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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.