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At the International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) in Portland last month, the atmosphere was that of a winning NASCAR pit crew during the victory lap. Bullish is too weak a word to characterize the 700 vape pen purveyors and cannabis attorneys in attendance (they'd come from as far as Alabama and India). The vibe was bullish but congenial. Inclusive, not cutthroat. On Day Two, an attendee was doing tai chi in the Portland Convention Center hallway in between speakers.

Photo Credit: Ketta / Shutterstock.com

This was not lost on the producer of the event, 43-year-old Alex Rogers. "Let's face it, Oregon's a relaxed place, a collaborative place," he said. "You can leave your pretentions and hangups at the door and you won't get kicked when you do business."

The Oregon business mode, to Rogers, is nothing less than part of  "a cultural transformation. If you're in the cannabis and hemp industry, you will fail if you're only about the money with no ethics; no consciousness about this plant."

But Rogers, perhaps practicing that ethic himself, quickly added that there was another, bottom-line reason for the touchy-feely aura at an event whose entrance fee was $499. "We're at the point in the cannabis industry's evolution where even your competitor's growth is good for you," he said.

When not producing one of the traveling ICBC conferences (the next one's in San Francisco in February), Rogers owns one of Oregon's largest medical marijuana clinics. He told me he has no problems with profit. In fact, Roger's win-win economic growth curve for legal cannabis is reason number-one why the passage of Oregon's Measure 91, which will legalize and regulate all forms of cannabis (including hemp) if voters approve it on November 4, matters to my family, even here in New Mexico. It provides a new Green Standard for how to make legalization work for everyone from families to law enforcement to home cultivators. (The measure had a four-point lead in a September poll, though I predict an eight-point margin of victory.)

Drafted by Portland's Anthony Johnson and his nationally funded New Approach Oregon team, Measure 91 is the best cannabis regulation model in the world to date. In fairness, Colorado had to do it Colorado's way, and Washington had to do it Washington's way. The savvy initiative drafters in those states did what they had to do to tear down the drug war Berlin Wall-they had 70 years of drug war lies to deal with. Oregon is benefitting from seeing what can be done better, and I hope the whole world is watching.