Pubdate: Tue, 03 Mar 2009 Source: Register-Guard, The (OR) Copyright: 2009 The Register-Guard Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/0DzBLcMl Website: http://www.registerguard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362 Author: David Steves Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) LEGISLATORS FACE WIDE RANGE OF PROPOSALS ON STATE'S MEDICAL POT LAW Some Medical Marijuana Advocates Seek To Close Loopholes That Have Fostered "Significant" Abuses Within The Program SALEM -- 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin