Did you know
that in 2007, 873,000 people
were arrested for marijuana offenses in the U.S., and 90% of them were just for possession?
Did you know that the U.S. Constitution
and the Declaration of
Independence were written on
hemp paper and that
hemp used to be
a major agricultural crop
in the United States?
Industrial Hemp
is Legal in many countries throughout Europe and Asia, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and China (where it was never prohibited).
Over 25,000 products can be manufactured from hemp, from cellophane to dynamite. Popular Mechanics, 1938
Most people don't want to legalize pot, all the polls say so!
Polls from 2006/07 say a MAJORITY of Westerners say "Relax it and tax it".
How will we ever be able to stop pot DUIs if marijuana is legal?
How do we stop pot DUIs now? OCTA maintains all DUI penalties.
Won't OCTA make it easier for teens to get cannabis?
Nearly 84% of high school seniors ALREADY find it easy to get cannabis!
How will $300M/yr in OCTA money benefit the State of Oregon?
90% of OCTA goes to the general fund, the rest funds rehab, education, & hemp.
I don't use cannabis, so why should I care about passing OCTA?
Spend $61.5M/yr on busting cannabis users, or earn $300M/yr taxing them?
Won't sales of cannabis in adult stores mean more people using cannabis?
Everyone who wants to use cannabis already is... on the uncontrolled black market!
OCTA sends the wrong message about cannabis to teenagers!
Since medical marijuana passed in Oregon, teen cannabis use went down.
OCTA's a good idea, but it will never survive a federal court challenge
OCTA was drafted to obey the Constitution and US International Drug Treaties
We have enough problems with drugs, why have another one?
We sell beer and cigarettes, which kill >520,000 a year; cannabis kills ZERO.
Won't we see more safety issues in the workplace if OCTA passes?
OCTA keeps all drug-free workplace policies and DUI laws intact.
Marijuana is a gateway drug, more people will get hooked on hard drugs!
The gateway theory is a myth - most cannabis users never try other drugs.
What are the benefits of growing an industrial hemp crop in Oregon?
Greener cheaper fuel and industry for our farmers and timber workers.
Heroes
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. Thomas Jefferson
In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Martin Luther King Jr.
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot long retain it. Abraham Lincoln
Make the most of the hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!
George Washington
Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.
Thomas Jefferson
It took courageous people to stand up and question the prohibition against alcohol. Rick Steves
Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 's Details
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The Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH) goal is to educate people about the medicinal and industrial uses for cannabis in our global society in order to restore hemp cultivation and end adult cannabis prohibition.
We have recently revised and refiled the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2010 (OCTA) petition and are in the process of gathering 1000 sponsorship signatures. After this first step, we will be given an official ballot title from the state. After polling, we will begin circulating our petition across Oregon. We will need 100,000 valid signatures by July, 2, 2010 to qualify for the November 2010 election. In order to be successful, this mission will require key assistance from volunteers across Oregon.
We can take the first steps for the rest of our country toward an energy source based on sustainability, life and growth, as well as naturally based food, medicine, sacrament, and recreation. Industrial Hemp will save many farms and cannabis will be regulated and sold through adult only stores, with tax proceeds generating millions of dollars toward the General Fund, thus ending the unjust war on cannabis.
This site provides an introduction to OCTA, publishes the full text of law (OCTA), and explains why CTA will be upheld in a court of law.
OCTA was carefully crafted over a period of years, with the input of dozens of people. The first third of the text, or Preamble, is a finding by the people, giving the reasons we are breaking from federal drug scheduling.
When it is passed, this groundbreaking legislation will:
Protect children! This is the real Protect Our Children; initiative. The Cannabis Tax Act (CTA) will take the lucrative marijuana market out of the blackmarket where children and substance abusers often control it today, and place it in adult only stores, where the age limit of 21 and older is strictly enforced.
Help farmers! We will license farmers to cultivate cannabis for both medicinal and adult private use. Farmers will be able to grow industrial hemp without a license, for paper, fabric, protein and oil.
