there are about a dozen, including Oakland, Seattle and Denver, which have passed similar measures.

But in Denver, people quickly learned that their own mayor had no apparent use for it. He quickly reminded voters that marijuana was still illegal under state law, and they would still be arrested for it, in spite of the new city law.

So now you have city laws being passed that states won't recognize, and state laws being passed that the federal government doesn't recognize, as in the case of medical marijuana.

Opponents of legalization say it is a bad idea to legalize marijuana because of the message it sends to kids. Others contend that the children of peaceful people who smoke marijuana should not be denied their parents because they were arrested for possessing and smoking a natural substance people have used for thousands of years.

Petition signature collecting starts next Friday. 27,255 signatures are required by July 7th to get Measure 8 on next year's ballot.