cannabisnews.com: Don't Make a Bad Marijuana Law Worse





Don't Make a Bad Marijuana Law Worse
Posted by CN Staff on February 04, 2008 at 12:26:21 PT
Editorial
Source: Oregonian
Oregon -- 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.
Statistics strongly suggest this. Today, nearly 16,000 Oregonians hold patient cards entitling them to use marijuana. Nearly 8,000 hold "caregiver cards" so they can possess it, and about 4,000 have permits to grow the plant, resulting in at least 19 tons of marijuana growing legally at any given time. Not surprisingly, the rate of marijuana use by adult Oregonians is 50 percent higher than the national rate. Voters in 1998 may have thought they were showing compassion for a small number of terminally ill cancer patients who needed marijuana to alleviate their symptoms, but the law is clearly being abused in a big way. This abuse is showing up in the workplace, where the Oregon drug test failure rate is 50 percent higher than the national rate. And the most prevalent reason for testing failure? Marijuana use -- 71 percent of all positive tests in Oregon, compared with 53 percent nationally. The 2007 Legislature had a chance to address the workplace issue but fell short. A bill to make it easier for Oregon employers to enforce drug-free workplace policies, even against employees with valid medical marijuana cards, passed in the Senate but faltered in the House. That was a sensible bill and deserves a second chance in the special session that begins today. Instead, however, the House Business and Labor Committee has put forth a much narrower bill that would give employers the option to regulate medical pot users in only the most dangerous of jobs. This is a bad bill that will make Oregon's flawed law worse, not better. By giving employers discretion on accommodating medical marijuana use only by workers doing "hazardous duties," the bill would create a huge uncovered class of workers who would win the implicit right to accommodation at work -- something the original act explicitly did not grant. In other words, this new bill is a Trojan horse. It would exempt such dangerous jobs as mining, logging and blasting, while creating the right to special accommodation for everyone else who might have marijuana cards, including surgeons, bus drivers, nannies and editorial writers. Legislators should spike this bill. Instead, they should pass Senate Bill 465, clarifying the right of employers to enforce drug-free workplace policies. And while they're at it, they should fund a Justice Department study of what increasingly appears to be widespread abuse of a well-intentioned medical marijuana law gone bad. Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)Published: February 4, 2008Copyright: 2008 The OregonianContact: letters news.oregonian.comWebsite: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #22 posted by user123 on February 07, 2008 at 10:36:17 PT:
Dummy Please!
"Legislators should spike this bill. Instead, they should pass Senate Bill 465, clarifying the right of employers to enforce drug-free workplace policies."
How this should really read is "a drug-free workplace, a drug-free homelife, and a drug-free life." By the way we only mean some some drugs, booze & prescription drugs are a-ok!
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Comment #21 posted by Hope on February 07, 2008 at 07:48:14 PT
Tough love
is being a bully. Nothing else.Tough love is not true Love. Love has an element of respect... tough love does not. Tough love never has been and never will be about real love. Tough love is an excuse to be a bully and that is all.Bullies are bad people. It would be nice if there weren't any bullies. It would be nice if the ones we had would stop being bullies... but I suspect they haven't a clue as to their problem and don't have a clue and can't get a clue as how to give up their wicked and bad personalities.When a bully says he or she wants respect he really means he or she wants to be feared. 
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Comment #20 posted by Hope on February 07, 2008 at 06:05:54 PT
BGreen
What you say is so true. Prohibitionists are purposely blind and hideously deluded as to the bad situation that they have created with their prohibitions and so called "sticks" and "carrots" laws.People don't like to be shackled and owned by other people. There will eventually be a terrible backlash against their "leashes and collars". There always is. The backlash is swirling underground now... but I can't help but feel that it's huge. How bleak and black do the prohibitionists want the future to be? Very bleak and very black apparently.Tough love is such a lie. How about some real brotherly and sisterly Love for a change? It would be so much better.
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Comment #19 posted by BGreen on February 06, 2008 at 23:40:50 PT
Museman re: Post #13
I know a LOT of people in the state of Misery (Some call it Missouri) who partake of cannabis. I recently met some high-school aged partakers who smoke more cannabis, have more access to cannabis and pay less for their cannabis than any adult I know. So much for arresting adults to protect the children from cannabis.The common denominator in all of the cannabis partakers I've met and known is that NONE OF THEM WOULD EVER TELL ANYBODY IN THIS GOVERNMENT OR ANYONE CONDUCTING A "SURVEY" THAT THEY USE CANNABIS! NONE. NADA. ZIP. Why, you might ask? Because of prohibition and the threat of jail, that's why.Now, knowing that little tidbit of information, only the most dishonest and delusional governmental moron would think they have ANY clue as to how many people really partake of cannabis.Even if the risk of arrest were taken away then most still WOULD NOT TELL, but there would be a greater number willing to step up and be honest about their cannabis use.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #18 posted by afterburner on February 06, 2008 at 17:27:50 PT
The GCW & Hope
With a little luck and the will of the people, come November my state will have support for both God's medical gift & green energy, building and farming!
