cannabisnews.com: Legislators Face Range of Proposals on Pot Law





Legislators Face Range of Proposals on Pot Law
Posted by CN Staff on March 03, 2009 at 05:42:50 PT
By David Steves, The Register-Guard
Source: Register-Guard
Salem, OR -- Oregon’s medical marijuana program is undergoing some intense scrutiny as it enters its second decade.A Senate panel Monday held the first of what’s likely to be several hearings on a variety of proposals this session, ranging from one that would create medical marijuana dispensaries to others that would add restrictions to the program. The first hearing filled a Capitol room to overflowing, primarily with medical marijuana patients and advocates of the program.
One of them, Elvy Musikka of Eugene, said patients are wary of any effort to tamper with a program that gives 21,500 Oregonians legal access to a drug to ease their pain or debilitating medical conditions.“I think we have the laws to take care of any problems without making our program more complicated than it already is,” said Musikka, who has smoked pot for years to ease the symptoms of her glaucoma.Medical marijuana advocate Stormy Ray asked Sen. Bill Morrisette, D-Springfield, to sponsor the bill heard Monday. The proposal would tighten up rules on caregivers of medical marijuana patients, and would further clarify the quantities of marijuana plants and their more concentrated derivative, hashish, that patients can possess.It also would give police the right to assist patients who request their help in recovering marijuana from growers and caregivers who fail to provide it.Ray, who has multiple sclerosis, said she wants to remove gray areas in the law and close loopholes that have allowed some to abuse their status as state-sanctioned growers or providers of medical marijuana. The problem, she said, is that some end up profiting on the black market from pot that legally belongs to patients but isn’t reaching them.“The less abuse there is, the better our program will be able to survive and work for patients,” said Ray, one of the chief petitioners for the state’s landmark 1998 medical marijuana initiative.Another bill introduced Monday on behalf of Voter Power, a marijuana legalization advocacy group, is identical to a proposed 2010 ballot initiative creating a government-regulated system of dispensaries, where patients who hold a state-issued medical marijuana patient card could acquire pot, cannabis plants and edibles made from marijuana.John Sajo, the head of Voter Power and a southern Douglas County resident, said the time is right for such an expansion of Oregon’s law. He cited U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement last week that the Drug Enforcement Administration would end its raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries in California.Another proposal would allow medical marijuana growers to ask patients to compensate them for their time and materials — expanding the current provision that a patient may reimburse a grower for the costs of supplies and utilities.Advocates also are asking lawmakers to authorize research into the efficacy and safety of medical marijuana, and to honor medical marijuana cards issued by other states.A law enforcement work group has asked for legislation giving them access, in certain circumstances, to records on medical marijuana patients, which currently are sealed, even to police.The bills also would place various restrictions on how medical marijuana could be grown and the roles that growers and those legally designated as caregivers could play.Oregon State Police Lt. Mike Dingeman, who is working on the law enforcement legislation, said legislation passed in 2005 to limit abuses under the program helped, but hasn’t prevented the exploitation of other loopholes.“Abuse in other areas has skyrocketed significantly,” he said.Dingeman told lawmakers that one caregiver currently has 26 patients, each of whom are entitled to 24 ounces of pot. That means the caregiver could have as much as 39 pounds of pot with him — but if police were to stop him, he could lawfully claim that the marijuana isn’t his but rather belongs to patients.He showed a photograph taken overhead of a backyard filled with 24 pot plants the size of small trees. The law allows up to six mature plants per garden, but the photo depicted a legal grow site because six different people were authorized to produce marijuana at the same address, Dingeman said.The proposals he helped draft would limit to two the number of patients each caregiver could be responsible for, and would curb the number of medical marijuana gardens that could be at a single address.He said police and prosecutors also want to relax patient-privacy restrictions in the medical marijuana law. That way, when police become suspicious about whether growers or caregivers are legitimate, they can look up their patients and interview them to be sure the growers and caregivers are really cultivating and providing the pot to them. Note: Some medical marijuana advocates seek to close loopholes that have fostered “significant” abuses within the program.Complete Title: Legislators Face Wide Range of Proposals on State’s Medical Pot LawSource: Register-Guard, The (OR)Author: David Steves, The Register-GuardPublished: Tuesday, March 3, 2009, Page A7Copyright: 2009 The Register-GuardContact: rgletters guardnet.comWebsite: http://www.registerguard.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/3Yrtaj2bCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on March 03, 2009 at 14:55:39 PT
Hope
I have thought and thought about your comment many times myself. People that are losing their battle need comfort. 
