cannabisnews.com: Patients Urge Easing Marijuana Law





Patients Urge Easing Marijuana Law
Posted by FoM on May 08, 2001 at 16:13:23 PT
By David Steves, The Register-Guard
Source: Register-Guard
Larry Mull's stroke-induced pain and spasms qualified him to obtain a medical marijuana card last year. But the retired counselor soon learned that that didn't mean he'd actually be able to get enough of the drug to treat his condition.After a career of counseling people struggling through addictions and failing relationships, Mull said he knew plenty about dealing with people. But as for the proper amount of watering or treatment of spider mites? Or growing from seed vs. growing from cuttings? That was another story.
"I didn't know anything about plants, and there's an awful lot to growing," the Salem man told a House panel Monday during the Legislature's first hearing on a bill to relax several provisions in the voter-enacted medical marijuana law.Mull was one of several patients who told the House Rules, Redistricting and Public Affairs Committee that the law's limit of three mature marijuana plants puts them at risk of not being able to produce enough marijuana to treat themselves while also nurturing along the next crop.The 1998 law allows patients who qualify for medical marijuana cards to possess up to 3 ounces at a time - which is what most patients need to medicate themselves for a period of a month or so, according to Monday's testimony. House Bill 3919 would increase the amount to 5 ounces. It would loosen other provisions of the law as well. It would increase the number of plants a patient can possess at a time to five mature plants from three and to five immature plants from four.The bill also would expand the definition of who qualifies - currently, those who qualify must have a medical condition listed in the original version of the law or added later by the Oregon Health Division. The bill would leave it to the judgment of a health care provider if they believe a patient "would be benefited by the medical use of marijuana."The types of medical care providers who can make patients eligible to use marijuana for treatment would expand from physicians and osteopaths to include nurse practitioners and naturopaths.About 1,600 Oregonians hold cards that allow them to legally use marijuana to treat specific maladies including cancer, glaucoma, severe pain or nausea, seizures, muscle spasms, HIV or AIDS.Stormy Ray, a self-described "disabled Oregon grandmother from Ontario" who campaigned for passage of the medical marijuana law in 1998, said each medical marijuana cardholder now "has a story of feeling better because of the medical marijuana law." The two-plus years since its passage has given these patients the chance to identify shortcomings that she and others urged lawmakers to address by passing HB 3919, she said.Jerry Wade, a medical marijuana user and advocate, said growing an adequate supply under the legal limits has proved difficult for patients. He said it takes a year to produce a marijuana garden from scratch, and that new cardholders don't yet have networks established with other patients to allow them to obtain marijuana without growing their own."The only alternative most of these patients have is turning to the black market," he said. "To go into these situations, they're putting themselves at risk of being robbed or worse."Two state officials testified against the bill. Barbara Cimaglio, director of the state Office of Alcohol & Drug Abuse Programs, argued that the Legislature would send the wrong message to young people by expanding the number of patients who might qualify to use marijuana medicinally. While Cimaglio told the panel she was unaware of drug abuse by patients, she said literature indicates that "favorable community attitudes toward drugs" can lead to increased drug abuse, and that relaxing the medical marijuana law might have that effect.Sgt. Larry Welty, who does narcotics work for Oregon State Police, warned lawmakers that by allowing medical marijuana patients to grow and possess larger quantities of marijuana, the state would heighten the risk of marijuana being diverted into the illegal drug market. Welty, the president of the Oregon Narcotics Enforcement Association, cited a case this year in Lane County in which the multiagency drug team seized 164 marijuana plants from a suspect who possessed a medical marijuana card.The committee's chairman, Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, said he would allow the panel to work on the bill and vote it to the House floor if members agree that they want to deal with it. Personally, Wilson said, he had misgivings about several components of the bill - particularly the expansion of types of medical providers who could authorize patients to obtain marijuana cards and the loosening of eligibility for patients. The one area he said that he may support would be to increase the number of plants that patients could possess.Wilson acknowledged that his willingness to take up the issue marked an evolution in his own views on medical marijuana."I've always opposed the law, but I've begun to change in the last couple years, primarily due to the escalating cost of pharmaceutical drugs," he said.Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)Author: David Steves, The Register-GuardPublished: May 08, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard Contact: rgletters guardnet.com Website: http://www.registerguard.com/ Related Articles:State-Run Medical Marijuana Facility http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9247.shtmlOregon's MMJ Used Mostly To Treat Severe Painhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7750.shtmlOregon Offers Help on Marijuana Ruleshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7716.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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