Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 15, 2016
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Ofice Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
EO MEDIA GROUP
East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald
Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal
Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette
Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace
OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com
OUR VIEW
A new reefer republic
P
In governor’s race,
Pierce has the edge
board one of the irst oficial stops
Democrat Kate Brown and
Republican Bud Pierce are squaring of his primary campaign. Although
he has never held public ofice,
off to become the next governor of
he is the intelligent, private-sector
Oregon.
focused Republican that Eastern
Brown has illed the chair since
Oregon has been crying out for.
John Kitzhaber stepped down less
And Pierce steers clear of social
than two years ago. The winner of
issues that have tripped up previous
the November election will only
GOP candidates. He
serve for the remainder
has no harsh views
of Kitzhaber’s original
issues that aren’t
term, and will be back
Pierce is the on
signiicant to the health
up for election in 2018.
private-sector of our state, which
Brown has done
should make him a
some good work in her
focused
viable candidate for
short stint at the top
post — shepherding
Republican Willamette Valley
who realize
a 9 percent bump to
that Eastern voters
change is needed.
state education funding,
Pierce’s worst
pushing through a
Oregon has moment
in the
tiered minimum wage
been crying campaign came in
hike and increasing the
enemy territory — the
number of registered
out for.
City Club of Portland
voters thanks to her
— where he clearly
previous work as
misspoke about domestic violence.
Oregon Secretary of State. It’s clear
He was jeered and booed when
that she has a soft spot for Eastern
he said “A woman that has great
Oregon and Pendleton in particular,
education, great training, a great
which is where she made her irst
job, is not susceptible to this kind of
out-of-Salem visit as governor and
has often been at the top of her mind abuse by men, women or anyone.”
It was wrong and he deserved to
at debates all around the state.
be chided. But unlike the Republican
But last session Brown failed to
candidate for president (who Pierce
wrangle the legislature into passing
thankfully disowned, although it
a much-needed transportation
is unlikely he will be able to run
package, her leadership was
far enough from) Pierce made a
lacking during the creation and
straightforward and meaningful
initial explanation of Measure 97,
apology, listened to women and
and she has been unable to make
domestic violence professionals, and
satisfactorily clear statements
emerged from the scandal a more
regarding her position on important
enlightened and complete candidate.
but controversial issues such as
His ardent desire for improving
the Trans-Paciic Partnership and a
Eastern Oregon is clear, his stance
possible national monument in the
against Measure 97 is in the best
Owyhees.
interest of the state, and his tax
The only real legislative
plans and budget show the iscal
compromise she reached with
responsibility that Oregon needs to
Republicans at the capitol was
have when the economy is humming
signing House Bill 4040, which
along.
ratiied the decision of ODFW to
We’re constantly looking for
remove the gray wolf from the state
ways to break the single-party rule
list of endangered species. It was
that currently exists in Salem. A
tossing a proverbial bone at the end
Republican at the top of it all would
of a session where the Democratic
certainly do that, and Pierce is a
agenda was steamrolled through
smart, capable candidate who would
both chambers and into law.
handle the job and bring some
Pierce has long stood out to us,
balance to the tilted capitol.
having made a visit to our editorial
ORTLAND — The budtenders
have been 71 deaths attributed to
of the Rose City are relentlessly
heroin overdose this year.
helpful with tips pairing a
Heroin is the drug of choice in
marijuana strain that is “equal parts
small towns in New England and
fruity and musky” with a stimulating
wide-open rural areas across the
Sichuan dish. As Oregon, the place
country. Blacks and Latinos use and
where empires once clashed over the
sell drugs at roughly the same rate as
global trade of beaver furs, glides into
whites, but 57 percent of the people
a second year of legalized recreational Timothy locked up for a drug offense in 2014
pot, the state is determined to show
were nonwhite.
