Street roots
7
O ct 10, 2014
LEGALIZE POT, fro m page 3
this bill that could get a first class
prevention program. It’s federal block grant
money that’s going to prevention. By itself
it s a lot of money, but spread it across the
state, and most communities realize they
have to supplement it with county money or
private money. There are no consistent
statewide programs. This measure would
allocate money to treatment and prevention
where they don’t exist today
J.T.: As a founder of Central City Concern
and someone who has worked with people with
mental health issues and addictions, how will
legalization affect these populations?
R.H.: During the time I was working
there and as state health director, I wouldn’t
come out and say legalize it. But I’ve been
out of those jobs and thought about it.
Criminalization is the wrong approach, so all
that stuff is easier to talk about because I
don’t have responsibility for people who
think the sky will fall if you legalize i t
Most treatment programs operate on a ..
principie that if you’re addicted to alcohol
and you use any addictive substance, it will
trigger your conditions. It’s th e principle of
the slippery slope.
The principle of treatment and récovery ?
is just to be abstinent. In the world of
treatment and recovery, you can’t dabble in
other drugs and expect to recover.
For people who have addiction problems,
it’s not a good idea to start smoking dope,
and that’s why people in treatment
programs aren’t going to come out and say
we should decriminalize this.
J.T.: W W would an effective prevention
program look like?
education and prevention programs that
aren’t credible.
R.H.: If you look at the way tobacco
prevention has been put together, it has to
be targeted to individuals. People have to -
hear how they manage the problem, and you
have to make general education activities .
available. For instance, smoking rates
among homeless people are high and people
with mental illness are over the top. So it
would deal with medication and isolation
when they us^obacco to cope with the
world. Peer'groups would help with people
with mental illness.
Kids would really get peer-to-peer
messages. Those are the most credible
models and those are certainly possible to
do here. Some of those are going on with
drug prevention but they are isolated.
J.T.: A lot of subsidized housing prohibits
the use o f marijuana. Soffit's legal, it will
still be hands-off to a lot of people. Is this fair?
J.T.: So what would that look like with
marijuana prevention?
R.H.: Most of the literature tells you
right now that marijuana used responsibly,
not using it while driving, is OK for adults.
For kids, the message would be, yottr brain
is still developing and you don’t want to be
using this drug or other drugs.
, ' It’s cautionary. It’s not scary. What we
have right now is moralistic, and you’re a
bad person and you’ll die if you use it; so .
there’s no credibility.
I was a manager at Hooper Detox for nine
years, and we never detoxed someone for
marijuana. So it’s not the same level of ,
danger that’s occurring with other drugs.
Right now the message is, it will make you
sick or kill you, and it’s not an effective '
message with adults. So you can’t run
T lieT aft H o m e
R.H.: Lots of things in this life aren’t fair.
No, it’s not fair, but the federal government
has taken a stance on i t
But here’s the deal: Who the hell checks?
Will there be Section 8 police? It isn’t a
good policy. The federal government needs
to change the law and they don’t seem to be
wanting to give up on
it.
J.T.: Are you,
confident that the
treatment and
education provided by
the measure will be
sufficient?
" It Isn't a good policy. The
federal government needs to
change the law and they
don't seem to be wanting to
give ap on it."
R.H.: The way it’s
set up is that the
Oregon Liquor Control Commission collects
the revenue. Within the OLCC they are
used to doing thisf they’ve been doing it for
years. The tax rate can be changed by the
legislature. So that issue will have to be
worked out over time.
The idea behind the current law is to
make sure it’s hot as complicated as
Colorado or Washington, to keep it simple
with a tax low enough so that the price
stays low so that it pushes on the black ,
market. In Washington, the price is pretty
high for taxes and there’s a question if it will
push out the criminal market. -
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