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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, August 10, 2017 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 Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW Branching out in marijuana Pendleton remains the only such a great place to visit. Yet there are risks with a municipality in the area with legal marijuana farm, risks even beyond marijuana sales. a marijuana storefront. It’s not as That has been of benefit to the local industry, which has seen steady easy to secure a grow operation — although it is certainly possible growth in dispensaries, employees, — and considering the worth of the and sales since the drug became product inside, you can bet Kind legal in the city. (That translates to Leaf will button growth in local tax it up tight if they receipts, too.) That industry now Marijuana both secure approval. This all comes has the opportunity grown and at the same to grow in a new time that U.S. direction. The sold locally Attorney General owners of Kind fits the ethos Jeff Sessions has Leaf, Pendleton’s to first and largest of the moment threatened crack down on the recreational marijuana industry dispensary, is — and it’s a federal asking the city for something that from perspective, and conditional use approval to open a tourism groups state governments are asking the two-acre marijuana are trying to feds to do just the grow at the former Riverside Nursery, promote about opposite. It doesn’t seem 2612 N.E. Nursery Pendleton. like the opportune Lane. time to invest Co-owner millions in a Brandon Krenzler mega-grow facility, which very well said they plan to use organic may be the future of the industry. practices to farm marijuana at the Yet it does seem like the opportune location, which would supply the time to try to secure a burgeoning local store with its product. local business, help simplify the The benefits of an expanding supply chain and locate a taxpaying local business are clear. The old business within city limits. nursery location alongside the If the grow operation proves Umatilla River and Highway 11 successful, perhaps the supposedly has been vacant for years, a brown eyesore on what could be one of the pro-business Umatilla County most beautiful properties in the city. Commissioners — who decided to ban marijuana businesses rather than And local production of all kinds is giving the option to voters — may the key to increasing much-needed revisit their position. employment in Pendleton. And Fertile, secure, remote, furthermore, it fits the locally-made already-zoned farmlands are where ethos of the moment, something marijuana grows would have the that Travel Pendleton has been promoting about what makes the city most benefit to local entrepreneurs. 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 Legalize pot at federal level The Eugene Register-Guard nother significant voice has joined the growing chorus asking the federal government to change the way it deals with marijuana. The National Conference of State Legislatures on Tuesday passed a resolution asking the federal government to change its classification of marijuana from Schedule I — which includes the most dangerous drugs, with no accepted medical use, a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological or physical dependence — to Schedule III — drugs with moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. A bipartisan group of Oregon lawmakers — including Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli of John Day and Eugene Democratic Reps. Phil Barnhart and Julie Fahey — were in the forefront of the effort. State legislators from across the country also renewed their efforts to help legal cannabis businesses gain access to banking services — now both a problem and a public safety risk — due to federal banking laws. Under the current administration in Washington, D.C., however, these lawmakers are facing an uphill battle, despite growing national support for their position. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the governors of Alaska, Colorado and Washington — states that also have legalized recreational marijuana — earlier this year sent a letter inviting U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin “to engage with us” on the subject. They got a snarky response from Sessions. A In a letter to Brown, Sessions cited an Oregon State Police draft report raising concerns about black market marijuana and surplus marijuana from Oregon being sold out of state. “This report raises serious concerns about the efficacy of marijuana ‘regulatory structures’ in your state,” Sessions said, among other things. Brown’s office hasn’t publicly responded to Sessions’ letter, but state police told The (Portland) Oregonian that the report Sessions cited is preliminary and incomplete. Marijuana has gradually become more accepted in mainstream America. When a John Day Republican supports removing cannabis from the Schedule I list, it’s a strong indication this isn’t a radical, or even a liberal, cause anymore. The patchwork of laws and regulations relating to marijuana that has sprung up around the country makes no sense. But inconsistent laws do make it harder to regulate production and use of marijuana. They also make it difficult to do research on marijuana or raise public funds by taxing the industry. Want to end the black market in marijuana? Make it legal and regulate it. Concerned about quality and safety? Make it legal and regulate it. Concerned about criminal elements being involved in marijuana? Make it legal and regulate it. Concerned about the impact of marijuana on the human body? Make it legal, clearing the way for research into its effects — including medicinal uses — that is now, with few exceptions, barred. Continuing to