On Monday, Nov. 24, a pragmatic, sizable downtown Portland business-oriented audience heard four important guys relate how legal marijuana will be regulated and integrated into the state’s economy.

The mentally hip crowd of approximately 300 adult minds made themselves comfortable so as to optimize their attention during a four-man panel discussion about Maryjane.  Voters in the state’s populous Multnomah County two weeks ago had overwhelmingly endorsed Measure 91, the measure legalizing recreational marijuana, enabling the whole state to share in an unexpected conservative takeover.

“Conservative?” you might ask.  “What is going to make legal recreational Maryjane in Oregon different than what’s been happening in Colorado and Washington?”

“Our intention [by creating the act] is to minimize the illegal market” by regulating and taxing it “like alcohol,” said Dave Kopilak, author of Oregon’s Act 91, who deserves recognition for clear thought and legal proficiency in composing Plain English.

The thought of it boggles the mind.  Starve the cartels out of business by making weed/pot/maryjane legal, thereby lowering the price?  That’s what’s up, no doubt about it.

Kopilak announced his legal intent during a panel discussion also comprised of Anthony Johnson of the Oregon Cannabis Industry Association; Rob Bovett, legal counsel for the Association of Oregon Counties; Steven Marks, Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) executive director; and moderator Noelle Crombie, whose day job is marijuana reporter for The Oregonian, Portland’s daily metropolitan newspaper.

No one could be seen gasping, other than at the author’s unabashed bluntness, during the Oregonian-sponsored event in City Center’s Gerding Theater at the Armory, a/k/a U.S. Bank Main Stage.  No representatives of Portland’s legendary red-eyed stoners were in attendance to cheer on the panelists; the prevailing modus operandi was uniformly business-like.

Fifty-four percent of all Oregonian registered voters were recorded to have said yes.  Legalization formally begins July 1, 2015, and the discussion served to establish the methodology coming on board to promote, control the market and – the most expressed area of concern – limit taxation, thereby putting a stranglehold on drug cartels that depend on triple-digit profit margins.

The idea of using pot legality against cartels was seldom mentioned, if at all, during a plethora of televised advertisements prior to the election.  But now that Measure 91 is imminent, it is.

If America’s hidden marijuana tokers turn out to be more conservative than the image usually associated with Cheech and Chong stoners, the Republican Party might be infused with some new creative minds.  And who knows?  Maybe that’s what’s needed to reconcile unflinching sides making up the gentrified conservatives in our nation.

Now let’s see: If all the legal beagles attending the Oregonian Plus speaker series’ already were on board with the future of pot in the Beaver State, how far ahead of the nation does that put Oregon?