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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, August 19, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Independent voters can become a force Earlier this week, the Independent someone to run for the position. Party of Oregon became the state’s The Democratic Party has had third major party — or the fourth, if a stranglehold on Oregon politics you count the Pendleton Round-Up. for more than a decade, and looks Everyone around here knows that is well-positioned to hold onto power Oregon’s original major party. for awhile. But if you look at But in the eyes of the state, the other states where one-party rule Independent joins just the other has reigned for generations — two — Democratic and Republican Democrats in Illinois for example, or Republicans in — and will now be Oklahoma — you able to participate More than realize that is not in the taxpayer- a good place to ¿QDQFHG0D\ 5 percent be. Competitive primary election. of Oregon elections are key There are nearly 110,000 Oregon voters are now WR¿HOGLQJJRRG candidates, and voters registered registered as there have to be Independent, consequences — although it is Independent. ¿QGLQJ\RXUVHOI unknown how out of a job many of those knew consequences — if you do that job they were actually joining a party poorly. when they did so. If you don’t want It’s possible the Independent to be a member of any party, you Party of Oregon can be of assistance KDYHWRUHJLVWHUDVXQDI¿OLDWHGQRW to that end. They won’t win seats in Independent (note the capital I). WKH/HJLVODWXUHULJKWRIIRU¿OODQ\ Still, the numbers are what they VWDWHZLGHRI¿FHVEXWFDQDWOHDVW are. And they may be something force Democrats and Republicans more than just a mistake. More to consider their positions, if not than 5 percent of Oregon voters are downright pivot off them. now registered as Independent — a So who is this new player? The large enough percentage that the big Independent Party of Oregon doesn’t two parties have taken note. They have a clear platform, doesn’t get wanted to rewrite the rules to keep many votes in statewide elections the Independent party from ballots wherever possible and even issued a DQGUDUHO\¿HOGVFDQGLGDWHVLQ press release together to plead their smaller ones. It has been in existence case. Finally, bipartisanship! for less than a decade. Party leaders Oregon has long been a told the Associated Press that in the progressive political state, and it just past they have pushed consumer may be that the next step is turning SURWHFWLRQLVVXHVFDPSDLJQ¿QDQFH away from our two party system. reform and increased transparency in There is even talk from Salem government. that the highly-respected Betsy For Oregon to be a well-governed Johnson might run for governor on state, it is key that power, if not fully the Independent ticket. If she did, changing hands, there is at least the Johnson would almost certainly offer possibility of it. Republicans have the toughest competition for sitting failed to mount much of a challenge Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat. recently. Maybe the Independent Republicans are still searching for Party can. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS Banks need the ability to serve marijuana businesses The Daily Astorian/ EO Media Group Key federal legislators from Oregon are making a renewed push to normalize banking services for the legal marijuana industry. This is a much-needed and overdue reform. Oregon is in the process of joining other states including neighboring Washington in outright legalization of marijuana, with sales set to start Oct. 1. Medicinal marijuana has been legal here since 1998 and the Legislature legalized medical marijuana dispensaries during its 2013 session. Nationwide, many legitimate marijuana businesses continue to struggle with a lack of access to the QRUPDOFKDQQHOVIRUKDQGOLQJ¿QDQFLDO transactions. Currently, marijuana businesses oper- ating under state laws that have legalized medicinal or adult-use marijuana are mostly denied access to the banking V\VWHPEHFDXVH¿QDQFLDOLQVWLWXWLRQVWKDW provide them services can be prosecuted under federal law, according to Oregon U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, all Democrats. In Washington state, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray is also a supporter of reform. Without the ability to access bank accounts, accept credit cards, or write checks, businesses must operate using large amounts of cash. “There’s a reason most of us don’t walk around with thousands of dollars of cash stuffed in our backpacks. It’s an invitation to crime and malfeasance,” Merkley said. “But that’s what we are forcing legal Oregon businesses to GREHFDXVH¿QDQFLDOLQVWLWXWLRQVDUH prohibited from providing services. That must change.” Marijuana businesses are heavily regulated and