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on March 03, 2009 at 14:52:37 PT
Or breathing in steam
from a hot pan with cannabis steeping in it, and a towel draped over your head?What sort of "Home Remedy" might that prove to be?It's not going back to "stone age medicine". It's picking up on something we forgot... or didn't understand well enough to realize it's value.Who knows? The side effects could be perilous. I've heard it makes your hair grow sometimes... so you might get more nose hair. "Use of this plant in an inhaler of any kind, or in inhaled steam, hot or cold, might make your nose hair become more abundant. More plucking and trimming may be required. How bad do you hate it?", it might have to warn in black boxes in the "possible side effects" part of the labels of commercial cannabis sold for the purpose.:0)Well, it might.
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on March 03, 2009 at 14:40:19 PT
A thought on Cannabis and Cancer.
If they could make a superb sterile water and cooked cannabis extract or solution of some sort ... in an inhaler like an asthmatic might use... might it not have a healing effect on the diseased lungs of lung cancer patients... or even a protective effect on healthy lungs, or the at risk lungs?It would of course, have to be exquisitely done.Maybe breaths of soluble vitamins or healing minerals like zinc. Inhaled medicine might be even more helpful than it already is.Yes. They hurt to use. They pack a hard punch, worse than that first puff of smoke ever, as I recall. But when the need arises they may prove to be quite helpful. There are so many ways this helpful plant can be used by people beyond smoking. Ok. Doctors and researchers, so don't recommend smoking. But surely, you should consider the wonders and benefits to mankind within this really amazing plant. Why all the freaking spookiness about it all?What about an oxygen tent with measured amounts of medicinal cannabis vapor in hospitals and hospitals if people want them or might benefit from them? Some people won't want them. That's fine, too. I suspect it could help people a lot without doing them harm... as in "First... do no harm."That might be another clue as to the value of the help or nourishment to be found within the plant. You can see if it helps and you likely won't kill or damage them in your efforts at helping them. It's a good medicine for "First... Do no harm."
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on March 03, 2009 at 12:46:00 PT
Or we could legalize it and get over it.
"That way, when police become suspicious about whether growers or caregivers are legitimate, they can look up their patients and interview them to be sure the growers and caregivers are really cultivating and providing the pot to them."About the mythical "One child" so many seem to be concerned about ... or perhaps you're worried about your own kids. Keep your kids out of other people's gardens. That's not unreasonable.Yes. Some kids, or even grown ups, when it's legal even, might try to pilfer from or raid the garden, like some kids in the country seemed to used to think it almost a duty to pilfer a watermelon patch on late summer nights. But that doesn't mean a person should not be allowed to have the plant on his own private property. The owner should post it and fence it if he doesn't want people in there. And if someone does try to pilfer ... they should be scolded very soundly and/or, if they vandalize or seriously damage property, they should repair it. 
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Comment #1 posted by dongenero on March 03, 2009 at 11:01:04 PT
Abuse has skyrocketed......
Dingeman told lawmakers that one caregiver currently has 26 patients, each of whom are entitled to 24 ounces of pot. That means the caregiver could have as much as 39 pounds of pot with him — but if police were to stop him, he could lawfully claim that the marijuana isn’t his but rather belongs to patients.He showed a photograph taken overhead of a backyard filled with 24 pot plants the size of small trees. The law allows up to six mature plants per garden, but the photo depicted a legal grow site because six different people were authorized to produce marijuana at the same address, Dingeman said.Ok officer Dingeman, how is this abuse of the system? You just outlined what is in compliance.
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