82 Percent of Cash in Pot Campaign Comes from Outside Oregon

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Jake Thomas and Emily Liedel, GoLocalPDX Contributors

Photo Credit: MendezEnrique via Compfight cc

Roughly 82 percent of the money funding a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in Oregon is coming from sources outside the Beaver State.

Campaign finance data shows that New Approach Oregon, the group behind ballot measure 91 has received only $278,662.60 (less than 18 percent of the campaign's $1.5 million war chest) from within the Beaver State. The rest of the campaign's money has come from wealthy individuals and organizations located outside of the state.

“That sounds par for the course,” says David Rosenfeld, the executive director of OSPIRG, a nonprofit watchdog group that's been critical of the way elections are funded.

Rosenfeld noted that he hasn't reviewed the campaign finance data, but said that the current method of financing campaigns “takes democracy increasingly out of the hands of ordinary people and create a play ground for the super rich.”

The measure 91 campaign is spearheaded by Anthony Johnson, executive director of the Oregon Cannabis Industry Association. Anthony helped craft rules governing the state's medical marijuana facilities.

If approved, the initiative would put the Oregon Liquor Control Commission in charge of licensing and regulating stores that would sell marijuana to adults 21 and over. Tax revenue from the measure would fund local schools, police and drug-treatment and mental-health programs.

According to an analysis of campaign finance data by GoLocalPDX, $560,000--42 percent of all donations--came from New York City.

$50,000 from The Drug Policy Alliance, a New York City-based drug-reform organization.
$410,000 from the The Drug Policy Action, the political advocacy arm of the Drug Policy Alliance.
$100,000 from New York City philanthropist Henry van Ameringen.

In 2011, the Drug Policy Alliance received a $4 million grant from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, an organization funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Philip Harvey has contributed $150,000. Harvey is listed as the president of the Washington, D.C.-based DKT Liberty Project, a civil liberties-oriented advocacy organization.

The organization's website states that Harvey is the president of DKT International, a nonprofit family planning and AIDS-prevention organization and the majority shareholder of Adam & Eve, a mail order business that sells “sexually oriented books and films.”

Liz Kaufman, campaign manager for New Approach Oregon, says that although most New Approach Oregon's money came from out of state, “We have Oregonians very integrally involved in the campaign.”

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