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Marijuana matures at the Medicine Man dispensary and grow operation in northeast Denver, Colo.

(The Associated Press/File)

Marijuana may be winning more social acceptance these days, but the Oregon Legislature doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with legalizing the drug.

A measure that would ask voters if they want to legalize marijuana – and leave the regulatory details to lawmakers in the next session – doesn't have enough votes to pass the Senate and appears certain to die in committee.

"It's dead at this point, and for good reason," said Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, one of the lawmakers helping to bottle up the bill.

Kruse said the measure has too many problems to iron out in the Legislature's short session. And he is among those saying that Oregon should hold off on legalization for at least a couple years while watching to see how Colorado and Washington implement legalization initiatives they approved in 2012.

But the Legislature's inaction doesn't mean Oregonians won't vote on the issue this November. Quite the contrary.

Paul Stanford, the Portland medical marijuana impresario, is already collecting signatures for two initiatives – one making possession of the drug a constitutional right for adults and the other laying out a program for growing, selling and possessing marijuana.

Another group, New Approach Oregon, is supported by several large national funders and executive director Anthony Johnson says he is also confident about qualifying a legalization measure for the ballot.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, was the architect of Senate Bill 1556, the measure to refer the issue to voters. He argued that regulating marijuana has proved tough enough in Washington and Colorado, demonstrating that legislators should handle the details.

Stanford and Johnson both said they liked the idea of a referral. If nothing else, it would have relieved them of the burden of collecting tens of thousands of signatures – although Stanford said he would have gone ahead with his constitutional measure in any case.

Stanford said he has collected about 35,000 signatures for his constitutional measure and about 25,000 signatures for his other initiative.

The constitutional measure needs 116,284 valid signatures from voters by the July 3 deadline to qualify for the November ballot. Statutory measures need 87,213 signatures.

Prozanski ran into opposition not just from Republicans but from at least two members of his caucus – Sens. Betsy Johnson of Scappoose and Rod Monroe of Portland.

"I'm not convinced it will automatically pass in this state," Monroe said of legalization, adding that he doesn't want to do anything to give it a push.

Monroe, 71, said that more than two decades as a high school teacher taught him to dislike marijuana. "I watched what happened when they started smoking marijuana and stopped being students," he said.

-- Jeff Mapes