Dispensary Initiative Cure For Medical Pot Issues?

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Ever since a majority of Oregon voters approved the state’s medical marijuana law in 1998, it has been in direct conflict with federal drug laws, which still regard the substance as illegal.

However, medical marijuana activists are hoping that the new presidential administration of Barack Obama will pursue policies allowing greater state control regarding the issue.

John Sajo serves as executive director for Voter Power, a group that helped bring medical marijuana to Oregon and has been involved in its implementation. Sajo said that the current law has been effective in stopping medical marijuana users from being arrested, but that “thousands of patients are falling through the cracks.”

Despite that, Sajo said he is optimistic that the situation soon could change.

“With the new administration, we think it’s possible to get marijuana to the patient in a better way than the current system,” he said.

Also watching the national picture closely is Brent Kenyon, director of the Medford-based Southern Oregon Alternative Medicine Clinic. Kenyon said that more than 4,000 patients have been seen at the site, and that it utilizes treatment methods such as massage therapy and acupuncture.

“My doctors and I fully believe that marijuana is medicine,” Kenyon said.

According to Kenyon, there are approximately 23,000 registered medical marijuana users in Oregon. But he maintains that there still are substantial obstacles toward treatment that may be overcome during the next few years.

“There’s no way for these people to get their medicine,” he said. “People are afraid to ask for it.”

Many doctors still are afraid to prescribe medical marijuana, Kenyon said, out of fear of retaliation from the federal government.

Sajo said that there are some 3,000 physicians in Oregon who have prescribed medical marijuana.

“Anyone who tries to maintain that marijuana has no accepted medical value is simply unreasonable,” he said. “It’s a really hysterical position to take. When 3,000 doctors just in Oregon are qualifying people, you can’t say it has no accepted medical value anymore.”

Kenyon said that his clinic doesn’t sell marijuana to patients, and that 15 percent of those patients have never smoked marijuana. Often times, he added, patients come to the clinic in search of ways to replace prescription drugs.

“A larger percentage of the people are trying to find something other than the overpriced pills that are putting people into bankruptcy,” Kenyon said. “I feel like we’re undoing what so many doctors have done to these people.”

In an attempt to resolve the access issues faced by patients, Voter Power is working on a statewide initiative that would establish a medical marijuana dispensary system. Sajo said that the group hopes to have it on the November 2010 ballot.

The dispensaries would be licensed and regulated by the government, along with the farmers growing the product for the facility, Sajo said. He added that the new system could raise millions of dollars in revenue for the state’s health department, which could go toward programs designed to combat tobacco and methamphetamine use.

Another provision of the initiative, Sajo said, would allow the state health office to research medical marijuana and its possible side-effects or negative interactions with pharmaceutical drugs.

“Under the current law, the health department maintains that it has no statutory authority to survey patients or doctors,” Sajo said. “Just by surveying them, we could learn a great deal.”

He added said that Voter Power has developed projections on what would happen if the initiative becomes law. Under the projections, the dispensary program would have the potential to raise $30 million for the state health department during its first year of implementation, and possibly more than $1 billion during a 10-year period if the current growth in patients continues, Sajo said.

Other states are working on similar systems to implement medical marijuana dispensaries, Sajo said, including Rhode Island and New Mexico. He said that Oregon also has the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of California’s existing system, where there is no uniform state law regulating facilities.

In order to put the dispensary initiative on the ballot, Voter Power will need some 82,000 valid signatures. Sajo said that the group has 27,000 already, and hopes to collect 150,000 signatures by July 2010.

“We’ve spent years working out the details, and we think we’ve drafted a law that everyone is going to love once we pass it and implement it,” Sajo said.

“At the end of the day,” he opined, “I think law enforcement and the people that don’t want to see marijuana out of control will understand that our initiative will regulate this whole process, and (that) it’s going to be better for everybody, including law enforcement.”


News Hawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: Illinois Valley News
Author: SCOTT JORGENSEN
Copyright: 2009 Illinois Valley News
Contact: Illinois Valley News: Contact Page
Website: Illinois Valley News Vol. 71 No. 49 Dated: 2009.02.18