Allow doctors to prescribe untaxed cannabis through pharmacies, so patients won't have to grow their own or buy medicine illegally.
Raise millions of dollars in new public revenue, lowering the tax burden on all and saving you money. Take the profit out of crime.
Restore industrial hemp, the most productive agricultural source of fiber protein and oil. Hemp seed oil is diesel fuel. The first cordage, cloth and paper were invented from hemp fiber.
Wipe out the black-market. The CTA allows police and the courts to concentrate on real criminals that hurt others, not arrest, prosecute and jail harmless, productive adult cannabis users. Stop our government from tearing families apart. Let's show real family values and end cannabis prohibition.
Oregonians have already benefited from cannabis by receiving $900,000 from the selffunding Oregon Medical Marijuana Program into the state general fund. Replacing prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation will produce combined savings and tax revenues of an estimated $300 million per year.
Let's take the profits away from drug cartels and use it to support our state's economy and social programs. Let's stop our government from tearing families apart with senseless arrests and prosecution. Let's show real family values and positive change for our environment by ending cannabis prohibition in all its forms.
Marijuana: It's Time For A Conversation
we believe that the main reason hemp is illegal today is because of biodiesel's potential. The first diesel engines (by Rudolph Diesel in 1894) were invented to run on hempseed oil; petroleum wasn't synthesized to mimic hempseed oil for over a decade. Therefore hempseed oil was the primary fuel for automobiles for over 30 years after the invention of the first internal combustion engine.
Entry into the biodiesel market has very low capital entry requirements and is, therefore, not centralized. Among the benefits of using biodiesel:
Start an economic boom!
Use vegetable seed oil (biodiesel).
Run any diesel engine with no engine conversion at all.
Make biodiesel from hemp, soybean, rapeseed/canola and safflower seed oil.
Save family farms.
Return economic control to the people!
Naturally decentralize wealth.
Stop global warming.
Stop A lot of toxic pollution.
Create a useful byproduct: food.
Petroleum is Out of Balance; Biodiesel is Sustainable and In Balance.
In comparison, petroleum is capital intensive and, therefore, centralized. To maintain market share, the petroleum industries wanted to prohibit hemp.
The reason marijuana is illegal has very little to do with drugs, and is really about money and the continued centralization of economic and political control. Hemp seed oil is biodiesel and is three times more productive than any other seed oil crop, and hemp seed oil will run any diesel engine today with no modification. Hemp oil is the reason the petrochemical industry made up the "reefer madness" myth. They renamed hemp, using racist propaganda, calling it marijuana, and lied to make it illegal. There is a truth that must be heard!
Cannabis sativa is the oldest and most resourceful crop sown. In fact, sativa means "useful" in Latin. Industrial hemp could supply most of mankind's fuel, fiber and food needs and will be the agent of transformation for our economy away from many toxic petrochemical products to nontoxic, agriculturally based alternatives.
