Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Marijuana/Cannabis

Is marijuana legal in your state?  If not you can be sure it is going to be, the ball is rolling and picking up speed.

It is now legal in Oregon.  I seldom spend as much time thinking about my vote as I did on this issue.  I went back and forth several times.  In the end I voted no.  I suppose I could not get past my life long opinions.  I also felt the country had not handled alcohol well so why legalize another drug for people to abuse.  Perhaps I was wrong.  

Our teenage grandson was opposed but I suspect our son voted for it.

With grandson in Japan for the month of January our son decided it was a safe time that he could check out the marijuana/cannabis scene without Caleb being any the wiser.

When he began talking openly to me about this I was taken aback.  My first thought was "You don't talk to your mother about things like this."  I also thought "What happened, I raised you different than this."

Then my thoughts went back to his teenage years and the times he had been my accomplice doing things my conservative religion thought was sinful but I wanted to see for myself.  The chickens had come home to roost.


He visited a store near their neighborhood that he found to be very clean and pleasant.  Entry was into an open space with no furniture.  A window, like a ticket window, was on one wall.  You provided the needed documentation there and then waited your turn to be served.  Only three customers were served at a time, an employee always present.  Customers were taken through a door into a room that contained all the products available.


He had the 'Leafly' app on his phone to assist him in deciding what to purchase.  These tubes each contained a cigarette, a very stinky one at that.  They were $12 a piece.

The state of Oregon does not have a sales tax but there's a 25% state tax on recreational marijuana/cannabis, with no tax on medical.

This operation is up on wobbly legs at the moment.  The state doesn't quite know what to do about all that's involved and is scrambling to tie up all the loose ends.  Medical  marijuana has been around a long time but legal recreational marijuana is a new beast to be tamed.

Marijuana/Cannabis grows very well in this part of the country.  Before now it's been done pretty much undercover and out of sight.

Now growers are going to be coming out in the open and it won't be without pain for either side of the issue.  Just this morning I read this article Pot-growing neighbors newest addition to farm community.

This is going to be a troublesome issue at the state and local level for years to come.

4 comments:

  1. It's not legal here. Lots of it around though. Not sure how I feel about legalizing it. It should probably be legal for medicinal use - I have someone in California that uses it and would be miserable without it.

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  2. Arkansas keeps bringing medical marijuana to the ballots and it keeps failing by a small margin. I'm sure it will happen. I'm all for medical usage, still undecided about recreational use.

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  3. Here in Washington State recreational Marijuana is more clearly defined than medical. I need to have a conversation with my son. He has just moved in with us for what we all hope will be short term. He uses medical marijuana. I need to know some stuff.

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  4. I agree with Patti and Linda that medical marijuana should be made legal. I don't know what to think about the recreational use thing. Alcohol is legal, cigarettes are legal. But do two or three wrongs make a right?

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