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Many Oregonians will get to vote on marijuana again in 2016.
Eighty-two Oregon cities and counties have banned recreational pot shops from operating; in 36 of those jurisdictions—from Manzanita to Fairview to Lake Oswego—residents will vote on those bans in the November 2016 general election.
That's because the Oregon Legislature's rules for recreational weed say that in any county where more than 45 percent of voters approved legal weed, cities and counties must refer local bans to voters. In counties where at least 55 percent of voters rejected Measure 91, local governments can pass bans without referring them to the ballot.
(Oregon Liquor Control Commission spokesman Mark Pettinger tells WW that any communities outlawing cannabis shops from here on out must refer their bans to voters.)
Portland lawyer Bear Wilner-Nugent is preparing for even more ballot battles.
He's compiling an online database of every local elected official who voted to ban cannabis, along with their next election date and the opponent who garnered the most votes in their last race.
Here's the open-source spreadsheet.
"I'm not personally of means to fund a campaign, but I did have enough cash to hire a young Reedie to compile the data," Wilner-Nugent says. "This is putting local officials on notice that their actions are being monitored."
Willamette Week