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Members of the Oregon Senate and House judiciary committees gathered Friday to discuss marijuana legalization in Oregon.

(Jeff Mapes/The Oregonian)

SALEM -- Oregon Senate Judiciary Chairman Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, on Friday presented draft legislation that would ask voters if they want to legalize marijuana for 21-and-over adults and let the Legislature work out the details later.

Meanwhile, marijuana-legalization advocates, backed by major national funders, said they want to present voters with a measure that would give them more specifics on such things as how marijuana would be taxed and limits on how much of the drug an adult could possess.

After Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana last year, it appears likely that the issue will come before Oregon voters in 2014. The big question is in what form.

New Approach Oregon, a group supported by national marijuana legalization groups, would like the Legislature to refer something

last month. That would spare the group from having to collect the 87,213 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

Prozanski said he likes the idea of a referral but argued it makes more sense to allow the Legislature to work out the specific details if voters approve legalizing the drug.

He presented a draft bill that includes some

in a memo explaining how it would enforce -- and not enforce -- federal prohibitions against marijuana.

Anthony Johnson, who heads New Approach Oregon, said after the hearing Friday that he hasn't yet had time to review Prozanski's two-page draft.

However, he added, "My sense is that voters would want to see strict regulations and controls."

That includes, he said, specifying what government agency would oversee marijuana sales, how it would be taxed and how the revenues would be distributed. Johnson noted that voters rejected a marijuana legalization measure on the Oregon ballot last year that didn't have any limits on possession.

In contrast, the New Approach measure would allow individuals to possess 8 ounces of dried marijuana and up to four plants.

Prozanski said after the hearing that he purposely introduced a bare-bones draft bill to stimulate discussion among legislators about what else should be included in a referral to voters.

For example, he said he was willing to discuss adding such things as possession limits and some assurances to medical marijuana users that their program would not be abruptly changed.

But Prozanski said he thought it was too much to expect voters to approve a full-fledged law legalizing and regulating marijuana, particularly since Washington and Colorado are still learning about the pitfalls involved in creating a new legal system for marijuana.

"The public is ready for this change," Prozanski said, "and are we going to do it in a more reasonable, orderly manner through a legislative process, or are we going to have the voter look at something in which in many cases they don't have the time to go into the details of what it means."

Prozanski and Johnson both said they hoped they could agree on the language of the referral to allow New Approach to drop its own initiative.

Even if that happens, there also could be one or two marijuana initiatives from Paul Stanford, who owns a Portland-based chain of medical marijuana clinics. He was the chief sponsor of the failed 2012 initiative and is already collecting signatures on two measures, one that would give adults a constitutional right to possess marijuana and another that would regulate production and sales of the drug.

-- Jeff Mapes