The Proposed Law:
The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act
Whereas the people of the State of Oregon find that Cannabis hemp is an environmentally beneficial crop that:
(a) Yields several times more fiber, for paper and textiles, than any other plant;
(b) Yields cloth and paper of superior strength and durability without the application of pesticides during cultivation and without producing cancer-causing pollutants during processing;
(c) Yields more seed oil and protein, for prodigious and ecological biodiesel fuel, plastics and nutritious food, than any other plant;
(d) Yields more biomass than any other plant outside the tropics, though it grows well in the tropics too, and grows faster than any other plant on earth in the temperate and cooler climates;
(e) Yields a substance that relieves the suffering of many ill people without life-threatening side effects; and,
Whereas the people find that federal and corporate misinformation campaigns that economically benefit small groups of people have suppressed the information above and the fact that:
(a) George Washington grew cannabis for more than 30 years and, while he was President, said, “the artificial preparation of hemp is really a curiosity” and told his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, that he was, “suggesting the policy of encouraging the growth of Hemp”;
(b) Thomas Jefferson invented a device to process cannabis, and cannabis fiber was used for most clothing and paper production until the invention of the cotton gin;
(c) Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, who spoke at the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787 more than any other delegate and of whom James Madison said, “the style and finish of the Constitution properly belongs to the pen of Gouverneur Morris,” wrote a paper he sent to Thomas Jefferson called, “Notes Respecting Tobacco” that compared cannabis and tobacco and concluded that cannabis “is to be preferred”; and,
Whereas the people find that cannabis is Oregon’s largest cash crop, indicating that cannabis prohibition has failed;
and
Whereas the people find that, despite misinformation concocted to justify cannabis prohibition, the courts of Alaska, Hawaii and Michigan have noted presidential commission findings, scientific studies, and learned treatises which:
(a) Characterize cannabis as a relatively nonaddictive and comparatively harmless euphoriant used and cultivated for more than 10,000 years without a single lethal overdose;
(b) Demonstrate that moderate cannabis intoxication causes very little impairment of psychomotor functions; reveal no significant physical, biochemical, or mental abnormalities attributable solely to cannabis use; and that long-term, heavy cannabis users do not deviate significantly from their social peers in terms of mental function;
(c) Disprove the “stepping stone” or “gateway drug” argument that cannabis use leads to other drugs; rather, that lies taught about cannabis, once discovered, destroy the credibility of valid educational messages about moderate and responsible use and valid warnings against other truly dangerous drugs;
(d) Indicate that cannabis users are less likely to commit violent acts than alcohol users, refute the argument that cannabis causes criminal behavior, and suggest that most users avoid aggressive behavior, even in the face of provocation; and
(e) Declare that cannabis use does not constitute a public health problem of any significant dimension; finds no rational basis for treating cannabis as more dangerous than alcohol; and
Whereas the people of the State of Oregon find that cannabis does not cause the social ills that its prohibition was intended to guard against; rather, that most of the social ills attributed to cannabis result from its unreasonable prohibition which:
(a) Provides incentives to traffic in marijuana instead of limiting its prevalence, since almost all cannabis users evade the prohibition, even though drastically expanding public safety budgets have reduced funding for other vital services such as education;
(b) Fosters a black market that exploits children, provides an economic subsidy for gangs, and sells cannabis of questionable purity and uncertain potency;
(c) Generates enormous, untaxed, illicit profits that debase our economy and corrupt our justice system; and,
(d) Wastes police resources, clogs our courts, and drains the public budget to no good effect; and,
Whereas, the people recall that alcohol prohibition had caused many of the same social ills before being replaced by regulatory laws which, ever since, have granted alcohol users the privilege of buying alcohol from state licensees, imposed strict penalties protecting children, delivered alcohol of sure potency, and generated substantial public revenues; and,
Whereas the people hold that cannabis prohibition is a sumptuary law of a nature repugnant to our constitution’s framers and which is so unreasonable and liberticidal as to:
(a) Arbitrarily violate the rights of cannabis users to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure as guaranteed to them by Article 1, Section 9 of the Oregon Constitution;
(b) Unreasonably impose felony burdens on the cannabis users while the state grants special privileges to alcohol users, which violates Article 1, Section 20 of the Oregon Constitution;
(c) Unnecessarily proscribe consumption of an “herb bearing seed” given to humanity in Genesis 1:29, thereby violating their unqualified religious rights under Article 1, Section 3 and their Natural Rights under Article 1, Section 33 of the Oregon Constitution;
(d) Violates the individual’s right to privacy and numerous other Natural and Constitutional Rights reserved to the people under Article 1, Section 33 of the Oregon Constitution;
(e) Violates the state’s right to regulate and tax an intoxicant market as reserved to states under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, thereby abdicating control to illicit markets; and,
(f) Irrationally subvert the ends to which, in its Preamble, the Oregon Constitution was ordained and the purposes, in Article 1, Section 1, for which our government was instituted; now,
Therefore, the people find that the constitutional ends of justice, order, and the perpetuation of liberty; the governmental purposes of preserving the peace, safety, and happiness of the people; and the vitality of the other constitutional provisions cited above, demand the replacement of a costly, self-defeating prohibition with regulatory laws controlling cannabis cultivation, potency, sale, and use; defining and prohibiting cannabis abuse; protecting children with a comprehensive drug education program and strict penalties for the sale or provision of cannabis to minors; funding state drug abuse treatment programs; promoting Oregon hemp for fuel, fiber and food; and raising substantial revenue for public use.