monitored at the state level. This keeps drug cartels out of the legal industry, insures compliance with rules designed to keep marijuana away from underage residents, and helps avoid federal intervention in legalization. But by denying these enterprises the ability to handle money in a modern and transparent way, federal law places them at greater risk of robbery, while essentially maintaining undesirable traits associated with the outlaw past. Legalization is a fact of life and is certain to spread to additional states. It’s time to dispense with the remaining vestiges of the unlamented past that saw millions of lives disrupted or destroyed in a failed effort at prohibition. The new law proposed by Oregon’s federal lawmakers would prevent federal banking regulators from: — Prohibiting, penalizing or discour- DJLQJDEDQNIURPSURYLGLQJ¿QDQFLDO services to a legitimate state-sanctioned and regulated marijuana business; — Terminating or limiting a bank’s federal deposit insurance solely because WKH¿QDQFLDOLQVWLWXWLRQLVSURYLGLQJ services to a state-sanctioned marijuana business; — Recommending or incentivizing a ¿QDQFLDOLQVWLWXWLRQWRKDOWRUGRZQJUDGH providing any kind of banking services to these businesses; or — Taking any action on a loan to an owner or operator of a marijuana-related business. The bill also creates a safe harbor from criminal prosecution and liability and DVVHWIRUIHLWXUHIRU¿QDQFLDOLQVWLWXWLRQV DQGWKHLURI¿FHUVDQGHPSOR\HHVZKR SURYLGH¿QDQFLDOVHUYLFHVWROHJLWLPDWH state-sanctioned marijuana businesses, ZKLOHPDLQWDLQLQJ¿QDQFLDOLQVWLWXWLRQV¶ right to choose not to offer those services. These moves all make sense and should be enacted as soon as possible. LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. OTHER VIEWS A tax to save lives A smokeless tobacco product called WROHDUQWKDW,WKLQNWKLVLVDWHUUL¿F snus, which a user puts between his idea. Because it contains tobacco, gums and his upper lip, has a long snus has traces of nitrosamines, a history in Sweden. At the start of the cancer-causing agent found in tobacco. last century, it was the most common Electronic cigarettes, by contrast, way Swedes ingested nicotine. By the contain no tobacco at all. Instead, early 1950s, however, sales of snus they vaporize nicotine, which gets to had been overtaken by cigarettes, a the user’s brain far quicker than, say, trend that continued for two decades. a nicotine patch, thus more closely Joe But in time, snus made a comeback, the nicotine hit delivered by Nocera replicating while cigarette use steadily declined. a cigarette. Comment As of 2012, only 13 percent of adult As Warner pointed out to me, Swedes smoked, less than half the nobody can say for sure how much European Union rate. Meanwhile, 19 to 21 safer e-cigarettes are because the products percent of Swedish males use snus, which is haven’t been around long enough for long- now more prevalent than cigarettes. (Swedish term studies. But it is plain as day that they are women, for some reason, stuck with smokes.) far less risky than cigarettes. Countries use tax The result? Even though tobacco use in policy all the time to affect behavior. Using Sweden is comparable to its use in the rest tax policy to move people from cigarettes to of Europe, Sweden’s preference for snus e-cigarettes would, to be blunt, save lives. The means that it “has Europe’s e-cigarette has the potential lowest tobacco-attributable to be the greatest tobacco mortality among men,” cessation device ever according to a paper in invented. the latest issue of The Yet, as the authors New England Journal of note, because most of the Medicine. Indeed, a 2012 tobacco-control community study by the World Health believes that “all tobacco Organization found that products are seriously tobacco caused 152 deaths deleterious to health, per 100,000 men in Sweden, conventional wisdom … has versus 467 deaths per long been that all products 100,000 men in Europe. should be taxed similarly.” It’s hard to know exactly Indeed, the World Health what caused snus to regain its popularity. Organization has described “comparable” There was no explicit government policy taxation on all tobacco products as a “best promoting it. David Sweanor, one of the practice for tobacco taxation.” authors of the paper, told me that Sweden’s As irrational as this is, it is easy to predominant tobacco company took it upon understand where it stems from. Health itself to market snus once the dangers of claims about e-cigarettes remind anti-tobacco cigarettes had become irrefutable. (That activists of the days when Big Tobacco company, Swedish Match, sells mainly snus marketed low-tar cigarettes as a “healthier” today.) But another likely reason was a huge smoking choice. E-cigarettes come in many price differential between cigarettes and snus; ÀDYRUVZKLFKFRXOGDSSHDOWRNLGV7KHLU at one point a pack of the former was