Oregon daily
Travel Fair
See Pages 3-5
luesday, May 8, 1984
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 150
Photo by Michael Clapp
William Conde takes a break from counting
signatures for the Oregon Marijuana Initiative Mon
day. Almost 40,000 signatures have been counted.
Oregon Marijuana Initiative
reaches 40,000 signatures
Rv Paul Frtplt . .
Of the Emerald
Their purpose was clearly stated on several T-shirts:
"Prohibition Sucks" and "Free Marijuana." And the
supporters of the Oregon Marijuana Initiative who
gathered on the deck of a South Eugene home Monday
afternoon intend to turn those sentiments into Oregon
law.
About two dozen people counted petition
signatures for the initiative, which would allow posses
sion and cultivation of marijuana for personal
consumption.
Just under 40,000 signatures have been collected,
says petitioner Fred Oerther of Portland. In order for
the measure to get on the November 6 ballot, 62,521
validated signatures must be collected by July 6.
The group hopes to collect at least 80,000
signatures, since some may be rejected by the secretary
of state's office, which checks a random sampling of
signatures to ensure they are legitimate and the signers
are properly registered.
But the the petitioners are optimistic about the in
itiative's success, even though they failed to gather
enough signatures in 1982. This time, experience, a
state-wide organization and more lead time should bet
ter ensure their success, Oerther says.
"Today we are where we were one-and-a-half or two
weeks before the deadline last time," he says.
Though the group needs more petitioners, some
people are afraid to gather signatures for a marijuana in
itiative because they fear involvement with the group
may cause-reprisals from-employers, he says.
Oerther is also optimistic about passage of the in
itiative — if its latent supporters can be convinced to
register and vote.
But younger people, who would most likely support
J«v.. W Mitajuic, icrgiaici dllU VUIC 11 t:L| U t il11 y mdll
those over 40, he says. To counter the problem, the
group plans an intensive summer campaign to register
voters.
The initiative, which would apply only to those
older than 18, would eliminate all criminal penalties for
possession or cultivation of marijuana for a person's
own consumption. The initiative does not define per
sonal consumption or prescribe any limit to the amount
of marijuana that could be grown.
'Most marijuana growers are not big
time growers. Most are people who
grow it to smoke or poor people try
ing to supplement their income.'
— Fred Oerther
Though this aspect of the measure has been criticiz
ed, Oerther says some limit would eventually be
developed by the courts or through practice. For now, it
is more important to establish that the government has
no right to interfere with what adults do on their own
property, he says.
“Basically the issue is freedom," he says.
Most marijuana users are otherwise law-abiding
citizens, Oerther says, but they are being harrassed by
law enforcement agencies whose resources would be
better used fighting more serious crime.
“Most marijuana growers are not big-time
growers," Oerther says. "Most are people who grow it
to smoke" or poor people trying to supplement their
income."
Hart leads in Oreeon noils f
By Lori Steinhauer
Of the Emerald
With the Oregon primary a week away,
Gary Hart appears to have secured the
strongest local footing of the three
Democratic presidential candidates.
Though the Hart, Walter Mondale and
Jesse Jackson Oregon state campaigns all
claim to operate on "grassroots”
budgets, the figures vary immensely.
The Hart campaign has about $30,000,
says Mike Gillett, media coordinator for
the campaign, while Mondale's Nor
thwest coordinator Steve Duncan
estimates his campaign coffers at
$10,000. The Jackson campaign has about
$6,000, says Pam Smith, co-chair for voter
registration.
Hart will make a Eugene appearance
Saturday. The exact location of his
speech has not yet been announced,
Gillett says.
Oregon supporters of the Colorado
senator are promoting the campaign by
telephone and door-to-door canvassing.
"I would estimate in any 24-hour
period during the week we have 100 to
150 volunteers, (and) on the weekends,
500 to 700 statewide," Gillett says.
By the weekend before the primary,
Gillett predicts about 1,000 volunteers
will be canvassing in Portland, Eugene,
Salem, Coos Bay, Roseburg, Medford,
Bend and Pendleton.
