A push to legalize both marijuana and hemp in the state of Oregon has been suspended until the organizers can, well, re-organize. The bill that they were pushing to have passed is called the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, and apparently what held it back was that the campaign focused on the marijuana side of the bill and neglected the hemp side of it. As StopTheDrugWar.org reports:
An initiative that would have provided for the nation’s first legal, regulated sale of marijuana for personal use is on hold. The organizers of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) announced last weekend that they were suspending signature gathering for the proposed 2010 initiative after it did poorly in initial polling.
[...]
But OCTA as written wasn’t selling itself to potential voters, said Dr. Rick Bayer, chief petitioner for the 1998 OMMA. The initial polling results proved as much, he said. Neither the ballot title nor the summary of the initiative won majorities.
[...]
“The OCTA ballot title, saying nothing about hemp, was politically unattractive,” said Bayer, who had access to detailed polling results. “The ballot title alone polled 30%. Reading the summary, a far better — but longer — description of the OCTA, raised supporters to 39%. Telling people about the hemp part and re-polling the ballot title raised supporters to 42%.”That’s not good enough, said Bayer. “Tax & Regulate polling at 42% if it had a good ballot title is the best I can make it. Even though 42% is good compared to the national average for tax & regulate, it won’t win. These stats had a 95% confidence level or +/- 5%, so the results seem pretty reliable. Even to the most statistically challenged, it was clear that OCTA was not going to win.”
This underscores the importance of separating industrial hemp from marijuana completely. There’s no doubt medical marijuana can help a lot of people, but the benefits of mainstreaming industrial hemp seriously out-pave anything offered by recreational or medical marijuana. As we’ve argued before:
You see, legally distinguishing between the two plants can be done, and is done effectively in countries such as Canada and France. Where pro-hemp lobbyists should be starting from, then, is the economic and industrial potential of hemp — such as the HIA does in its efforts.
There is still too much stigma around the cannabis plant to reasonably expect both hemp and marijuana to be jointly legalized and regulated. By distinguishing the two, however, people and the economy can begin to start benefiting from, well, the benefits of industrial hemp.
Given the current state of the planet, its environment, and the economy, hemp activists need to choose their battles more intelligently. Yes, marijuana is probably overly controlled in many jurisdictions, but hemp is not the same plant, and there is no need to see hemp bogged down by the stigma surrounding marijuana. Hemp activists need to get their priorities straight and focus on bringing industrial hemp into the mainstream before pushing for the decriminalization or outright legalization of marijuana.