Oregon lawmakers have discovered an unexpected source of revenue — medical marijuana.
When Oregon began its medical marijuana program six years ago, officials didn’t expect it to grow so fast. Now, there are more than 10,400 registered patients who have produced a surplus of $1.1 million.
Hungry to balance Oregon’s lopsided budget, House legislators voted 49-10 last week to siphon $900,000 of that money to pay for other Human Services’ needs. The bill now moves to the Senate.
In a written response, the American Family Association denounced the entire state of Oregon and urged all ‘good Christians’ to move to Idaho, where the state plant is not an arm of Satan, but the more heavenly potato.
And yes, I made up the AFA response- but what is frightening is it sounds so damned realistic, particularly if you have listened to things like these anti-gay Christian phone company solicitations.
JG
‘Hungry’ to balance…. LOL I don’t know why but the word ‘hungry’ just looks funny in that spot after a paragraph about the number of people in the pot program.
Stormy70
I like how Oregon was quick to siphon off the excess revenue. Typical.
SeesThroughIt
I dunno, Stormy…it may turn out to be a smart political move. Like you can say, “Look, our medical marijuana program not only offers medicine to the sick, but its revenues help fund other Human Services needs.” Makes the whole thing kinda win-win, ya know? Attack the medical marijuana program and you attack Human Services. Not that I personally believe that’s true–I think one could attack one without attacking the other implicitly or otherwise–but creating such an equivalency is sadly important in politics.
At any rate, I’m rather curious to see how this pans out. If Oregon can demonstrate that a medical marijuana program can be safe, ethical, and across-the-board helpful, it could set a shining an example. On the other hand, if they’re just using the program as a cash cow…not so good.
Stormy70
Government will use anything they can as a cash cow. Personally, I think marijuana should be legal, and govenment should keep their grubby paws off of it. The same for cigarettes and alcohol.
Kimmitt
Look, our medical marijuana program not only offers medicine to the sick, but its revenues help fund other Human Services needs.
Yeah, but we live in the era of “starve the beast;” I thought the point was to make it impossible to fund Human Services needs so we can return to the Social Darwinist utopia of the 1890s.