URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n526/a06.html
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Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 05 Aug 2016
Source: Mail Tribune, The (Medford, OR)
Copyright: 2016 The Mail Tribune
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Website: http://www.mailtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/642
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Author: Madeline Shannon, Grants Pass Daily Courier
GRANTS PASS WILL ASK VOTERS TO BAN ALL POT COMMERCE
Both Medical and Recreational Marijuana Commerce Would Be Outlawed If Measure Passes
In a unanimous vote Wednesday night, Grants Pass City Council referred an ordinance to the November ballot that would ban virtually all forms of marijuana commerce in the city.
The decision comes about a year after the council voted to enact two ordinances banning marijuana, one dealing with recreational marijuana and the other dealing with medical marijuana. The new version approved Wednesday consolidates both medical and recreational into a single ordinance.
Oregon voters approved a 2014 ballot measure legalizing recreational use of marijuana. In implementing the measure, the Oregon Legislature made it legal for cities to ban marijuana commerce, but only if such an ordinance is approved in a vote of the people.
“It allows voters to trim it down to one vote,” Council President Dan DeYoung said. “If we lump the two together, we can take that to the voters. If they say yes, then both of them will be in, and if they say no, both of them will be out.”
Some of the difficulties in enforcing two different laws regarding marijuana businesses, both medical and recreational, include making sure medical marijuana growers, processors and dispensaries are doing business only in the medical marijuana trade.
“If the ordinance was split in half, we’d start getting complaints from people who know a medical marijuana grower is also selling recreational marijuana,” DeYoung said. “But it would be very hard to try and prove that.”
Although Josephine County is among the state’s leaders in marijuana production, DeYoung and other council members indicated it is not popular among their constituents.
“People in favor of marijuana businesses come in here screaming at me that I’m not listening to the people,” De Young said. “But I run in a different pack of dogs than they do. My people all say no, so I bring that here and vote no.”
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom