Holton has picked a loser position. Support for legalization of marijuana is expanding, not contracting. Heck, when Pat Robertson supports legalization of marijuana, you know there is culture change afoot.

They're both right--the question is what solution do they advocate?

Most intelligent people who have looked at the case for and against marijuana prohibition understand that it is a very stupid and destructive policy.

Holton's position on this is quite troublesome. The idea that too many people are getting too much marijuana is simply ridiculous. Not to mention throwing in the reference to "kids" for the fear-mongering affect.

Undoubtedly people have gotten MM cards who do not use it medicinally, but who cares? That's less money that feeds Mexican drug cartels, more money for state services, etc.

After reading the whole story Ellen Rosenblum is the clear choice.

Marijuana prohibition fuels Mexican drug cartels (marijuana makes up approximately 70% of their business,) the prison industrial complex, destroys families, and robs the state of much needed tax revenue. It's illegal status also turns it into a gateway drug.

For legalization to happen political leaders must take a stand. It shouldn't be acceptable to simply say that you're against legalization. If our Governor, AG, etc. says they are pro-prohibition they should be forced to explain their position. They should have to tell us just exactly why prohibition is the smart and just policy.

I've e-mailed the Governor (who is on the record as pro-prohibition) asking for an explanation of his position. I asked Dave Hunt on a KOPT appearance if he favored marijuana prohibition. He said yes, and then went on to say that they did raise fees for medical marijuana cards....essentially a tax increase on the poor.

We really cannot afford stupid policies any longer.

We may very well have the chance this November to vote on a measure that would end marijuana prohibition by allowing adults 21 and over the right to use, possess and produce for personal use. IP-24 would not allow sales, use by minors, driving under the influence or actions that endanger children or public safety. In other words, it would put marijuana use in the same context as alcohol.

The campaign has collected over 52,000 signatures and is on track to qualify. It does allow state to regulate if it chooses. It's a simple, three sentence amendment that ends prohibition. You can find more info at EndProhibitionAgain.com

As far as Holton's comments on med mar, as one who worked on the campaign to pass it, I disagree completely. The system is actually working quite well. Patients and caregivers have largely been able to avoid arrest and prosecution while getting medicine that they need. And there is no doubt left that marijuana does help many people with cancer, spasms, pain and other conditions. There are very few instances of misuse of a card and it provides a bright line for law enforcement -- either you have a card or you don't.

As the US Attorney who led the raids on medical marijuana grows in Southern Oregon, Holton should well know the incredible waste of time, resources and tax dollars that prohibition brings. We need to end that waste. We need to end prohibition again.

Hey Kari: Dwight's made clear that it's the AG's job to uphold the law, and that's what he'd do. (He said that first at the City Club event, but it wasn't quoted). But it's not an either/or the way you've framed it -- many medical marijuana advocates, drug abuse treatment providers, legislators from both parties, and law enforcement authorities believe the program as it currently functions lacks sufficient protections to preserve the integrity and intent of the law.

Dwight will help lead a responsible discussion of how best to make improvements to the law in order to make sure medical marijuana continues to be available to those with medical need, but does not become delegitimized as a method of uncontrolled distribution of marijuana.

[Note for readers: Evyn Mitchell is Dwight Holton's campaign manager. Evyn, welcome to BlueOregon! -editor.]

This whole topic just seems like an overblown attempt to incite controversy where there isn't much difference.

Dwight and Ellen would both enforce current law. To my knowledge, Dwight never prosecuted anyone under Federal law who complied with Oregon's medical marijuana law. I think that Mr. Holton should be commended for that restraint--a restraint shown by few other US Attorneys. Moreover, his experience in the federal prosecutors office gives him one of the best positions from which to critique our system. Instead of lambasting him for his willingness to talk about what's wrong and how to fix it, which I think is a very Republican thing to do, we should listen to what he is saying and engage in a dialogue, which is a very Democratic thing to do.

Why do I wonder if Kari forgot his usual disclaimer on who he is working for (or with)? Ah, if we could only see the cell phone records behind each Blue Oregon post...

I'm for a new drug policy that will reduce the enormous profits going to the drug cartels--all kinds of "illegal" and therefore grossly profitable drugs.

Since at least the Spanish-American War and the invasion of the Phillipines, the US 1% has had the luxury of carrying out overseas wars of imperial aggression, including those in Central and South America. But now instead comes a war back at us over the Mexican border, fueled by the US appetite for the drugs the cartels provide. If we keep up the phony "war on drugs" we may get a failed state in Mexico and anarchy along our SW borders.

Full legalization of cannabis makes economic, political and moral sense, but so long as the current laws remain in effect, it is annoying to see people using the "medical card" system as a ploy to avoid arrest for their recreational cannabis activities. If you or your brother/mother/sister/friend need cannabis to ease your pain during your stage 4 cancer, then I support you. If your medical "need" was created at a motel in Gladstone where you paid a questionable "medical" person sitting at a card table $250.00 to certify your invisible pain as grounds to grow cannabis in a mini-storage facility along with 15 of your friends, I have a lot less sympathy, and I don't fault a law enforcement person for questioning your motives.

Does anybody really believe that HS kids can't score a bag of marijuana any time they want it from street and peer sources? Does anyone really believe that our Medical Marijuana law is at fault for HS students' use of marijuana? The way forward is to expand legal access to marijuana, and to use the profits to lower our taxes instead of sending it to the Mexican drug cartel.

I'm assuming the Holt would uphold Oregon's law as he is required to do as AG. I'm more interested in how he sees issues of justice and public policy being improved. His statement here tells me that he is more interested in clamping down on marijuana use as a law enforcement issue rather than communicating a vision of wiser use of law enforcement and corrections resources than arresting marijuana users and growers and incarcerating them. In the field of law enforcement we need a new approach in the area of drug policy.

Medical use of Cannabis is legal in Oregon, the Oregon Board of Pharmacy has rescheduled it to a 2 in Oregon. A place of legal disfuctionality of any non-toxic herb. Law, Policy, or rule, nothing can change mother nature. States Attorney Generals should fight for its citizens rights first and foremost or run for a Federal Office. Holtons history already proves he is no friend of sick people who choose to use this alternative and much more suitable form of healthcare.

Prohibition, the WOD are losers who's outcome hurts society in more in more ways than Cannabis can or will.

LEO, at any level has no place in my medicine chest.

Go Ellen!

To blame the state's medical marijuana program for marijuana being sold outside the state is placing the blame in the wrong place. Those sales, as has been pointed out, are illegal under the law Oregonians passed and those who violate it can be arrested and prosecuted. But those kind of sales have been happening for way longer than we have had medical marijuana.

In the meantime, 50,000 people have been killed in the Mexico's drug wars in the past five years. Six Latin American presidents have called on the US to end marijuana prohibition and end the illegal drug profits flowing into their countries. And here at home, it's drug cartels, not medical marijuana growers, who have planted fields and fields of marijuana in our national forests. To even suggest that the medical marijuana program is responsible for these illegal drug sales is clearly an attempt to divert attention from the real problem -- prohibition doesn't work.

Perhaps the bigger issue was experience in the state courts. The AG works primarily on state court issues, not federal ones. Medical marijuana is legal from the standpoint of state law. It is not under federal law. Holton's position was informed by his federal background. I support Rosenblum for many reasons, but her greater experience in the state courts is foremost. Holton isn't a bad guy, but his experience is primarily federal. That has limited relevance to the state AG job.

On the issue of medical marijuana, Dwight Holton has been a bully and has been wrong on the facts. He should not be our next Attorney General. As US Attorney he sent threatening letters to virtually every organization working to assist patients under the current law. He also sent letters to their landlords threatening to seize their property. No evidence was presented and there was no chance for due process. Some frightened landlords evicted their tennants and many patients lost their access to their legal medical marijuana. Last fall, when Holton was US Attorney, the feds raided numerous legal-under-state-law medical marijuana gardens where hundreds of patients cultivated their marijuana collectively. Patients medicine was seized. Many very ill, very poor, elderly patients were hurt by these wrongful federal actions. Holton used his discretion as the top federal prosecutor to go after patients who were legally complying with state law to ease their suffering as approved by voters and reaffirmed repeatedly by our legislature. This is bullying. It ignores the democratic processes our society uses to work through change on tough issues. The result was terrible: suffering patients, more health care costs and more illicit activity as some patients were forced to the black market. Almost everyone can agree that the medical marijuana law needs reform. Now that it is crystal clear that marijuana is medicine we need to have a safe regulated supply system. But we don't get there by feds raiding state-legal farms, stealing tractors and hurting patients. Holton should be held accountable and must be rejected as Oregon's Attorney General.

Go Ellen!