treat marijuana as if it were heroin serves no useful purpose or the public interest. When a John Day Republican supports removing cannabis from the Schedule I list, it’s a strong indication this isn’t a liberal cause anymore. OTHER VIEWS Start aiming for the gut I was talking the other day to a they don’t articulate them. wise executive friend and he recalled Trump connects with these gut for me something his favorite boss issues and takes them in a destructive liked to say: When people rise to the direction. It’s vital for Democrats to top of an organization and get power, connect with them and take them in a they usually do one of two things: constructive direction. “They either swell or they grow.” What issues? Here’s my list: Donald Trump has swollen. ▪ We can’t take in every immigrant Every character flaw he had Thomas who wants to come here; we need, before taking office — from his serial Friedman metaphorically speaking, a high wall lying to his intellectual laziness to that assures Americans we can control Comment his loyalty just to himself and his our border with a big gate that lets needs — has grown only larger and as many people in legally as we can more toxic as he has been president. He seems effectively absorb as citizens. not to have grown a whit in the job. He has ▪ The Muslim world does have a problem surprised only on the downside — never once with pluralism — gender pluralism, religious challenging his own base with new thinking pluralism and intellectual pluralism — and or appearing to be remotely interested in being suggesting that terrorism has nothing president of all the people, to do with that fact not just his base. is naïve; countering What strikes me most violent extremism means about Trump, though, is how constructively engaging easily he still could become with Muslim leaders on this more popular — fast — if issue. he just behaved like a ▪ Americans want normal leader for a month: if a president focused on he reached out to Democrats growing the economic pie, on health care, taxes or not just redistributing it. We infrastructure; stopped do have a trade problem insulting every newsperson with China, which has who writes critically about him; stopped reformed and closed instead of reformed and lying; stopped tweeting inanities; and actually opened. We have an even bigger problem with apologized for some of his most egregious automation wiping out middle-skilled work, actions and asked for forgiveness. Americans and we need to generate more blue-collar jobs are a forgiving people. to anchor communities. With the Dow at 22,000 and ▪ Political correctness on college campuses unemployment at 4.3 percent, oh my God, has run ridiculously riot. Americans want this guy could actually become more popular leaders to be comfortable expressing outside his base without much effort. That’s patriotism and love of country when scary. But, as I said, it would require Trump globalization is erasing national identities. doing something he has shown no ability or America is not perfect, but it is, more often willingness to do — to grow in office, not just than not, a force for good in the world. swell. Voters don’t listen through their ears. They Still, Democrats would be wise not to listen through their stomachs. And when you count on Trump swelling forever or on Robert connect with voters in their guts, they feel Mueller taking him down. Whatever happens, respected, and when they feel respected, they Democrats need to win the argument with will listen to anything — including big issues at least some Trump/GOP voters. There that are true even if Democrats believe them. are many ways for Democrats to counter Such as the fact that a majority of Americans any new and improved Trump. I’d start by like Obamacare and want to see it built to last, acknowledging a simple fact: Some things are and a majority of Americans do not like the true even if Donald Trump believes them! way Trump is despoiling the environment and That is, Trump’s core base of support — bringing back coal. those people who he says would stick by him Indeed, the biggest wind power states even if he shot someone “in the middle of in America — Texas, Iowa, Kansas, South Fifth Avenue” — are people who have heard Dakota, Oklahoma and North Dakota — are and appreciated all his nativist dog whistles: all red states. The Democrats literally have the from his slur that Barack Obama was not born wind at their backs on health care and clean in America to his focus on voter suppression energy. to his restricting transgender people in the But to be heard, they need candidates who military to his reversing affirmative action and can pass a gut check with the more moderate imposing immigration restrictions. That white Trump/GOP voters. Just 10 percent of Trump nationalist constituency is beyond the reach voters would suffice. Trump’s core base is — for good reason — of any Democratic solid, but he’s clearly losing the soft support candidate. around his core. Democrats can grow into the But Trump did not win, and could not win soft support — as long as they’re smart and again, with that group alone. His genius was Trump continues to just swell. expanding beyond that nativist core with just ■ enough votes in the right places to get him Thomas Friedman, a New York Times over the top — by pushing other buttons. columnist, was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes These were things that many conservative and for international reporting in Beirut and Israel centrist voters believe in their guts, even if and one for commentary. Trump connects with gut issues and takes them in a destructive direction. LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. 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. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
