Labor Groups' Complaints Are Stymied by the Timing of a New Oregon Law

A coalition of labor groups says it has found evidence of widespread use of illegal practices to gather signatures for several conservative initiatives aimed for the November general election ballot.

But the practices in question, including the use of carbon paper to duplicate printed names and addresses on multiple signature sheets for different initiatives, were not illegal until Jan. 1, when a new law governing Oregon's initiative system went into effect. The signature sheets examined by the labor coalition were all dated before Jan. 1.

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I just go blind with rage whenever I hear the term "medical marijuana."

(Someone I know) has been smoking pot since he was 16 and a student at Albany Union High School. He graduated to pills and cocaine. He finally was able to get himself somewhat clean. I say somewhat, because he started drinking to replace the drugs. Eventually, he and his girlfriend shopped around and found a doctor who would give them a so-called "medical marijuana" card.

Now they cultivate, and grow the most potent plants they can, and smoke dope all day long, when home. He claims he needs this for his so called "back pain."

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Hasso Hering has penned an excellent editorial, "Medical pot law needs a fix" (Sunday, June 15). Throughout the years Hering has been a stable voice on an issue that too often gets lowered to the level of hysterics.

Oregon now has nearly 3,000 doctors who have signed recommendations for patients to legally utilize cannabis (marijuana) as medicine. Unfortunately pot's critics too often have a voice more powerful than the message of criticism they spew. Kevin Mannix and many in Oregon's law enforcement community condemn the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), yet their criticism is based not on fact or science but on perpetuation of the Reefer Madness myth.

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The real answer to this issue is to reschedule medical marijuana so that a doctor can properly prescribe it. This would then allow for the control and supply of MMJ rather than dealing in these grey areas.

As for the employer, the current marijuana testing methods need to be reviewed. Current testing can show traces of the drug for up to six months after exposure. The effect of the drug only lasts for 1 to 4 hours depending on strength and dosage. In short there is no current test used generally by private employers that can detect if a person is "under the influence" of marijuana. This should be a primary concern that is addressed by the private business sector and most certainly those big testing companies that make all the money from them (but have little interest in this area of development).

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It is good to see folks looking for alternatives to random drug testing for employment and the right to fire employees, or deny employment to otherwise qualified employees/applicants simply because they are legally consuming cannabis to mitigate symptoms which would otherwise prevent them from working at all.

In which case taxpayers would be paying the bills rather than the cannabis patients paying their own way.

Many cannabis patients prefer to pay their own way. Just like everyone else.

The idea of limiting testing to cause-related instances rather than random testing sounds good. Do you mean that it would no longer be required pre-employment or randomly after being hired, and would only be required if there were an accident or an incident to cause suspicion of impairment? By law?

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It is amazing how ridiculous lies, propaganda and political opportunism still affect attitudes about marijuana. The pot laws were passed based on the most absurd racist fictions:

"Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice." (Hearst newspapers nationwide, 1934.)

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana can cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."

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Oregon's medical marijuana law needs to be clarified in view of the latest court decision. The Supreme Court may do so eventually, but it would be better - more democratic - for the legislature to perform that chore.

In early 2005 the state Supreme Court ruled against a worker who had been fired from a forest-products plant because he used medical marijuana.

In a different case, however, the Bureau of Labor and Industries ruled in favor of a worker, a drill press operator, who had been hired as a temporary and who was let go in 2003 when he disclosed his medical marijuana use. The labor bureau ruled that his employer had to make a reasonable accommodation of his disability, which was that he was smoking pot off the job to relieve his nausea and stomach cramps.

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Anti-Crime and Property Tax Issues Will Be Decided by Voters

Three citizen initiatives and four measures referred by the Legislature have already qualified for the Nov. 4 general election ballot, and state officials expect more to come.

One of the initiatives, sponsored by Republican activist Kevin Mannix, would impose mandatory prison sentences for certain drug offenses, car theft and burglary. That will compete with a measure referred to voters by the Legislature that would impose less stringent minimum sentences and beef up treatment programs for drug offenders.

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Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children.

Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increases the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

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To those with family members who rely on medical marijuana to relieve chronic pain, the federal government's crusade against the use of the drug is an outrage.

According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 78 percent of Americans support allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana. Yet only one of the three major presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama, is calling for needed change in federal policy by stopping federal raids in the 12 states that have passed laws legalizing medicinal use of marijuana.

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Corvallis Community Theatre Warns Us All About the Dangers of a Deadly Illegal Drug With 'Reefer Madness'

I was on the road to ruin. I was considering trying the new fad of "toking up," "getting high," "freaking out," "beaming up," "bugging out" and "tripping the light fantastic."

All the kids are doing it, I told myself.

Fortunately for me, as well as babies, teenagers and old men everywhere, I had the common sense to attend a showing of Corvallis Community Theatre's new educational musical, "Reefer Madness."

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The Democratic Presidential frontrunner talks timber payments, Gordon Smith and of course tattoos.

Sen. Barack Obama once remarked on the long odds of a "skinny guy from the South Side with a funny name" finding success in American politics.

How much more improbable then that Oregon - an overwhelmingly white state 1,700 miles from his Chicago home - could finally put the Illinois senator over the top this Tuesday, May 20, in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Obama campaign looks to that date as the day to finally declare victory over Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), after an anticipated Oregon win gives Obama a majority of pledged delegates nationwide. Little wonder then that Obama's third Oregon swing May 9-10 felt more like a victory lap than a campaign stop. In Beaverton, Albany, Eugene and Bend, Obama test-drove a new strategy of targeting Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and largely ignoring Clinton.

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Reed College Is Exceptional for More Than Academics. It's One of America's Most Permissive Colleges for Experimenting With Drugs.

ON A RECENT SATURDAY AFTERNOON in Southeast Portland, a mass of two dozen nudists, painted blue, were gathered at Reed College.

They call themselves "Picters," after an ancient Scottish tribe, and they carried turkeys and other assorted meats for the feast that was about to ensue as hundreds of hungry students lined up.

The breasts and genitals on display attracted no stares. Neither did the student nearby who took a hit off a footlong glass bong as gray-bearded alums walked by with their toddlers and teenagers in tow.

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High times for marijuana marchers.

Maybe there were good vibes after all from the ninth annual Million Marijuana March that rolled out at high noon on May 3 through downtown Portland.

Less than 48 hours after an estimated 700 marchers demonstrated to protest pot prohibition and to support the use of medical marijuana, conservative activist Kevin Mannix announced he'd end a ballot initiative drive that would have replaced the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program with prescription THC pills. As first reported Monday on www.wweek.com, Mannix says there wasn't enough time or money to collect the 82,769 valid signatures needed to put his initiative on the November ballot.

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Louisa Callery knows addiction. It runs in her family, so she's familiar with the denial, the excuses, the magical thinking that normal rules don't apply.

She knows the first step to battling a drug problem is admitting you have one. She thinks Reed College has one. And she wishes Oregon's most prestigious private college would confront the problem openly, as a way to protect more students and to honor her 18-year-old son, Alex, who died earlier this month of an accidental drug overdose in his dorm room.

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Roughly four years ago, Janet Lynn Lanier was offered a job with the Woodburn Public Library. Then, she was asked to do something so unconscionable, so unthinkable, so unconstitutional that we hesitate to mention it in a family newspaper.

She was asked to take a drug test.

When Lanier said "no way," the library withdrew its job offer.

Lanier then sued, eventually prevailing in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In cases like Lanier's, said the court, mandatory drug testing violates the state and federal constitutions, which protect people from unreasonable searches.

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The following are highlights of an interview with Barack Obama by Gary Nelson, Mail Tribune editorial page editor:

Q: You mentioned timber payments to counties in passing in your speech. Do you support those payments?

A: What I'd like to do is convene meetings between federal agencies, local and state governments and interested parties, and start hammering out a long-term solution that acknowledges the revenue issues that are at stake for local governments and preserves the natural resources that are so important to Oregon.

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On Thursday, A.J. Ernst, a Texas representative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and specialist in co-occurring disorders, led training at the Umatilla County Justice Center for local mental health and substance abuse providers.

Friday's edition of the East Oregonian published a story about the morning's training.

Thursday afternoon, representatives from Umatilla, Union and Malheur County drug courts discussed how to better serve their clients when it comes to co-occurring disorders; specifically mental health and substance abuse disorders.

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Fire 'em all! That is the thrust of your Feb. 25 editorial calling for laws allowing Oregon workers who therapeutically use marijuana to be immediately and arbitrarily fired, regardless of where or when they used their medication. Darkly hinting of problems in the workplace, you see danger in even such basic tasks as driving a car. Clearly you agree with the position of Associated Oregon Industries that the number of Oregonians lawfully registered with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program is a serious and burdensome problem which actually ranks as an emergency!

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Oregon was among the states in the 1990s that led the way toward mandatory minimum prison terms for violent criminals.

But unless voters reject both pending ballot measures in the fall, Oregon will not be among the states lessening penalties on drug dealers, burglars and other property offenders.

A ballot initiative sponsored by Kevin Mannix of Salem and approved by voters as Measure 11 in 1994 imposed minimum sentences on people convicted of 16 violent crimes. The number of affected crimes has risen to 24, three of them added by the Legislature in 2006.

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