Our painfully researched endorsements and voting cheat sheet are out in the paper this week, after hours and hours spent in a windowless room talking with political candidates and measure campaigners.
By far the most controversial stance we take is saying to vote no on Measure 74, the new law that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to set up in Oregon. That's no surprise, because pot advocacy is something that inspires serious passion in a lot of Oregonians and we were personally really on the fence about this measure for a while, waffling between voting yes and no.
The issue that tipped the nearly equal scales to "no" is regulation.
There's not a lot of things that we're in favor of the government regulating (see: strip clubs, trans fats) but medicine is definitely one of them. Oregon needs a way to distribute medical marijuana to patients who need it. But when we establish a distribution system, we need to do it right. Oregon needs a distribution and regulatory system that treats marijuana just as seriously as any other medicine.
Read on for more of our rationale—and also to see a rebuttal letter sent by one of the measure's co-authors!