taxed so marketing aims to make e-cigarettes look cool heavily that it cost twice as much as a can of — just like Big Tobacco once did. Despite a snus. complete lack of proof, the tobacco-control Sweanor, a tobacco policy expert at the community fears that young people who University of Ottawa, and his co-authors, use e-cigarettes will eventually gravitate to Kenneth Warner, a University of Michigan combustible cigarettes. economist specializing in public health, and Which is all the more reason the authors’ Frank J. Chaloupka, an economist focused tax idea deserves consideration: It puts the on public health at the University of Illinois emphasis on moving smokers to e-cigarettes, at Chicago, would label snus a “harm which is where it should be. “Studies have reduction” product. Although it contains … shown that changes in the relative price of WREDFFRDQGDOORZVXVHUVWRJHWWKHLU¿[RI tobacco products lead some tobacco users to addictive nicotine, snus poses far less risk than switch to less expensive products,” the authors cigarettes, as the statistics amply show. write. A big tax differential is a way to take All three men are big believers in the virtue advantage of the lower risk of e-cigarettes of harm reduction policies to reduce the illness without ever having to acknowledge it. and death caused by cigarettes. Thus the point Not that I expect rationality to take hold of their paper: The tax policies that worked any time soon. After all, you know how the in Sweden — raise taxes on the killer product European Union reacted to the Swedish snus while lowering them on the harm reduction experience, don’t you? product — should be applied today to It banned snus. electronic cigarettes and other noncombustible Ŷ nicotine delivery systems. Joe Nocera is an Op-Ed columnist for The Regular readers will not be surprised New York Times. Using tax policy to move people from cigarettes to e-cigarettes would, to be blunt, save lives. YOUR VIEWS School-based health clinic exacerbates root problems Recently I heard that a school-based health clinic is being planned for Hermiston High School. In discussions with friends, I could see a real live example of the “chicken and egg” TXHVWLRQ:KLFKFRPHV¿UVWSDUHQWDOQHJOHFW and indifference or the societal rush to feed, clothe and drug the child? Why has parental neglect seemed to increase? Some teachers saw children come to school without having had breakfast. So a breakfast feeding program was installed and the problem was solved? Not really. The parental neglect continues. The school-based health clinic is another example of a “solution” that may contribute to parental irresponsibility for their own child’s health. Parents should be the primary educators and providers for their children. Surely, families will need society’s assistance at times. However, why are the numbers of loser parents increasing? Are we working too much for the “egg” and should start working for the ‘chicken’ the parents? Parent the parents! Where is the program for that? I am for stopping the cycle of alleviating every family situation with free handouts. Let’s get in the parents’ face and boldly ask, “What is going on, and why are you unable to care for your child?” What happened? Ask some good questions. It seems to me that parental accountability and responsibility is at an all-time low. Our do-gooding rush to solve problems without going to the source of the problem is not working. The doing-good plans that we dream up, such as school-based health clinics, smack somewhat of those plans across the ocean 100 years ago: government will raise your children; parents need only to work in the factories. Marge Rolen Hermiston House Republicans allowed Obama to wreck the country On D-Day General Dwight Eisenhower did not tell his troops that we were going to defeat the National Socialists so that we could cooperate with them. The order Eisenhower gave was to rid the earth of Hitler, his band of murderous thugs, and everything that they stood for. In the November elections America gave the Republicans a mandate to stop President Obama and the Democrats from wrecking this country, and we expect that this carnage be stopped and reversed. Republicans now say that they want to cooperate with Obama so that he will move to the middle. Americans don’t want to hear this nonsense because Obama is a leftist who hates our Constitution and deliberately circumvents it. Much to our chagrin, GOP House Speaker Boehner and all but 67 House Republicans joined Obama and the Democrats to repeal Section 716 in the Omnibus spending bill. Section 716 was included to prevent government bailout of Wall Street trading losses in speculative credit swap derivatives. Obama knew the contempt voters have for Wall Street bailouts when he told bankers that he was the only thing between them and the pitchforks. Robert A. Dahlquist Orange, Calif.