Decoding Marijuana Measure 119

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

NO on MEASURE 119: Ballot Measure 119 silences business owners to help boost unions in the cannabis business.

Measure 119 uses state law to interfere with private business decisions by blocking cannabis company owners from communicating their views on unionization with their own employees.  No matter where people stand on marijuana police, we should all agree that government law shouldn’t be manipulated or game the system in favor of unions.

The Oregonian notes, “Cunningham-Parmeter characterized Measure 119 as having a state mandate that all employers in a single industry not speak ill of unions, which would be unusual.“It would represent an ongoing gag order against cannabis employers to keep their mouths shut when it comes to unions,” he said.”

Additionally, Oregonians were promised that legalizing marijuana would make it safe and legal and eliminate the criminal black market. Instead, the illegal criminal black market has grown bigger than before and drives legal shops out of business. Marijuana sales have fallen nearly 20% since 2021 (The Oregonian 2/25/24). Some legal shop owners are even selling their product on the black market to survive.

It turns out our legal shops paying high taxes and dealing with high red-tape regulations simply cannot compete against untaxed and completely unregulated street pot. Legal shops paying some of the highest minimum wages and among the most generous leave benefits in America cannot compete with human trafficking, slave-like farm operations being run illegally across Oregon. Just this year in April, police busted a massive $6 million illegal marijuana farm that ran across six Oregon counties (Clatsop, Columbia, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, and Polk).

Politico reports on the black market, “Over the last two years, there’s been such an influx of outlaw farmers that southern Oregon now rivals California’s notorious Emerald Triangle as a national center of illegal weed cultivation. Even though marijuana cultivation has been legal in Oregon since 2014, Jackson County Sheriff Nate Sickler says there could be up to 1,000 illegal operations in a region of more than 4,000 square miles …  Legal states such as Oregon and California — which have been supplying the nation for nigh on 60 years — are still furnishing the majority of America’s illegal weed.”   That is right, Oregon is a foundation of illegal pot for the rest of America.

Measure 119 risks hurting the already fragile and declining legal cannabis industry while empowering the illegal criminal market.

P.S. Don’t forget, as legal marijuana fails in Oregon, the more places like the City of Portland divert millions of city tax dollars to fund pot shops (through economic development funds) to prop up the troubled market as they do now.  Even the Secretary of State tried to push for more government resources to help the Oregon pot market.   If you want to help the market, try demolishing the illegal black market.

— Who else is talking about the Marijuana Measure 119?  Not enough debate on this issue if you ask us.  If you appreciate original and timely analysis of ballot measures, please contribute online to support future articles at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).