Oregon must make up its mind about marijuana — either it is a legal substance or it is not. As disclosed in recent stories in The Gresham Outlook and the Portland Tribune, the state's medical marijuana program places pot in a murky legal status. For approximately 36,000 Oregonians who have gone to the trouble of obtaining a medical marijuana card, it is perfectly OK to use marijuana and grow it for personal use. For the rest of the population, marijuana remains illegal.
And for all Oregonians, the law still prohibits selling marijuana for profit.
By now, it should be clear that the medical marijuana program has strayed from what Oregon voters thought they were approving 12 years ago. Back then, voters acted out of compassion primarily for cancer patients who found that pot provided relief from chemo-induced nausea.
Today, however, slightly more than a thousand people obtain a medical marijuana card for that purpose. Most of the people who possess these cards have received them for relief from pain symptoms. A few doctors write prescriptions by the thousands without much regard, it would appear, for whether marijuana is a good treatment for what ails the patients.
In short, just about anyone who wants to smoke pot can provide a medical reason to do so. This quasi-legal status for marijuana causes understandable problems for law enforcement officers, for workplaces that do drug testing and for the marijuana-card holders themselves. Oregonians may be asked in the fall or in the next election cycle to support initiatives that either revamp the medical marijuana program or make pot legal altogether.
There will be ample time to debate the two approaches, but what Oregon doesn't need is to continue a disingenuous law. Oregonians should decide once and for all whether marijuana belongs with alcohol and tobacco as a legal but regulated substance, or whether it should be banned outright.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: The Sandy Post
Contact: The Sandy Post
Copyright: 2010 Pamplin Media Group
Website: Let's make a decision on medical marijuana
And for all Oregonians, the law still prohibits selling marijuana for profit.
By now, it should be clear that the medical marijuana program has strayed from what Oregon voters thought they were approving 12 years ago. Back then, voters acted out of compassion primarily for cancer patients who found that pot provided relief from chemo-induced nausea.
Today, however, slightly more than a thousand people obtain a medical marijuana card for that purpose. Most of the people who possess these cards have received them for relief from pain symptoms. A few doctors write prescriptions by the thousands without much regard, it would appear, for whether marijuana is a good treatment for what ails the patients.
In short, just about anyone who wants to smoke pot can provide a medical reason to do so. This quasi-legal status for marijuana causes understandable problems for law enforcement officers, for workplaces that do drug testing and for the marijuana-card holders themselves. Oregonians may be asked in the fall or in the next election cycle to support initiatives that either revamp the medical marijuana program or make pot legal altogether.
There will be ample time to debate the two approaches, but what Oregon doesn't need is to continue a disingenuous law. Oregonians should decide once and for all whether marijuana belongs with alcohol and tobacco as a legal but regulated substance, or whether it should be banned outright.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: The Sandy Post
Contact: The Sandy Post
Copyright: 2010 Pamplin Media Group
Website: Let's make a decision on medical marijuana
