[Otishertz]

The Zombie Agenda


It's ba-aack and backed by more zombie shills than ever.


There is a hard core move underway to corner the future cannabis industry. Several initiatives have been put out there by astroturfivists. OCTA being the worst. OCTA is an example of everything bad that can be included in a "legalization" proposal. It is all about control and limitation, not legalization. OCTA creates a government monopoly where all growers and producers must sell ONLY to the government who will determine at what price and how much can be sold. OCTA also has limits on consumption and provisions that require the monitoring of consumption. What happens in cannabis is important to everyone because the systems of control and surveillance applied to our imprisoned plant are likely to be applied to other crops.


OCTA proposes a commission called OCC that will control how much can be sold, bought, and grown including at what prices and at state run stores only. It is not a good deal for anyone but big corporations. It does not create jobs for existing growers in any meaningful way. Instead it sets up multiple barriers to their entering the future market. Oregon cannabis is the sum of tens of thousands of small growers. Marijuana legalization must provide the maximum number of jobs for ordinary Oregonians, not the maximum advantage for corporations.


A diverse well represented market of top shelf craft grown cannabis is not going to come from the same old faceless global corporations that have driven out quality all across the Country. It will come from the tens of thousands of small growers who currently risk their freedom to keep strains alive. Oregon Cannabis needs a democratic structure, not an autocratic one. The future of cannabis in Oregon needs to be about jobs and not control. If everyone is forced to sell to and through the government you don't have commerce, just lines to queue before bureaucrats with your offerings and groveling. Current growers only gain a Master with OCTA.


In OCTA, seven political people in the OCC committee decide the fate of every patient, consumer, and grower while controlling a government monopoly that imposes crop size limits, price controls, potency controls, retail purchase limits, bodily cannabis limits for presumption of impairment, and limits due process with presumption of negligence. The OCTA monopoly further limits those who wish to grow or produce with a closed bidding process that will be controlled by the mysterious and unaccountable seven commissioners of the OCC. This closed bidding process is tailor made for nepotism and corporate lobbyist influence.


The proposed OCC being the only buyer of cannabis and the only seller of cannabis allows your consumption to be monitored by the government. A disturbing amount of private property inspections and surveillance will be required by OCTA to enforce quotas and monitor consumption. Most prefer their safety "TSA free" without all the disingenuous surveillance.


Willamette Week is doing its bi-annual fluff piece on pot where they shill for the corporate state agenda to seize the future recreational cannabis market. If you support an open market with low barriers to entry for current growers and wish to limit the influence of large corporations in the formation of the future cannabis market please let them know how you feel.

I ask those who are interested in the truth to please read their actual proposal and think about what the words will mean in practice. OCTA backers pay people to promote this idea with falsehoods designed to entice the unsuspecting public into signing off on this plan by framing it as a free market and legalization when the truth couldn't be further. Please look at their proposal and not at their propaganda trolls.



    http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-18721-weed_all_about_it.html#commAjax



The author and commentators specifically refute parts of The OCTA initiative below. They are written on the OCTA site for anyone to see. I guess they never thought anyone would look.



    http://www.cannabistaxact.org/octa2012-text



        474.035 Powers and duties of the commission

        (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. (Equitably apportioning implies a limit. This is a quota on the size of the entire cannabis crop.) The commission shall purchase and sell cannabis products of the quality and grade set by market demand. (This sentence conflicts with the previous sentence. You can only say one or the other.)

        (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. (This section excludes the little guy. Closed bidding processes are tailor made for domination by large corporations and their paid lobbyists. Notice how they want your ENTIRE crop within 4 months! )

        474.055 Commission to set price and sell through OCC stores. The commission shall sell cannabis through OCC 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 or to purchase cannabis for resale or for removal to other states. (this is a monopoly.)

        474.105 Commission may limit purchases. (sales and consumption limits)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.

        474.215 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 impaired by cannabis at the time of an accident and if the person's actions materially contributed to the cause of injury. (If you use cannabis medicinally, particularly if you take it internally, you will be presumed negligent if you crash your car even though there is essentially no evidence of pot related car crashes. )


    ...

[Otishertz]

I started a grower's bill of rights to demand be included in all legalization propositions to prevent barriers to our entering the future recreational marketplace.


Grower's Bill of Rights


In the interest of maximum self-employment of Oregonians there shall be:

        1.   No grower forced to work without pay or profit.

        2.   No monetary barriers to entry for growers entering any aspect of the cannabis industry beyond
              administrative fees for licensing and safety inspections.

        3.   No centralized state stores, farms or processors.

        4.   No price controls. No sale limits.

        5.   No educational barriers to entry for growers except where directly tied to sanitation, crop purity,
              or safety.

        6.   No limitations on the number of cannabis licenses.

        7.   No limitation, exclusion, or segregation that prevents an individual from entering a cannabis
              related business.

        8.   No exclusions on previously arrested growers.

        9.   No regulatory capture. No more than 10% of regulators can be from the largest 10% of cannabis
              companies and so on for all other deciles. Regulators chosen in bi-annual online vote. Regulators
              can be recalled any time by online petition and vote.

        10. No secrecy. No corporate contractors approved by private bidding. All government contractors are
              responsible and accountable in all aspects the same as the government itself.

        11. No unaccountable rule by committee. Instead, all licensed industry participants, including
              regulatory authorities deliberate and vote on the fate of any new initiative openly using internet
              forums and user groups.