Wherefore, be it enacted by the people of the state of Oregon, the laws relating to cannabis are revised as follows:
Section 1. This Act shall operate uniformly throughout Oregon and fully replace and supersede all statutes, municipal charter enactments, and local ordinances relating to cannabis, except those relating to operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. A new state commission is hereby created and shall be called the Oregon Cannabis Control Commission, or the OCCC. The OCCC shall regulate the sale of cannabis and cultivation of cannabis for sale. The OCCC shall consist of seven members, with a minimum of five members chosen for their expertise in the cultivation of cannabis and assuring the quality of the resulting products. This Act is a scientific experiment by the people of the state of Oregon to lower the misuse of, illicit traffic in and harm associated with cannabis and will set up voluntary studies of cannabis users under ORS 474.045 (b) and other studies.
Section 2. Section 3 of this Act creates an ORS chapter 474 titled the “Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.” Legislative Counsel shall move and renumber existing provisions of chapter 474.
Section 3. 474.005 Definitions. As used in this chapter:
(1) “Abuse” means repetitive or excessive drug use such that the individual fails to fulfill a statutory or common law duty, including but not limited to the duties owed by parents to children, by motorists to pedestrians and other motorists, and by employees to employers, fellow employees, and the public.
(2) “Cannabis” means the flowering tops and all parts, derivatives, or preparations of the cannabis plant, also known as “marijuana,” containing cannabinoids in concentrations established by the commission to be psychoactive, but does not include “hemp” as defined by ORS 474.005(5).
(3) “Commission” means the the Oregon Cannabis Control Commission, or OCCC.
(4) “Cultivation” means growing the cannabis plant.
(5) “Hemp” means the seeds, stems, and stalks of the cannabis plant, and all other parts, products, and byproducts of the cannabis plant not containing cannabinoids in concentrations established by the commission to be psychoactive. Seeds and starts of all cannabis strains shall be considered hemp.
(6) “Person” means a natural individual or corporate entity of any kind whatsoever.
474.015 Short Title. This chapter may be cited as the “Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.”
474.025 Purpose of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act. This chapter shall be liberally construed so as to minimize the misuse and abuse of cannabis; to prevent the illicit sale or provision of cannabis to minors; and to protect the peace, safety, and happiness of Oregonians while preserving the largest measure of liberty consistent with the above purposes.
474.035 Powers and duties of the commission, licenses for cultivation and processing. Hemp fiber, protein, oil not regulated.
(1) The commission shall have the powers necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter. It shall make such rules and regulations as will discourage and minimize the diversion of cannabis to illicit sale or use within the state, the illicit importation and sale of cannabis cultivated or processed outside the state, and the illicit export or removal of cannabis from the state. The commissions jurisdiction shall extend to any person licensed under this chapter to cultivate or process cannabis, but shall not extend to any person who manufactures products from hemp. Hemp production for fiber, protein and oil shall be allowed without regulation, license or fee. No federal license shall be required to cultivate hemp in Oregon.
(2) The commission shall issue to any qualified applicant a license to cultivate cannabis for sale to the commission. The license shall specify the areas, plots, and extent of lands to be cultivated. The commission shall equitably apportion the purchase of cannabis among all licensees. The commission shall purchase and sell cannabis products of the quality and grade set by market demand.
(3) The commission shall issue licenses to process cannabis to qualified applicants who submit successful bids. Licensed processors shall, as specified by the commission, contract, cure, extract, refine, mix, and package the entire cannabis crop and deliver it to the commission’s physical possession as soon as possible, but not later than four months after harvest.
