Pubdate: Sun, 12 Sep 2010
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2010 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?276 (Measure 74)

NO ON MEASURE 74, A FREE-FOR-ALL ON POT

If the main impact of Measure 74 was to improve the access of very 
sick people to medical marijuana, Oregon voters could support the 
initiative with enthusiasm.

But Measure 74 goes far beyond sick people, and far beyond medicine. 
It would provide legal immunity to drug dealers and allow unlimited 
dispensaries throughout Oregon. It would legalize marijuana 
possession for more people who are not sick and create a special 
program to provide low-income people with a steady drug supply.

Voters should reject this measure. Many sick and law-abiding people 
would surely benefit from better access to medical marijuana, but 
Measure 74 is not the way to do it.

Oregon voters legalized the use of medical marijuana in 1998. Current 
law allows people to use marijuana if they have a doctor's 
recommendation to do so. They are allowed to grow the marijuana 
themselves or designate someone to grow it for them. The law is not 
stingy: Patients can possess a pound and a half of medical marijuana 
and six mature marijuana plants. Growers can possess four times that amount.

Measure 74 would require the state to give licenses to people who 
want to open nonprofit dispensaries, complete with employees and 
directors. These dispensaries would sell marijuana to people with 
medical marijuana cards. That sounds reasonable enough, except for 
the fine print:

* All employees and directors of the dispensaries would be immune 
from criminal prosecution for most marijuana-related crimes if they 
are in "substantial compliance" with medical marijuana laws. This 
provision creates an astounding legal shield for people who use 
medical marijuana as a front for illegal activity. Prosecutors and 
law enforcement say if the measure passed, drug laws would be 
practically unenforceable.

* Employees and directors don't have to be law-abiding Oregon 
citizens. They can be drug dealers moving from other states to a 
place where the grass is greener, and they can be convicted violent 
felons recently released from Oregon prisons. It wouldn't take many 
criminals to taint the dispensary system as a criminal enterprise.

* Dispensaries can't be within a residential neighborhood or within 
1,000 feet of a school, but there are no other restrictions on their 
location and no cap on their total number: It would be perfectly 
legal, for example, to have 10 dispensaries across the street from 
houses and less than a quarter-mile from a high school.

Cities in Colorado and California with restrictions this loose have 
found themselves overwhelmed with more dispensaries than Starbucks 
coffee shops.

* The measure contains no requirements to improve the safety, quality 
or labeling of medical marijuana. It only says the state "may" fund 
research to do so. However, the measure does strictly require the 
state to develop and fund a program to provide low-income cardholders 
with a steady supply of marijuana. Based on the demographics of 
demand, it's easy to imagine how this assistance program could siphon 
every available dime from research.

The activists who wrote the measure agree there are details to be 
worked out. They say voters should trust the state to write 
administrative rules that will address the public's concerns. They 
say Oregon can learn from problems in other states.

But mostly, the proponents don't talk about problems, and they 
certainly don't talk about the lack of standards for labeling or 
quality control. They talk about how great dispensaries will be. They 
talk about the jobs that will be created. They talk about the 
millions that will be generated by program taxes and fees. And they 
talk about the sick and suffering people who would benefit from 
medical marijuana but don't know where to get it, how to grow it or 
where to turn.

We agree that state and federal laws governing medical marijuana are 
contradictory and collectively nonsensical. We also agree that many 
sick people in Oregon might be better off if marijuana was 
de-politicized as a medicine and treated more like morphine or other 
prescribed, highly regulated drugs.

Measure 74 isn't a solution to those problems. It's just a 
legalization measure with more protections for criminals than for patients. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake