Pubdate: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 Source: Mail Tribune, The (Medford, OR) Copyright: 2004 The Mail Tribune Contact: http://www.mailtribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/642 Note: Only prints LTEs from within it's circulation area. Cited: Measure 33 http://www.yeson33.org Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) MEASURE 33: NO Marijuana Patients Need Easier Access, but the Initiative Goes Too Far The state's medical marijuana law has one big flaw: It provides patients with no safe, legal route for getting the drug. They can smoke marijuana, but they can't buy it. Measure 33 on the Nov. 2 ballot would resolve that by creating state-run dispensaries where patients would buy their marijuana. And if it stopped there, it would serve the state well. But it doesn't stop there, and that's why we recommend a no vote. Creating dispensaries isn't Measure 33's only goal. Instead, backers of the proposal hope to expand Oregon's 6-year-old law in two other major ways: by allowing patients to possess more than five times as much of the drug as they can today, and by loosening restrictions on who can recommend its use. Under the new law, that would include not only doctors but also nurse practitioners and naturopaths. Oregon's already got a tough row to hoe on medicinal marijuana. The federal government doesn't like the law and regularly attempts to scare doctors away from it. Now the Bush administration is calling the proposal to expand it a back-door attempt to legalize drugs -- a criticism that will be tough for Oregon to dispute. It's easy enough to make the case for sick people smoking marijuana. The drug is capable of bringing relief to many seriously ill people who suffer chronic pain and nausea -- without serious addiction problems. It's relatively safe and relatively cheap. But there's no question Measure 33 would take the law beyond what's medically necessary by increasing the amount of the drug patients could possess at once from 3 ounces to a pound, enough to last the heaviest users a month. And expanding the list of "doctors" who can recommend use of the drug to nurse practitioners and naturopaths would do nothing to help the law's credibility. The problems with the law today don't exist because 3 ounces of the drug is too little or because doctors aren't the right people to be working with patients. They exist because it's hard to get the drug legally and because the federal government is bent on making it harder. Oregon's original medical marijuana law probably does need revision, something that gives the 10,000 or so medicinal marijuana cardholders safe and legal access to the drug. But Measure 33 would do more than that. It would expand the present system beyond what even most supporters could argue is credible. Voters shouldn't make it Oregon law. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake