Though she is generally 20 years their senior, 62-year-old Linda Goodwin said parents with children at Sisters Elementary School consider her a peer. "When Jayna says she's being raised by her grandma, everyone accepts it," the Sisters resident said. Goodwin is part of what local social service officials say is a small but growing group -- grandparents raising their grandchildren. Researchers began noticing an increase in grandparent-headed households with children under 18 in the early 1990s, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report. Local officials said the trend has continued. [continues 1170 words]
"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!" cried Chicken Little. "Emergency! Emergency!" cries Don Harmon (guest opinion, Feb. 17) with just as much connection with reality. For over three legislative sessions, Harmon has proclaimed an emergency in the workplace because some workers use marijuana therapeutically. He wants to fire any such person, no matter when or where that use occurs. It is a safety issue, he says. Oregon law says, "Patients and doctors have found marijuana to be an effective treatment"| and therefore, marijuana should be treated like other medicines;"|". In most workplaces there are established guidelines for other medicines and therapeutic marijuana is best treated like them. If there is an issue of impairment, Oregon law already allows impaired workers to be removed, no matter the cause. [continues 668 words]
The bill to limit medical marijuana in the Oregon workplace died -- smothered by opposition from businesses. House Bill 3635 was a bad bill, but the problem the bill tried to address hasn't gone away. Under Oregon's 1998 medical marijuana law, employers don't have to let patients smoke pot on the job. The law isn't clear, though, about what employers may do about an employee who comes to work impaired. A 2006 Oregon Supreme Court decision didn't clear the air. In that case, a millwright had muscle spasms in his legs that made it hard to sleep. He used prescription medication and then switched to medical marijuana. He said it worked better. [continues 314 words]
Coalition Of Law Enforcement Agencies Fights Drug Successfully Marion County's methamphetamine dealers have moved up in the world - from mom-and-pop operations to full-fledged drug cartels. Fortunately, local police departments have an ally in pursuing them: the Meth Strike Force, a partnership of police agencies and courts that arrests mid-level dealers and holds them accountable. The group is made up of seasoned drug officers from Salem, Keizer, Woodburn and Marion County, plus a prosecutor who sees their cases through court. But this year-and-a-half-old force has helped rural Marion County as well. [continues 338 words]
Short on Time and Money, Members of the House and Senate Find Their Requests Won't See Action SALEM -- Will businesses get tax breaks for taking extra steps to cut pollution? Is Silver Falls State Park on its way to becoming a national park? Will Gresham get money to patrol MAX trains? No. No. And probably not. The Oregon Legislature, which normally convenes every two years, is meeting this year in a historic experiment with annual sessions. As lawmakers rush through their monthlong meeting with few dollars to spend, some proposals meet a quick death. Others barely cling to life at the halfway point. [continues 948 words]
I agree with your editorial. Proponents of marijuana use would have you believe that impairment testing is commercially available and reliable. There is no generally available, evidence-based, accredited, economical impairment test, nor one that can be administered effectively in the Oregon workplace. Law enforcement personnel who are responsible for keeping the roadways free of impaired drivers administer a form of field sobriety testing but not by using some kind of novel "impairment test." Instead they administer a collection of sobriety tests. These tests are time-consuming to perform correctly. If there were a readily available, reliable impairment test for use in addressing workplace substance abuse, it already would have been considered, accepted, validated and put into use on a federal level, but that has yet to happen. Grant Beardsley Clinical toxicologist Eugene [end]
Your editorial "Don't make a bad marijuana law worse" (Feb. 4) claims that Oregon's medical marijuana "law is clearly being abused in a big way." The evidence you give to support this claim is that 16,000 people have medical marijuana cards. Who are these people? They're your neighbors and co-workers. Their doctors have determined that medical marijuana is appropriate medication for them. They suffer from a long list of conditions (see www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/DrTodHMikuriya_list.htm ) and they do not use marijuana to get "stoned." They use it to be normal, functioning human beings. Cannabis medicine has re-entered mainstream medical practice. One out of every four doctors in Oregon has recommended medical marijuana. It is time to accept this and stop persecuting people based on the medicine they use. Arthur Livermore National director American Alliance for Medical Cannabis Arch Cape [end]
I am a health care professional who works in a pain practice. Most days I see patients who report the positive effects of marijuana in treating their pain and, as important, improving their function and quality of life. There are several strong reasons that the Oregon Legislature and Kevin Mannix should leave Oregon's medical marijuana users in peace. First and most important, people who have cards are referred to as patients, not criminals. A drug-free workplace implies freedom from illegal drugs, not therapeutic medicines. [continues 80 words]
Your editorial makes good sense. Marijuana advocates are pushing legalized use into Oregon workplaces, a far stretch from their original claim that the Oregon marijuana law was merely a for-deathbed-only act of mercy. Common sense is now abandoned. What's next, the right to drive while intoxicated with marijuana? The Oregon Legislature should ensure that Oregon workplaces are free of marijuana use and also should fund the Oregon Department of Justice to investigate widespread abuse of the Oregon marijuana law. This Oregon law has resulted in Oregon adults using marijuana at a far higher rate than nationally. [continues 75 words]
The ink is hardly dry on your editorial but proponents of legalizing marijuana have launched a new misinformation campaign in an effort to get you to accept their Trojan horse into your workplace. It is true, as The Oregonian indicated, that the rate of marijuana use by adult Oregonians as reported by the state of Oregon is 50 percent higher than the national rate. However, the proponents of marijuana use would have you believe that we should not be so concerned because the rate of use by Oregonians older than 13 is only 38 percent higher than the national average. [continues 97 words]
Your editorial calling on legislators to reject a reasonable compromise and pass a bill that would allow any employer to fire any medical marijuana patient is misguided. You cite the fact that 16,000 patients are registered in the medical marijuana program as evidence of abuse. Anti-marijuana forces hoped there would be few patients benefiting from medical marijuana because they don't want to admit that marijuana has a positive side. The reality is that marijuana has proved to be a safer, more effective medicine than many pharmaceutical alternatives. That is why more than 2,600 Oregon doctors have recommended marijuana for their patients. [continues 142 words]
Group Supports Bill Requiring Minimum Bail For Dealers A year ago, a group of Mid-Valley law enforcement were given a mission - -- go after mid-level meth dealers. On Thursday, the policy board that prescribed the mission -- the Guido Caldarazzo Methamphetamine Task Force, revisited the year as a collaboration between businesses, civic groups, law enforcement and lawmakers. "This community has stepped forward like none other," said Salem Police Chief Jerry Moore. Today, members of the task force and others will testify at a hearing of the Oregon Senate in support of a bill that would require courts to impose a minimum of $500,000 bail for meth dealers. [continues 224 words]
Regarding the editorial "Don't make a bad marijuana law worse" (Feb. 4), for the record, as chairman of the House Committee on Business and Labor, I have always been in favor of Senate Bill 465. SB465 should have been assigned to House Business and Labor in the 2007 session. Instead, it was sent by the speaker of the House to the House Committee on Elections and Rules, where that committee chair, with the help of the chair of the House Committee on Education, watched it die. [continues 106 words]
Ten years ago, when Oregon voters approved the state's landmark Medical Marijuana Act, they did so with assurances that only a handful of very ill people needed it -- perhaps 500 a year, supporters said at the time. That turned out to be a false promise, as critics warned at the time. They appear to have correctly predicted that the new law would open the door for wider use of pot in Oregon by creating new legal defenses for the possession, use, cultivation and delivery of marijuana. [continues 409 words]
In December 2006, the government of newly inaugurated Mexican President Felipe Calderon decided to treat the problem posed by Mexico's drug cartels as a military as well as criminal challenge. That has an echo of Colombia, where its leftist guerrillas have gone into the drug business. But it is an echo. While Mexico and Colombia have some similarities, there are a number of differences, the chief one being the Mexican federal government is much stronger than Colombia's. Is a drug war a genuine war? A dictionary debate may be in order, but police and special operations soldiers know gang warfare often straddles the line between crime and insurgent warfare. Take Iraq as an example. Iraqi crime syndicates have participated in political kidnappings. Their first interest is money, but bribing political leaders and doing favors for terrorists (in exchange for cash) undermines civil society. [continues 450 words]
A McMinnville man registered to supply marijuana under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program was arrested Wednesday by the Yamhill County Interagency Narcotics Team for allegedly selling to people not on the list of registered users. In conjunction with the arrest, Capt. Rob Edgell of the McMinnville police took a shot at the program as currently constituted, saying it's being widely abused in the eyes of law enforcement. Edgell identified the suspect as Anthony Carl Narveson, 46, 2008 S.W. Alexandria St. Charged with five counts of delivery of a controlled substance, he was lodged in the Yamhill County Jail on $45,000 bail. [continues 327 words]
Crime - Police Officials Say That an Expansion Will Help Clean Up Two Areas and That Exclusions Can Be Fair After watching the metro area's only drug-free zone recover from a slow start and lax enforcement in Rockwood, the Gresham Police Department is seeking to expand the controversial program. Police hope to target two new areas: East Burnside Street at 162nd Avenue and Northeast Eighth Street at Kelly Avenue. Both have been home to some of Gresham's most violent crimes -- the 162nd area to summertime shootings and Kelly Avenue to the November baseball-bat beating of a 71-year-old man. [continues 691 words]
People have posed this question for decades: What is the goal of the war on drugs? The legislation states that it is supposed to reduce drug abuse yet refuses to define the term in the legislation. I only know what the goals are not. It has nothing to do with dangerous or addictive drugs. The fact that there are zero measurable criteria for addiction or health consequences and abuse is not defined makes this fact absolute and irrefutable. If there were standards there would be massive litigation both from civil libertarians challenging drug bans and authoritarian busybodies who want the list expanded. [continues 91 words]
The good news is no meth labs were found in Jackson County last year, thanks in large part to tough state laws that have dried up the source of ingredients. The bad news: Methamphetamine remains a huge problem because of its availability in other countries throughout the world, local law enforcement officials say. "There are super-labs in Mexico making pounds of meth a day," said Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters. "There is no border control, making Interstate 5 a pipeline for meth into the Rogue Valley." [continues 343 words]
SALEM, Ore. -- A construction-industry group wants companies to have the legal right to bar users of medical marijuana from working in potentially hazardous jobs such as operating heavy machinery. It is an issue that state lawmakers will likely take up during a monthlong session that begins Feb. 4, and one that will produce vigorous debate over whether people's right to legally use medical marijuana can be trumped by issues such as workplace safety. Under Oregon's 1998 medical-marijuana law, employers don't have to let patients with medical-marijuana cards smoke it in the workplace. [continues 61 words]
Inside Oregon