Egan
the world that a certain kind of drug
Perhaps because so many addicts
Comment
prohibition belongs in history’s
are white and suburban, or white
dumpster.
and rural, there is now a
Soon, with the likely
rare bipartisan consensus
passage of legal pot in
emerging for wholesale
California next month, all
reform of the drug laws.
of the West Coast — from
We can start,
nationwide, with marijuana.
the tundra of Alaska to
Though legalization is not
the sun-washed suburbs
without its problems — a
of San Diego — will be
spike in emergency room
a confederacy of state-
visits attributed to edible
regulated marijuana use.
pot, persistent black market
Across the Paciic, a
dealers — it’s mostly been
completely a different
no big deal. Across the
view of drug use is playing
legalized West, consumers
out in the horror of the
Philippines. That country is ruled by Rodrigo frequent their corner pot shop to talk varietals
Duterte, a crude and brutal strongman known and buzz strength. Homegrown gardeners
pass on suggestions to avoid bud rot as
as the Donald Trump of the Philippines.
harvest nears. Tax revenue from sales —
Under his watch, more than 3,500 suspected
though not a panacea — lows to schools and
drug users and dealers have been killed.
Many of those murders are “extrajudicial,” as roads and treatment programs.
It all works, for the most part. And when
the State Department calls them.
California, now the world’s sixth largest
Comparing his vigilante campaign to
economy, passes its legal pot measure in
Hitler’s Holocaust, the Philippine president
November as expected, it will truly be game
recently said “I’d be happy to slaughter”
over for this absurd form of prohibition.
3 million drug users. By killing that many
So why are nearly 600,000 people arrested
of his own people, Duterte said he would
in the United States for simple possession of
“inish the problem of my country and
marijuana every year? And why is pot still
save the next generation from perdition.”
illegal on the federal level? People in the loop
This is a Category 5 human rights disaster
of this policing circle know it is an absurd
in the making, and should be universally
and Sisyphean use of law enforcement.
condemned.
The opioid crisis is a tougher problem.
The world has always been bipolar
Some years ago, at the height of the crack
when it comes to our fellow humans prone
scare, I was given an assignment to go to the
to addiction and chemical diversion. One
worst drug dens in urban America. I ran into
impulse is hysterical — the sweeping, lock-
my share of scary and sketchy dudes, yes.
’em-up tragedy of the United States after the
But where I expected to see “super-predators”
crack epidemic, the numerous executions in
places like Iran and the Philippines. The other and lifetime addled “crack babies,” I instead
is historical, at least by modern standards: the found a fascinating variety of people
attempt by states in the American West (and a struggling with an ancient afliction. Many of
them could not get into treatment.
ballot measure in Maine this year) to call out
A clear majority of Americans now favor
the drug war for the farce that it is.
pot legalization. The problem is the federal
Throughout these swings, little has
government, which still classiies marijuana
changed among a vulnerable cohort of
as a Schedule 1 drug, alongside heroin and
humanity. And until a way is found to
LSD. If pot was legalized nationwide, with
permanently balance dopamine levels,
a tax on every sale designated for treatment,
we will always have small but signiicant
it would free up the police to get at serious
portion of the population prone to addiction.
crimes, while ensuring that no addict would
Benjamin Franklin abused laudanum, an
be denied treatment for lack of funds. As with
opium and alcohol mixture, for his bodily
most social reforms, it only seems impossible
pains. And Sigmund Freud was more than a
until it’s obvious.
casual user of cocaine.
■
The current opioid epidemic in places not
Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a
usually associated with drug dens and dirty
writer for The New York Times, irst as the
needles shows that addiction is not conined
Paciic Northwest correspondent, then as a
to ZIP codes of economic despair. On Staten
national enterprise reporter.
Island, home to many a New York cop, there
Soon all of the
West Coast
will be a
confederacy of
state-regulated
marijuana use.
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.
U.S. Senators
Ron Wyden
Washington ofice:
221 Dirksen Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande ofice:
541-962-7691
Jeff Merkley
Washington ofice:
313 Hart Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton ofice:
541-278-1129
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
Washington, DC 20515
Senator
202-225-6730
U.S. Representative
Greg Walden
Washington ofice:
185 Rayburn House Ofice
Building
La Grande ofice:
541-624-2400
Governor
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
Representatives
Greg Barreto, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-38
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us