        12. No genetically modified cannabis. Cannabis is unique in the plant kingdom. Artificially altering or
              splicing cannabis DNA shall be a felony punishable by 15 years in prison. Releasing genetically
              altered pollen into the air shall be a felony offense with a minimum 50 years in prison and no
              parole. In cases where the perpetrator is a corporation, each director will be held equally liable.



         Any provision that conflicts with this bill of rights will be null and void without nullifying the whole law.




For more information please see this earlier post:



Topic: OCTA 2012 "Activists" Propose Total Takeover and Corporate State Monopoly, Again

http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=58.0


Analysis of current OMMP law and related information:

http://www.otisgardens.com/forum/index.php?topic=128.0

[Otishertz]

More blog baloney:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/ptof3/oregon_cannabis_tax_act_octa_2012_would_legalize/



People in Washington who are unhappy with the faux legalization Initiative 502:

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/03/01/were-not-anti-legalization-were-anti-bad-policy

As an individual who has worked publicly to end cannabis prohibition, and as someone who fully understands how painfully archaic and dangerous prohibition is, it's quite difficult to find myself so adamantly opposed to our state's Initiative 502. However, when giving it an impartial look (especially from a legal and constitutional standpoint), it becomes quite clear, at the very least, that things are not what they're being presented as.

Meanwhile back in Oregon, a total lack of differentiation between proposals:

http://www.theweedblog.com/recap-of-the-2012-cannabis-law-reform-conference-hosted-by-oregon-ssdp/?wpmp_switcher=mobile

One question that came up quite a bit was whether or not each campaign would support the other ones if they didn't make the ballot themselves.  Overwhelmingly, the answer was yes.  To quote Madeline Martinez, "I don't care who's driving the bus, I just want to be on the fuckin bus!"  Her comment received an instant cheer from the crowd.

[wylde_breeding]

Whats sad is people never get to see what's on the bill, and it's never defined on what it would mean for the US citizens and our welfare as well!

[--- - .. ... .... . .-. - --..]

More OCTA Zombie Shills:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/rt3rj/just_a_reminder_that_marijuana_legalization_is/

[toe]

         Nice conversation these folks are entertaining over there,*chuckles*...I'd love to read the deleted posts.  Me?  My bitch is:  If you are a patient and you are "shilling" for legalization you are being rephukingdundant(pot is already legal for sick-folk. DUH!)... perhaps widening the critirea to become a patient would be less "malingering-drug-seeker" or "drug-producing-dealer-with-an-idea-for-funding-their-retirement" looking.  Neither M.O. is of a "healing attitude", medicinal or trustworthy spirit.

            I  wouldn't get in a car with any of these peeps... Toe

[Otishertz]

This thread is about corporate state monopolies and the future cannabis industry so I'll try not digress too much. My gripe is with smokers and patients who can't read a few paragraphs and post an opinion in their own defense or for a better future. Some of the initiatives in Oregon and Washington criminalize a medical blood content with presumption of negligence and other things.

The recreational legalizers are not concerned with medicine. They are primarily smokers, hustlers, and shills. Smoking is the least medicinal form of cannabis use. With smoking, most benefits are outweighed by eventual aerobic distress. The real medicine is the oil. Since beginning with oiI I don't even smoke any more, except on rare social occasions. I have experienced major benefits and near elimination of my spine and hip pain with full extract cannabis oil. However, not without personal cost of strained relationships and other risks associated with an unsupervised self-medicated heavy drug treatment.

Therein lies the real tragedy of medical marijuana. Patients are left to experiment on themselves with drugs that have little standardization because of the lack of legal monetary incentives for skilled growers. It creates an accountability problem because the medical supply is thoroughly intermingled with the black market where growers necessarily remain hidden.

We are health outcasts. Many of us, self employed men in particular, have no health care and are excluded by the insurers who control medicine for not being healthy enough. For people like me, cannabis is a last resort, and the light at the end of the tunnel.

[--- - .. ... .... . .-. - --..]

This thing went down in Oregon in November with no organized resistance. Oregonians were smart to reject the M80 takeover attempt. Look for the the zombie agenda to return, janky and relentless.

Before the election I posted on Portland Reddit and media articles linked from there and elsewhere. Portland Reddit has lots of political activism and heavy troll on troll action. The site's record of my comments contains essentially all of what I said about M80 since my last post here.

http://www.reddit.com/user/otishertz9000

I also posted reasons to vote no at NGF and OGF. The OGF threads stank with insults. I had a broken arm and maybe a week went by before I got back to the internet. The first thread had self destructed and was closed. Another called "Take Two" posted by someone using my name  also self destructed and was closed. Their numbers have declined and recently they vacated their clinic, grow store, and resource center.

Colorado and Washington legalized possession of up to and ounce for 21+, Don't know that much about Co but Washington has horrible tax rape with three 25% taxes at the production, processing, and retail segments of their coming market. That's what they get for being first and legalizing at all costs. Oregon can easily be more competitive in selling cannabis and attracting cannabis industry jobs for when pot goes nationwide.

Future initiatives that ensure small growers access to opportunity will give medical growers a firm footing in the future recreational market. Oregon can then tap its diverse home grown skill base and dominate of the future high end craft market, ideally analogous to the craft brew market, without the OLCC type bureaucracy.


The best result for growers and diversity and innovation in the future cannabis industry will come from limiting the influence of the large supranational colonial corporations that have depreciated product quality, living wages and quality of life all over the World.