cannabisnews.com: New Medical Pot Law Working Smoothly!





New Medical Pot Law Working Smoothly!
Posted by FoM on August 10, 1999 at 19:27:45 PT
By Brad Cain, The Associated Press
Source: Oregon Live
SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Nearly 200 permits have been issued under the Oregon's new medical marijuana law, and hundreds of other patients have inquired about getting the state's blessing to smoke pot, officials said Tuesday. 
Since the first permit was issued in May, there have been few hitches under the voter-passed law that allows patients to cultivate and smoke marijuana for medicinal reasons if they get a doctor's note. Backers of medicinal marijuana say it can ease some of the symptoms of cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other serious illnesses. Some doctors are still reluctant to participate, but for patients like Stormy Ray, an Ontario woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis, the new law has been a life changer. "It's a blessing," she said Tuesday. "Now I won't be ostracized and my family won't be destroyed because I use a medication that works for me." Kelly Paige, manager of Oregon's medical marijuana program, said that so far 190 patients have paid the $150 fee for a permit and that her office has gotten requests for information from another 1,500 people. Paige said she's heard of no problems with the law, and that patients have begun to work their way around a Catch-22 in the law that says it's legal to grow and possess marijuana but not to buy the starting seeds. There's nothing in the law that forbids medical marijuana patients from giving each other seeds, and many of those people have begun "networking" over the Internet and by other means for that purpose, she said. "It would be a lot easier to go down to the corner pharmacy and buy marijuana cigarettes in a little orange bottle," Paige said. "But this is where we are at now with our law." Dr. Rick Bayer, chief sponsor of the law, said doctors initially were reluctant to take part for fear of running afoul of the federal government, since any use of marijuana still is illegal under federal drug laws. Still, Bayer said he believes doctors are becoming increasingly more willing to help patients who have a legitimate need for medicinal marijuana. Bayer noted that the state's largest organization of physicians, the Oregon Medical Association, had advised its members not to participate after the law first last fall. The OMA dropped that stance in April and instead issued a set of guidelines telling physicians how to help their patients obtain marijuana for medicinal purposes. "I think there were physicians holding back because they didn't know about that," Bayer said of the OMA's new guidelines. "So I think it's going to take time" to get more physicians participating. During last year's campaign on the issue, some law enforcement official said they were worried that large-scale marijuana growers or dealers might try to hide behind the medical pot law. But Marion County District Attorney Dale Penn, who worked with the 1999 Oregon Legislature to clarify the language of the law, said those fears so far have proved to be unfounded. "There have been a few individual cases here and there where an individual has attempted to use the marijuana law as an after-the-fact excuse" after being arrested for illegally possessing marijuana, he said. "But so far, we haven't seen any major abuses," the district attorney said. Ray, the multiple sclerosis sufferer, said she relishes being able to legally take a few puffs of marijuana every few hours to alleviate the muscle spasms and upset stomach caused by her disease. "It gave me back my body," she said. "It's been a new page of life for me, and I love it." 08/10/99 8:21 PM Eastern ©1999 Oregon Live LLCOre., Alaska ID Legal Marijuana Users - 5/24/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread1435.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by Ally on August 11, 1999 at 07:17:44 PT
Re: Oregon
From this article, it appears that Oregon has it's act together a little better than dear, old Cali...This gives me hope. Maybe Oregon will be the role model for the other states to follow!...Shalom, Ally
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