"We're trying to contact every
democrat in the state that is in the phone
book," Gillett says.
And surveys show support for Hart is
piled high.
Hart held 43.1 percent of the votes in a
Portland-area phone-in poll, conducted
in mid-April by Portland's KATU. In the
same poll, which asked viewers to call in
and state which democratic presidential
nominee they would vote for, Jackson
w I
placed second, gaining 29.2 percent ot
the votes and Mondale took third, with
27.8 percent of the votes.
The poll was not scientifically con
ducted, and thus subject to error, says
Ross Mason, KATU's assistant news
director.
But Hart also led in a scientific poll
conducted by the survey firm Bardsley
and Haslascher, published in the Orego
nian March 25. Of 351 registered
Democrats contacted throughout the
state, 60 percent said Hart was their first
choice, while 27 percent favored Mon
dale, 4 percent supported Jackson, 1 per
cent chose other alternatives and 8 per
cent were undecided.
And while Hart leads the statewide
campaign in both votes and financing,
Jackson campaigners have more modest
goals.
“If we were able to get 20 percent of
the. votes statewide, we would consider
that an impressive victory,” says Mike
Roach, Oregon state coordinator for
Jesse Jackson's campaign.
The Democratic National Committee
rules require that each candidate earn at
least 20 percent of the statewide votes
and a given minimum of votes in each
congressional district, varying from 14 to
20 percent, in order to gain state
representation at the National
Democratic Convention. The convention
will be held from July 16 to 20 in San
Francisco.
Both Roach and Smith agree that
Jackson's appearance in Oregon before
next Tuesday's primaries is unlikely,
since he would more likely go to a state
where he could gain greater representa
tion for the convention.
"Each state is given a certain number
of delegates, based on its population.
Continued on Page 2
Increased ticket sales
could cut student fees
By Jim Moore
Of the Emerald
In this age of rising costs and spirall
ing inflation, news about budgets or
fees is like an early morning phone
call or an unexpected telegram —
nobody wants it because it's usually
bad news.
But University students should be
happy about some recent news from
the administration that could save
them between $31,000 and $39,061.
The savings, which will be realized
in next year's incidental fees, con
stitute a rebate from the athletic ticket
guarantee fund. That rebate will come
in one of two forms.
If the guarantee fund exists next
year — it is not part of the athletic
department's request to the Inciden
tal Fee Committee — then it will re
quire only slight funding to return it
to its full $39,061.
And if the fund is not kept, the
money left in this year's fund will
revert to the ASUO in some student
account, according to Bill Flallmark,
the ASUO coordinator of programs
and finance.
Which account the money will end
up in will probably be determined by
a meeting between University Pres.
Paul Olum, the ASUO Executive and
Ralph Sunderland, the University's
budget director, Hallmark says.
The ASUO guarantees the athletic
department that there will be $120,000
worth of student tickets sold or the
ASUO will make up the difference up
to $1 per student per term.
During this fiscal year, which ends
June 30, student ticket sales apparent
ly will come within $8,000 of the
$120,000 target, and could actually
reach it.
In the past, the full amount has
gone into the athletic department's
coffers because student sales did not
reach the agreed-upon level. But
when it became obvious that student
attendance was up this year, Hallmark
asked Sunderland that the fund be
transferred to the appropriate ASUO
program account.
"The primary reason I made this re
quest was so that if the ticket
guarantee is not collected this year,
the funds would revert back to the
ASUO surplus account controlled by
the IFC, instead of the enrollment
reserve account controlled by Ralph
Sunderland," Hallmark says.
Sunderland says he feared the ex
cess money would be returned to the
students, and spent, instead of left in
the ticket guarantee fund — if, that is,
the fund exists after negotiations bet
ween the athletic department and the
Incidental Fee Committee.
A meeting between Olum and
Hallmark, one day prior to a schedul
ed meeting between Olum and
Sunderland, provided Hallmark with
the answer he sought.
"Either it will be used for the ticket
guarantee so students won't have to
pay that, or it will be returned to the
students," Olum says.