(SALEM, Ore.) - Anthony Wyatt Beasley of Keizer,
Oregon has been vindicated, as has the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act...
although the officials in Keizer and Marion County are clearly too
dishonest to admit it.
In the November 9th 2007 issue the Salem
Statesman-Journal newspaper reported that the Marion County grand jury
convened for the case refused to indict on the charge of unlawful
manufacture of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, a
class A felony (the same felony class as Murder) returning a finding of
'not true bill'. In our judicial system grand juries are such a
formality in virtually all cases that it has been widely stated that
any attorney worth the name can indict a ham sandwich for murder.
Apparently one can only conclude one of three things
regarding Marion County Deputy District Attorney Courtland Geyer, the
DA official quoted in the article and presumably the attorney carrying
the case to the grand jury - either they had no case in the first
place, that Marion County Deputy District Attorney Courtland Geyer is
clearly not much of an attorney, or (the most likely conclusion) BOTH.
Voter Power was initially founded by several activists, including renowned hemp activist Jack Herer, in response to the 1997 attempt by the Oregon Legislature to recriminalize personal amounts of marijuana. Also in 1997, Voter Power's Executive Director, John Sajo, and Legal Counsel, Leland Berger, helped draft the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA). Voter Power joined other activists who hoped and dreamed to live in a state where personal cannabis consumers and medical patients were not treated as criminals. They very easily could have given into fear. Fear that they couldn't get enough signatures in time, fear that they may lose the election and fear that the federal government would interfere and still arrest patients or prevent the medical marijuana law from implementation. But Oregon activists chose not to overcome their fears and fight for their hopes and dreams.
In 1998 Voter Power helped lead the successful grassroots "No on 57,
Yes on 67" campaign. The "No on 57" portion of the campaign was a
referendum on a law passed by the Oregon Legislature in 1997
criminalizing possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. The "Yes
on 67" portion was the campaign to legalize medical marijuana by
passing the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA). Oregon voters were
given the opportunity to go back in time and treat personal marijuana
possession as a crime or they could keep possession decriminalized, as
it had been in Oregon since 1972, and move forward with a comprehensive
medical marijuana law that would be an example for other states to
follow. Oregon voters decided to move forward and live in a state
where personal marijuana possession is not a crime and where we treat
sick and disabled patients with compassion, instead of as criminals.
Politicians must love billion-dollar boondoggles because they can't help
proposing them. Republican Kevin Mannix's plan to recriminalize medical
marijuana and provide a taxpayer handout to the pharmaceutical industry could
easily cost our state millions upon millions of dollars.
His so-called Oregon Crimefighting Act (Letters, July 26) would not reduce
crime by making thousands of sick and disabled patients felons. Patients use
medical marijuana to help them retain their sight despite their glaucoma and to
help them survive through chemotherapy treatments.
Mannix wants to force hard-working Oregonians to shell out their money to
the pharmaceutical industry for drugs that patients don't even want. Please
don't be fooled by yet another Republican boondoggle. Don't support Initiative
Petition 104.
ANTHONY JOHNSON Political director, Voter Power Southeast Portland
Starting in the 1930s, our nation's first drug czar, Harry Anslinger , used
yellow journalism to play upon citizens' racism to escalate the war on
cannabis. Anslinger claimed that most users were "Negroes, Hispanics,
Filipinos, and entertainers" and that "marijuana causes white women
to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others."
It is sad to see Willamette Week also used to push this war. On June
21, 2006, WW reported ["The Mexican Connection" ] that
"Mexican cartels are moving into Oregon"
and that a police sergeant "has spotted suspected drug bosses in snakeskin
boots and white cowboy hats lined up outside clubs blaring mariachi
music." Now, Portland
has been invaded by "Asian crime rings from north of the border" who set
up "high-tech marijuana grows" that have "a detrimental effect
on the other houses in the neighborhood. [And] we're talking about some decent
neighborhoods" ["Canadian Bakin'," June 27].
WW should be illustrating the idiocy of this war, instead of perpetuating
it. Over 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco, but not a single death
can be attributed to cannabis. We tax and regulate tobacco, but spend millions
arresting and imprisoning people for possessing and growing cannabis. WW
should point out these facts and report that it is time to stop wasting
millions of dollars and that Oregon
should instead be raking in millions by taxing and regulating the use of
cannabis by adults. Then WW can quit being used to continue this foolish
war and truly live up to its mission statement.
Anthony Johnson
Political Director, Voter Power
Southeast 50th Avenue
Blogs 
Starting in the 1930s, our nation's first drug czar,