The election was a good day for drug activists in Oregon, and the main reason for this is the Governor-elect Tina Kotek will follow in the current Governor’s footsteps.
A Democrat was elected as the next Governor. Her two opponents were both against Measure 110, which passed in 2020 and would decriminalize small possessions of many illicit drugs. However, Kotek and the Democrat legislation that was also voted into power are in support of the measure. This means the measure won’t be repealed, and will give the measure more time to create data that can be studied about its effectiveness.
In addition to this, the current Governor of Oregon, Kate Brown, has just announced that she is granting a pardon of 45,000 marijuana possession offenses in the state. For comparison sake, Biden’s sweeping pardon a month ago effected about 6,000 people.
No one deserves to be saddled with the impacts of a simple possession of marijuana conviction—a crime that is no longer on the books in Oregon. I am pardoning these prior Oregon offenses, an act that will impact an estimated 45,000 individuals. https://t.co/mT9bcYzCcV
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) November 21, 2022
It’s a huge move, and in the coming years we may start to see the effect of these actions. Oregon has topped lists of the states with most addiction difficulties, so we’ll be eager to see how this starts to move the needle.
Read the original article at Marijuana Moment.
