As usual, the potheads know what’s up: the group working to legalize marijuana in Oregon this fall is now accepting Bitcoin donations, becoming the first political campaign in the state to make the leap to cryptocurrency.
New Approach Oregon, the group behind the state’s pro-legalization initiative to regulate and tax marijuana, announced the move in a press release posted on its website last week. Campaign manager Dan Mahr said in the statement:
“We believe we are the first political organization in Oregon to do this. But more organizations will follow. Bitcoin is the currency of the internet and of future generations. We are a cutting edge campaign that wants to make it possible for the online community everywhere to get involved and help Bitcoin’s progress.”
As a state with a thriving Bitcoin community and a reputation for alternative-mindedness, Oregon is expected to join a small but growing club of states to legalize marijuana in elections this fall, after trailblazing constituents in Washington and Colorado voted to fully legalize the drug last year.
Voters in at least two other states (Alaska and Florida) are set to decide marijuana policy issues this November. A vote on the subject is almost certain in Oregon as well, after New Approach Oregon turned in 145,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office last month to get marijuana legalization on the ballot, well above the roughly 87,000 required minimum.
A victory in Oregon, the group said, is considered crucial to the legalization movement’s continued sweeping success across the United States – and they hope accepting Bitcoin donations will help bring them closer to that goal.
“I just thought it was a neat thing to try,” campaign director Peter Zuckerman told local media station Oregon Public Broadcasting. “It’s nothing that we’ve done before and I don’t know how it’s going to work but I think it could work really well and I’m excited about the prospect.”
Taking cryptocurrency is easy for the group to do, too: state political campaigns in Oregon must report Bitcoin donations in the same way as regular cash contributions, but there are no other restrictions.
Zuckerman said New Approach had already received contributions from as far away as Australia, probably helped in part by their spectacular pro-marijuana PSA ads delivered by elderly straight-laced, cardigan-sporting retired schoolteachers.
Support marijuana legalization? Want to donate in Bitcoin? Click over to the campaign’s donation page here.