Pubdate: Mon, 13 Feb 2012
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2012 The Register-Guard
Contact: http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/#contribute-a-letter
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362

MOVING TOWARD ACCEPTANCE

The Liberalizing of State Marijuana Laws Continues

Sixteen U.S. states, including Oregon, and the District of Columbia 
now allow the cultivation and distribution of marijuana for medical 
purposes, which some view as a foot in the door to eventual 
legalization of pot for recreational use. Some states are headed in 
that direction, and Oregon is likely to follow.

California voters were asked to legalize marijuana in 2010 and a slim 
majority, 54 percent, said "no." Washington voters will be asked that 
same question in November.

Meanwhile, a half-million petition signatures are being sought in 
California to put a new marijuana initiative on the November ballot. 
Called the Medical Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act, 
it's intended to eliminate the confusion and abuses that resulted 
from voter approval of the groundbreaking Compassionate Use Act in 
1996, which removed state criminal penalties for patients who receive 
"recommendations" from a physician that they can benefit from using 
marijuana to relieve severe pain, among other symptoms. Seven years 
later a statewide medical marijuana card system was put in place.

The latest initiative would do away with doctors' recommendations, 
set up a state bureau to oversee the medical marijuana program and 
impose a 2.5 percent tax on marijuana sales. Recognized medical 
marijuana groups would be grandfathered in for three years, and 
registered users who grow marijuana in their homes for personal use 
would be allowed to continue.

Although it's being promoted as a way to make the state's $1.5 
billion medical marijuana industry more accountable, the initiative 
also aims to reduce the conflict between the federal Controlled 
Substances Act and more permissive state laws regarding marijuana. 
Two years ago U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced an easing 
of crackdowns on medical marijuana patients and growers but made it 
clear that the feds wouldn't tolerate "clearly illegal" activities.

Depending on how the voting goes in November, Oregon's medical 
marijuana program -- like Washington's, approved by voters in 1998 -- 
could end up wedged between a more highly structured California 
program and a free-wheeling all-pot-is-legal situation in Washington, 
although, given the continuing federal classification of marijuana as 
an evil like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, it's unlikely the 
latter would be allowed to prevail.

Oregon's program has its own problems. Because growers and 
distributors of medical marijuana are barred by law from profiting 
from their handling of the drug, a fertile black market has emerged 
that law enforcement officials say is out of control. And 95 percent 
of the state's more than 57,000 medical marijuana patients say they 
need their pot to relieve "severe pain," which can be difficult to 
diagnose and confirm.

In 2010 Oregon voters were asked to expand the medical marijuana 
program by setting up state-regulated dispensaries, similar to what's 
being proposed in California. That measure was defeated, but with 
only 55 percent of the voters voting "no," indicating that Oregonians 
may be going along with a general softening of attitudes toward 
marijuana elsewhere.

At some point, Oregon is going to have to move in the direction 
California appears to be heading and set up a system that would 
regulate medical marijuana the way alcohol and tobacco are regulated. 
The fiction that growers and distributors can be prevented from 
profiting from the medical marijuana trade would have to be 
jettisoned and some form of taxation imposed.

It's a reality that many Oregonians won't want to accept, especially 
those working in law enforcement. But the trend is clearly in that 
direction. With the number of medical marijuana patients nationally 
surpassing an estimated 1 million people last year, and with constant 
political pressure being applied by a vast and well-funded marijuana 
lobby, it's likely only a matter of time before Oregon has to accept 
medical marijuana as just another regulated drug.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom