Oregon has a ballot initiative called Measure 33, which would expand and clarify Oregon’s medical marijuana program. I’ve written about this issue before (see What About Federal Medical Marijuana), but I was moved to write again after I saw two of my hometown newspapers, The Oregonian and Willamette Week, endorse a No vote on Measure 33. Their arguments against the measure are dangerous to future of medical marijuana patients in Oregon.
One scare tactic goes like this: Measure 33 allows patients or caregivers to possess up to six pounds of marijuana immediately following a lone annual harvest. Six pounds! Why, that amounts to de facto legalization!
I brought this point up with activist John Sajo, the chief petitioner for Measure 33 and director of Voter Power (www.voterpower.org). Imagine a voter who had some prior experience with marijuana. They recall buying a “dime bag” of weed during the Summer of Love. Their mind starts to crunch the numbers, “let’s see, six pounds, sixteen ounces in a pound, sixteen dime bags in an ounce, why that’s one-thousand, five-hundred and thirty-six little baggies of pot! Why would Glaucoma Granny really need that much ganja?”
Mr. Sajo gave me some perspective. First, comparing a seriously ill patient using life saving medicine to a baked hippie in Haight-Ashbury is a false analogy. Where a recreational user might consume one of those baggies in a month, a patient might need to smoke almost constantly to just survive. A decade’s supply for an occasional user might only be a six-month supply for a patient.
A reasonable person might ask, “What is the average supply per month necessary for a medical marijuana patient?” Mr. Sajo countered that point eloquently by suggesting that if you set the possession limits based on the hypothetical “average patient need”, you are automatically defining as criminals any patients whose need is above average. The limits need to be set so that no legitimate patient is a criminal simply for possessing a reasonable amount of medicine.
Additionally, in possession cases law enforcement often counts the weight of stems, seeds, leaves, and bags when determining whether a patient is over a statutory weight limit, when it is only the buds of the flower that provide the medicine. A six-pound limit ensures that no patient or caregiver goes to jail because of the weight of non-medicinal hemp stalks and leaves.
Furthermore, even if a patient does possess a large supply of medical marijuana, why is that a problem? The patient cannot overdose on their extra medicine. Marijuana has no toxicity; you can never die from smoking it. The patient cannot sell the marijuana for a profit nor give it to others for non-medicinal purposes; those acts are still felonious and Measure 33 actually increases the oversight of a patient’s purchases and consumption. What you’re left with is a patient who needs to visit a caregiver or dispensary less often.
Second, we’re talking about a crop that must be grown and harvested, not a pill you can get at the local Walgreen’s – there is no guaranteed supply of this medicine. Measure 33 specifically sets the six-pound limit for just one harvest per year. Oregon’s current law allows a patient to possess only three ounces – perhaps a three-week supply for a patient. A patient would have to constantly maintain a very small garden and hope that there is never any problem with mites, fungus, or any other cause of crop failure. One failed crop forces an ill person to the black market to obtain their life-saving medicine. Why would we want to force the most seriously ill people get their medicine from criminals?
Third, the Measure specifically limits a caregiver to only ten patients, whereas current law allows unlimited patients. When a caregiver is growing marijuana for multiple patients, a three-ounce limit nearly guarantees that the caregiver will be in violation of the law. But six pounds divided by no more than ten patients seems to give the patient a fair supply of their medicine while bringing no criminal sanction on the caregiver.
Another scare tactic regards how Measure 33’s wording allows non-profit dispensaries. Opponents argue that part of the success of Oregon’s Medical Marijuana program is that it does not offer the legal buying or selling of medical marijuana. If we pass Measure 33, the argument goes, we’ll raise the ire of the federal drug warriors, who will storm in and shut down a program that is working, to the detriment of all medical marijuana patients.
Mr. Sajo points out, and I agree, that this is a very selfish argument. Many patients are simply unable to grow their own supply of medicine. There are too few caregivers to go around. A patient who can’t grow it and has no caregiver to grow it for them is forced into the criminal black market. The attitude seems to be, “Well, I’m getting my medical marijuana, so let’s not change the law. We should ensure that the most desperate patient’s needs go unfulfilled; otherwise the feds will try to take my medicine away. It’s better that the sickest patients have to go to drug dealers and risk incarceration (where they’re certain to not get their medicine) so that the rest of us aren’t inconvenienced.”
Yet another argument against Measure 33 is that in counties where no one steps up to operate a regulated dispensary, the county shall be directed to set up one. Willamette Week adds the fear-mongering line that “Harney County in Eastern Oregon [will be forced] to open its own publicly owned pot shop”. That’s sure to put the vision of tax dollars supporting one of those nasty hippie head shops on the main street in Burns. This is such an unfair characterization. A medical marijuana dispensary is not a “pot shop”. We’re talking about sick people getting medicine at a state-regulated office, not unlike the sterile businesslike operation of a pharmacy.
Also, the argument that cash-strapped counties would be financially burdened by running a county dispensary is ridiculous. Willamette Week’s own article points out that the state-run medical marijuana program is running a million-dollar surplus. Anyone with any understanding of the economics will tell you that the buying and selling of marijuana is not a money-losing venture.
Others want to scare the voters with the suggestion that voting Yes on Measure 33 will open up a system that will surely be abused by criminals. We were threatened with the same scare tactics when we voted on the first medical marijuana initiative. (I wonder why we should condemn some sick people to death because a criminal may try to make a buck.)
The draft of Measure 33 deals with that very possibility. It implements an Oregon Medical Marijuana Commission to oversee the lawful operation of marijuana dispensaries. It forces dispensaries to provide monthly reports to the Commission and to be subject to random inspections. Most importantly, it empowers the Commission to levy substantial penalties and felony prosecution for non-compliance with the law. I’d venture to say that the hypothetical “pot shop” on Burns’ main street would be more strictly policed, more compliant with the law, and far less danger to the public than the liquor-by-the-shot bar down the street.
There is so much more to Measure 33 than its opponents want to recognize. (You can read the explanatory statement from the Secretary of State for yourself). To summarize:
- It creates non-profit dispensaries so sick people don’t have to get their medicine from drug dealers.
- It ensures that sick people will not have to travel extraordinary distances to fill their prescriptions.
- It restricts to ten the number of patients a caregiver may serve.
- It allows patients and caregivers to avoid criminal prosecution for harvesting and possessing a reasonable amount of medicine.
- It allows doctors and nurse practitioners – not legislators – to determine whether marijuana would be the appropriate treatment for disease and disability.
- It protects patients from overzealous law enforcement agencies by coordinating with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program regarding search warrants in marijuana cases, separating criminal law enforcement from legitimate medical cases.
- It creates an Oregon Medical Marijuana Commission with true power to enforce the law.
- It directs the Oregon Department of Human Services to scientifically research, document, and report on the efficacy of medical marijuana treatment.
Oregon has always been a trail blazer when it comes to compassionate and progressive law. We should not decide what is best for people who are truly suffering because we fear what the federal government might do. We should not affirm that marijuana is a legitimate medicine, yet leave the market for this medicine in the hands of criminals. Medical marijuana patients deserve the same legal means to purchase their medicine as do diabetics. If you’ve ever watched someone suffer and die from a deadly disease or accident, you know you would do everything in your power to help them ease their suffering. You have the power to do just that on your ballot in this election. Vote Yes on Measure 33.
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