474.045 Commission to sell cannabis at cost for medical purposes. The Commission shall sell cannabis at cost, including OCCC expenses:
(a) To Oregon and other states’ pharmacies and OCCC stores for use under a physician’s order for glaucoma, nausea related to chemotherapy, AIDS, or any other condition for which a physician finds cannabis to be an effective treatment; and,
(b) To recognized Oregon medical research facilities for use in research directed toward expanding medical and sociological knowledge of the composition, effects, uses, and abuse of cannabis, to include studies of cannabis purchasers voluntarily participating through OCCC stores under ORS 474.055.
474.055 Commission to set price and sell through OCCC stores. The commission shall sell cannabis through OCCC stores and shall set the retail price of cannabis to generate profits for revenue to be applied to the purposes noted in ORS chapter 474 and to minimize incentives to purchase cannabis elsewhere, to purchase cannabis for resale or for removal to other states.
474.065 Qualifications of purchasers and licensees, effect of conviction.
(1) To be qualified to purchase, cultivate, or process cannabis, a person must be over 21 years of age and not have been convicted of sale of cannabis to minors or convicted under this chapter of unlicensed cultivation or sale of cannabis.
(2) Conviction for cultivation or sale of cannabis to other than minors, when committed prior to the effective date of this chapter, shall not be grounds for denial of an application for a license under this chapter.
(3) The cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal, noncommercial use by an adult shall not require a license.
474.075 Disposition of license fees and profits from sale of cannabis by state.
(1) The commission shall collect license fees which shall be calculated and continually appropriated to defray the commission’s administrative costs of issuing licenses under this chapter and the Attorney General’s costs of litigation in defense of the validity of this chapter’s provisions and in defense of persons subjected to criminal or civil liability for actions licensed or required under this chapter.
(2) All money from the sale of cannabis shall be remitted to the State Treasurer for credit to a cannabis account, from which sufficient money shall be continually appropriated:
(a) To reimburse the commission for the costs of purchasing, processing, testing, grading, shipping, and selling cannabis; of regulating, inspecting, and auditing licensees; and of research studies required by this chapter; and,
(b) To reimburse the Attorney General’s office for costs of enforcing this chapter’s criminal provisions.
(c) To reimburse OCCC contractors for their expenses and labor with 15 percent of gross sales.
(3) All money remaining in the cannabis account after reimbursement of the related commission and Attorney General costs shall be profits which the State Treasurer shall distribute quarterly as follows:
(a) Ninety percent shall be credited to the state’s general fund to finance state programs.
(b) Seven percent shall be credited to the Department of Human Resources and shall be continually appropriated to fund various drug abuse treatment programs on demand.
(c) One percent shall be credited to create and fund an agricultural state committee for the promotion of Oregon hemp fiber, protein and oil crops and associated industries.
(d) One percent shall be credited to create and fund a new state commission to develop and promote biodiesel fuel production from hemp seeds. This new state commission shall be named the “Oregon Hemp Biodiesel Commission.”
(e) One percent shall be distributed to the state’s school districts, appropriated by enrollment, and shall be continually appropriated to fund a drug education program which shall:
(I) Emphasize a citizen’s rights and duties under our social compact and to explain to students how drug abusers might injure the rights of others by failing to fulfill such duties;
(II) Persuade students to decline to consume intoxicants by providing them with accurate information about the threat intoxicants pose to their mental and physical development; and,
(III) Persuade students that if, as adults, they choose to consume intoxicants, they must nevertheless responsibly fulfill all duties they owe others.
474.085 Commission to establish psychoactive concentrations of cannabinols. The commission, based on findings made in consultation with the Board of Pharmacy and cannabis and hemp farmers to cannabinoid and cannabidiol concentrations which produce intoxication, the economics of residual cannabis extraction, and strains of hemp that produce better quality and quantity of fiber, protein and oil, shall establish reasonable concentrations of cannabinols deemed psychoactive under this chapter.
