Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2015)
8 ____ T H E C L A C K A M A S P R IN T | F E B . 18, 2 0 1 5 I V O L . 48 IS S U E 13 Where do you stand on the legalization of marijuana? Students don’t fear the reefer by Brandon Minnis Grass, ganja, bud, cheeba, chronic, pot, reefer; no legalized, and the answer in generally is “No.” The m atter what name you give it, m arijuana is coming biggest change we saw was in favor o f marijuana. to Oregon in a higher way this July. Thanks to the W ith 36 percent of students polled saying they felt passing of Measure 91 back in November, recreational positively about marijuana use, up 7 percent from marijuana use will be legal for Oregon residents over before the passing o f Measure 91. A ndrew Weaver said, “Growing up in Oregon, the age of 21. With this paradigm shift on the horizon, we here at The Clackamas P rint were curious to see marijuana was just like alcohol. W hen we celebrated how the student body felt about the subject. we didn’t pop open a bottle of champagne, we decided In a poll conducted at Clackamas C om m unity to smoke up. It’s celebrated in Oregon. I didn’t expect College we found some interesting trends. O f the 225 it so suddenly, but still happy about it. I am a strong students polled, we found the majority of people were marijuana supporter regardless.” mostly indifferent about recreational marijuana use. Meanwhile, 48 percent of students say they are Roughly 29 percent of the students polled say they indifferent and 16 percent rem ain staunch in their had positive attitudes toward marijuana before the bias against pot, down roughly 2 percent and 5 per measure passed, and 21 percent felt negatively, with cent respectively. Now here is where things get interesting. Regard the remaining 49 percent feeling mostly ambivalent less o f their personal feelings on m arijuana use, a on the matter pre Measure 91. The next question on our m inds was if students’ startling 61 percent think that the passing of Measure opinions had changed now that its been voted to be 91 will be good for the state of Oregon as a whole. These students often cited factors such as increases in tax revenue, increased tourism , wider availability of marijuana for medicinal uses, as well as others. Meanwhile 16 percent feel its passing will nega tively im pact Oregon, giving reasons like increases in social costs and more intoxicated drivers on the road. One such student, Samuel Donily said, “I’m not necessarily against pot, but I’m a big supporter o f small town’ Oregon and I don’t want more peo ple moving here, cutting down our forests to make more room.” The remaining 29 percent thought that the pros and cons would even each other out in the long run. Many students are w orried that the tax money coming in won’t be going toward the schools and other causes as outlined in the bill. For instance Andrew Taylor said, “If the money goes where it is supposed to go it’ll be a good thing, but look at the lottery. That m oney was supposed to be going to schools, but it didn’t.”