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on February 06, 2008 at 17:05:15 PT
GCW
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/48490/Green-Collar Jobs for Urban AmericaExcerpt: A "green-collar job" involves environment-friendly products or services. Construction work on a green building, organic farming, solar panel manufacturing, bicycle repair: all are "green jobs." The green-collar economy is big money, and it's booming. Including renewable energy and clean technology, "green" is the fifth largest market sector in the United States.
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Comment #16 posted by The GCW on February 06, 2008 at 15:42:34 PT
afterburner,
So Your state will be re-legalizing cannabis a little sooner than some... and glorify the Ecologician.
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Comment #15 posted by afterburner on February 05, 2008 at 20:27:54 PT
The GCW #14 
Hey Green Collar Worker, I just got an email from my state senator who is working for Green Collar Jobs to replace lost manufacturing jobs. I thought you'd get a kick out of that!
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Comment #14 posted by The GCW on February 05, 2008 at 19:48:51 PT
Trojan horse?
If this is a “Trojan horse” then cannabis prohibition and persecuting sick citizens for using the plant is a nuclear bomb.
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Comment #13 posted by museman on February 05, 2008 at 09:56:17 PT
statistical clay
Molded to fit the claims."Not surprisingly, the rate of marijuana use by adult Oregonians is 50 percent higher than the national rate. Voters in 1998 may have thought they were showing compassion for a small number of terminally ill cancer patients who needed marijuana to alleviate their symptoms, but the law is clearly being abused in a big way"Of course, if you take into acount that 72% of the country is completely under the prohibition blanket, and that the numbers they used are about 6 years out of date, and deliberately about a thousand short of the 2002 numbers -which is what they must've used, add to that the fact that cannabis users not in Oregon or another medical state, do not go around admitting use, and you begin to get the real picture.But getting a card is statistical gold for these folks, they can jockey the numbers however they see fit. Who is going to challenge them, except some "ragged hippy type anti-establishment 'druggie?'"And what can I say about the Oregonian? True to it's Hearst foundation, and it's long-time republican endorsement and conservative orientation, it's about the most right-winged newspaper in the state. It's never been anything but propaganda. If anyone thinks that it is a reflection of the people, or the truth, then they must also believe that Bush got elected - twice!
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Comment #12 posted by dongenero on February 05, 2008 at 08:37:07 PT
comment 3 and 1
Nice sleuthing in post #3, charmed quark!Runruff hit the nail on the head in post #1.
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Comment #11 posted by dongenero on February 05, 2008 at 08:32:01 PT
on the other hand
I think such testing may constitute employee abuse on the part of the employer.Hey, if an employee is asleep, drunk under their desk or unable to safely or effectively perform their job duties, then let them go. It's ridiculous to fire employees for something political or ideological which has no effect on their job performance.
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Comment #10 posted by dongenero on February 05, 2008 at 08:27:35 PT
cannabis testing for work
An employee's testing positive for cannabis metabolites, proves neither abuse nor on the job impairment. 
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Comment #9 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on February 05, 2008 at 06:14:26 PT
More agenda driven selected facts.....
"This abuse is showing up in the workplace, where the Oregon drug test failure rate is 50 percent higher than the national rate."So, how does Oregon compare in workplace productivity and accidents on the job? If those figures are in line with the national rate, then it would indicate that marijuana use doesn't actually cause any problems in the workplace."Voters in 1998 may have thought they were showing compassion for a small number of terminally ill cancer patients who needed marijuana to alleviate their symptoms, but the law is clearly being abused in a big way."So if a cancer patient survives, they are abusing the system? And voters have no compassion for people with AIDS, MS, glaucoma, epilepsy, etc., etc.? Just because a lot of people have diseases that marijuana helps treat, doesn't mean the law is being abused.Someone clearly has an agenda in a big way.
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Comment #8 posted by John Tyler on February 04, 2008 at 22:15:58 PT
limitless undying love
Waves of joy are drifting thorough my open mind, 
Possessing and caressing meLimitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns, 
It calls me on and on across the universe These are not ordinary lyrics. These are the thoughts of the Romantic and Transcendental poets of the early 1800’s, of mystics and Indian gurus through the ages, and the millions of hippies who have been there too. You are right CQ, you can get there through meditation or medication. Whether one realizes it or not, this is the longing of the soul. To be possessed and caressed by waves of joy while your spirit is in a state of eternal love, which shines brightly around you as you realize that you are one with the universe. It’s all so beautiful. Who would not like that? It is so much better than just getting drunk on the weekend. That’s just my take on it anyway. I expect others may feel differently. We all shine on.