474.095 Commission to set standards, test purity, grade potency of cannabis, label contents.
(1) The commission, in consultation with the State Board of Pharmacy, shall set standards which the commission shall apply:
(a) To test and reject cannabis containing adulterants in concentrations known to harm people; and,
(b) To grade cannabis potency by measuring the concentrations of psychoactive cannabinoids it contains.
(2) The commission shall affix to cannabis packages a label which shall bear the state seal, a certification of purity, a grade of potency, the date of harvest, a warning as to the potential for abuse, and notice of laws prohibiting resale, removal from the state, public consumption, and provision and sale to minors.
474.105 Commission may limit purchases. The commission may limit the quantity of cannabis purchased by a person at one time or over any length of time and may refuse to sell cannabis to any person who violates this chapter's provisions or abuses cannabis within the meaning of ORS 474.005(1).
474.115 Unlicensed cultivation for sale, removal from the state, penalties. Cultivation for sale, removal from the state for sale, and sale of cannabis, without commission authority, shall be Class C felonies, and removal from the state of cannabis for other than sale shall be a Class A misdemeanor.
474.125 Sale or provision to minors, penalties, exception. The sale of cannabis to minors shall be a Class B felony, and gratuitous provision of cannabis to minors shall be a Class A misdemeanor, except when to a minor over 18 years of age under the same conditions provided by ORS 471.030(1) for alcohol.
474.135 Fine as additional penalty. In addition to other penalties and in lieu of any civil remedy, conviction of sale or unlicensed cultivation for sale under ORS 474.115 or 474.125 shall be punishable by a fine which the court shall determine will deprive an offender of any profits from the criminal activity.
474.145 Acquisition by minors, penalty. Except as provided by ORS 474.125, the purchase, attempt to purchase, possession, or acquisition of cannabis by a person under 21 years of age shall be a violation punishable by a fine of not more than $250.
474.155 Public consumption prohibited, penalty, exception. Except where prominent signs permit and minors are neither admitted nor employed, public consumption of cannabis shall be a violation punishable by a fine of not more than $250.
474.205 Commission to study methods of use, potential for abuse, establish cannabis levels for presumption of intoxication. The commission, in consultation with the Board of Pharmacy and by grants to accredited research facilities, shall:
(a) Study methods of use and the potential for, and ill effects of, abuse of cannabis, the possible damage of throat and lungs from inhaling cannabis smoke, less harmful methods of administration, including but not limited to filtration of smoke and non-combustive vaporization of the psychoactive agents in cannabis, and shall report its findings in pamphlets distributed at OCCC stores; and,
(b) Study cannabis intoxication and, if practicable, shall establish by rule levels of impairment above which a person shall be presumed intoxicated.
474.215 Presumption of negligence. In civil cases, a rebuttable presumption of negligence shall arise upon clear and convincing evidence that a person is found to be intoxicated at the time of an accident and if the person’s actions materially contributed to the cause of injury.
474.305 Disclosure of names and addresses prohibited. Information on applicants, licensees, and purchasers under this chapter shall not be disclosed except upon the person’s request.
474.315 Attorney General's duties. The Attorney General shall vigorously defend this Act and any person prosecuted for acts licensed under this chapter, propose a federal and/or international act to remove impediments to this chapter, deliver the proposed federal and/or international act to each member of Congress and/or international organization, and urge adoption of the proposed federal and/or international act through all legal and appropriate means.
474.325 Effect. This Act shall take effect on January 1, 2011. Any section of this Act being held invalid as to any person or circumstance shall not affect the application of any other section of this Act that can be given full or partial effect without the invalid section or application. If any law or entity of any type whatsoever is held to impede this chapter's full effect, unimpeded provisions shall remain in effect and the impeded provisions shall regain effect upon the impediments removal.
Campaign for the Restoration
and Regulation of Hemp
CRRH
P.O. Box 86741
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 235-4606 http://www.crrh.org
