As an Oregon Medical Marijuana patient-grower (with little to no patience), I'd have to say that the freedom from worry about getting nailed by the local police, state police, county sheriffs, etc, more than compensates for still being subject to arrest, torture, and incarceration, followed by more torture, rape, etc, by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (bless their hearts). Really, here in Oregon, the people who are trying to screw things up for the rest of us are the OMMP people who are 1) lower,socioeconomically (the rich take pharmacueticals) 2) not too bright, and 3) possess criminal tendencies to go along with economic hardship. They grow more than is allowed, and sell the excess, sometimes using their children as mules. So stupid, and so NOT medical. This allows savagely conservative politicians like our (not) beloved Kevin Mannix to keep up his unrelenting campaign to destroy the OMMP.
The OMMP, is really just a license to grow under very limited conditions. We don't have dispensaries, yet, because they've noticed that in CA where they have them, the people end up paying almost, if not more, for medicine than they would on the street in the black market. It tends to lend itself to economic abuse, and one of the tenets of the OMMP is that the medicine should be
affordable for all who need. Patients are allowed to have caregivers and growers, and to grow for others. A
patient is NOT LIMITED in how many patients he can grow for, whereas for the time being, a grower is limited to four. I could have 16 patients, have six plants over 12 inches tall for each, (99) and slide in under what is thought to be the magic number for the DEA, of 100. Over that they tend to start sniffing around a lot because the potential for abuse is so high. But really, if I had the space, I could grow for 1000 people, legally (under state law). The going "production cost exchange" between grower and patient is about $250 per month for one ounce per month. The grower or Patient-Grower can be compensated for his costs in producing the medicine...what the amount becomes is between the grower and the patient.
