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People must have been stoned, according to a retired senior deputy district attorney for Multnomah County, when they crafted Measure 80 鈥� a marijuana legalization initiative that will go before Oregon voters next month.

鈥淚t sounds like a group of college freshmen got together, (smoked) some bongs and dreamed this up,鈥� said Mark McDonnell, who headed up the county’s drug-related prosecutions. 鈥淭hey threw everything they could think of in this measure.鈥�

The problem, McDonnell said, is that they didn’t provide oversight.

鈥淚t will be a free-for-all in the growing of marijuana,鈥� he added.

Plus, marijuana would still be considered a prohibited controlled substance by the federal government. Oregon could become the country’s marijuana connection.

鈥淚n a large sense, it already is,鈥� McDonnell said, noting that police in many other states automatically think someone with Oregon plates or an Oregon driver’s license is transporting marijuana.

That concerns leaders of Oregon’s trucking industry because its members routinely cross state lines. Debra Dunn, the president of the Oregon Trucking Association, said allowing drivers to smoke marijuana recreationally in Oregon puts them and their employers at risk in other states.

鈥淚t would put us in a position of making our jobs more difficult,鈥� Dunn said.

It definitely would, said Ron Guerra, an attorney who specializes in employment law as a partner in the firm of Jordan Ramis PC in Lake Oswego.

鈥淚 would see that as a major problem for the trucking industry, especially here in Portland where truckers are going back and forth across state lines all the time,鈥� he said.

Putting aside the issues of crossing state lines, Guerra said commercial trucking licenses often require random drug testing.

鈥淟egalized marijuana would throw that whole process right out on its ear,鈥� he said.

Paul Stanford, a marijuana activist and one of the chief petitioners behind the ballot measure, dismisses such talk as reactionary and fear-mongering. Employers can ban their workers from smoking marijuana just as they can ban them from smoking cigarettes. If workers were smoking marijuana only at home, he said, employers would have to focus on specific performance issues.

鈥淲hen it’s not prohibited, it will be about actual impairment,鈥� Stanford said.

The measure would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for personal use, he said 鈥� just like the Oregon Liquor Control Commission does with alcohol.

鈥淭here is no difference,鈥� Stanford said.

Well, McDonnell said, there is one difference.

鈥淵ou don’t have the right to distill your own alcohol for private use,鈥� he said.

Stanford and others say the measure would stop the illegal drug trade and the nefarious and often dangerous characters involved.

But McDonnell said it wouldn’t. The price of marijuana could skyrocket with legal growers and dealers having to pay workers minimum wage and incurring all the other costs of doing business.

Smokers would continue to turn to the criminal element for black-market, low-cost marijuana, McDonnell said.

鈥淭he system will never work with private growing operations,鈥� he added.

Stanford insists the measure would remove the criminal from the process. It also would create healthier workers for employers, he said.

鈥淥nce the science kicks in, they’ll realize employees who smoke marijuana don’t have the same health problems as people who smoke cigarettes,鈥� he said.