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Comment #7 posted by fight_4_freedom on February 04, 2008 at 20:08:23 PT:
Off Topic - Anybody watch this tonight?
After nearly three years, thousands of man-hours of official and unofficial investigations and virtually unprecedented international media attention, it took a pot-smoking poker player to wring damning admissions from Joran van der Sloot about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway from an Aruban beach in the spring of 2005.In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Patrick van der Eem, 34, described in detail how he painstakingly gained the young Dutch suspect's trust, took his suspicions to Holland's leading investigative reporter and began a sting operation that led to van der Sloot's caught-on-camera admissions that he panicked when Holloway had what he describes as a seizure during a sexual encounter and called a friend who came and took the body out to sea.After he said he spent two months almost constantly with van der Sloot -- building the younger man's trust one joint at a time -- van der Eem said he went to Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries and offered his services. De Vries, who is known in Holland for tackling complex cold cases by sometimes unorthodox means, hired van der Eem and set him up with a brand new Range Rover equipped with three hidden cameras, audio recording devices and a GPS-like tracking system, and the sting began in earnest.If the taped conversations are accurate, it appears that Natalee Holloway could have been alive when her body was apparently dumped about two kilometers off the coast of Aruba by a "good friend'' of van der Sloot.Still, it remains unclear whether the new evidence will be sufficient to bring any charges against van der Sloot, Aruban attorneys told ABC News, and the case could remain technically unsolved indefinitely. Aruban prosecutors have said they will wait to gather all the information before deciding on whether to bring new charges.You can watch the entire thing on www.abcnews.comNow there's another line we can use in debate, "Marijuana is also very effective in helping to solve murder cases". :)
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Comment #6 posted by fight_4_freedom on February 04, 2008 at 19:07:41 PT:
Here's a clip of Snoop on Larry King talking 
about his medical use at the end of the show recently.http://tinyurl.com/3ca675
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Comment #5 posted by charmed quark on February 04, 2008 at 18:40:34 PT
They did slip one , past
But I think it's more about a deep mediative state. At least that's the way I take it. It describes almost exactly my conscious state when I am meditating. But, hey, all peaceful altered states are bad to these people, no?This is when they were studying Transcendental Meditation. Hence the mantra in the song, Jai Guru Dev-a om, a mantra to the teacher Dev of Maharishi.It's a beautiful song, one of my favorites. And I think it resonates with the universe, especially the mantra.Shanti namistaPeter
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Comment #4 posted by John Tyler on February 04, 2008 at 18:16:55 PT
waves of joy
Today is Across the Universe Day. NASA transmitted the Beatle “Across the Universe” across the universe today. How did this concept slip past the prohibitionists? Did they ever listen to the song? Here is a song that extols the beauty, and joy, and spiritual love found in tripping, and gets all this great free publicity for it. Score another one for the hippies (and the inner hippie in others). Even with people on our side dead, dead for decades even, we can best the prohibs.    
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Comment #3 posted by charmed quark on February 04, 2008 at 18:00:22 PT
Marijuana use down among Oregon youth
http://www.blueoregon.com/2007/05/teen_tobacco_us.htmlTalk about cherry picking data - check out the curves in the link above. Marijuana use has gone way down with kids since the passage of the medical marijuana laws, almost in half among 8th graders (So has alcohol and tobacco use).Another headline screamed "Oregon high schoolers more likely to smoke pot than tobacco". Looking at the above curves, you can see why - both tobacco use and cannabis use among 11th graders declined, but tobacco when down faster so that it dipped below the pot use. http://www.kgw.com/education/localeducation/stories/kgw_052907_edu_drug_study.20fd6f35.htmlSo data showing a very positive improvement is being hyped by major newspapers to help fuel an anti-marijuana scare.Yep, they have pulled out all the stops. "Reefer Madness" is showing on my cable tonight. Guess I better watch it to get into the mood!
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 04, 2008 at 14:50:50 PT
runruff
I sense such an intensity now. Hope, fear, change, anticipation and even hate these days. We are in for a rollercoaster ride.
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on February 04, 2008 at 14:00:44 PT:
The push is on.
Watch! For the next 10 months the prohibitionist will be throwing in everything including the kitchen sink into the mix. Mark my words, They will be dusting off old reefer madness proaganda. Putting a spin on every thing in the news, lying, shucking and jiving like street corner con men.They are feeling the pinch. If power changes in Washington they will be in a suck hole. They know it, they fear it. There is nothing more ferocious than a cornered beast.Behind the scenes the Federal Bumblement will be putting pressure on state and local governments to push for tighter prohibition laws. It is how they work.Sit back and watch. We are in for some interesting times.Namaste
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