Oregon voters could possibly vote in November on whether or not to allow medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.
Petitioners turned in more than 110,000 signatures Thursday morning to the Oregon Secretary of State's Office, in support of bringing "Initiative 28" to a state ballot.
Initiative 28 would allow privately owner, non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries to start up in Oregon. Under the current initiative, those dispensaries would be state regulated.
Oregon's current medical marijuana law requires patients to grow their own medicine. If they can't grow their own, patients have to find licensed growers to buy from on their own.
A Eugene resident and Initiative 28 supporter, Jim Greig is a legally compliant patient under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Greig is wheelchair bound, suffering from a debilitating form of rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma and other medical issues. He says marijuana use has helped his health.
"Within about two weeks I could feel a smoothness, and a better range of motion with my arms and neck and stuff like that," says Greig.
But Greig says obtaining the drug for medical use was difficult and remains troublesome for many. Greig's physical condition makes it impossible for him to grow his own marijuana.
"If you can't (grow marijuana,) if you're in a situation that's even close to mine, or even if you just live in an apartment even if you're able bodied a lot of people choose not to grow so there's a lot of reasons why patients aren't able to get access to their medicine at this time," says Greig.
Greig says allowing medical marijuana dispensaries would allow safer and easier access to the drug. "We all have registered cards from the program, we have medical necessity, and this is going to help a lot of patients. Less than half of them renew their cards because they don't have safe access to the medicine," says Greig.
John Sago is one of the chief petitioners of Initiative 28, and Chief Executive for one of the groups behind the initiative, "Voter Power."
"Well the program does work, it just could work a lot better. You know we have thousands of patients that have qualified for the program, but they have to struggle to find the medicine and it doesn't have to be that way," says Sago.
As of April 2010, Oregon has nearly 33,000 registered medical marijuana users.
Initiative 28 needs 82,769 valid Oregon voter signatures to get on the November 2010 ballot. The more than 110,000 signatures turned in today, May 20th, 2010, meet Oregon's "early turn-in" deadline. Sago believes the group will likely need to gather more signatures by the July 2nd, 2010 deadline.
If the initiative passed, it would also allow the Oregon Department of Health & Humans Services to research the safety of medical marijuana, to try to establish quality control standards. The measure would continue to allow people to grow medical marijuana at home, with a license.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: KMTR.com
Author: Chris McKee
Contact: KMTR.com
Copyright: 2010 Newport Television LLC
Website: Signatures in for Oregon medical marijuana dispensary initiative
Petitioners turned in more than 110,000 signatures Thursday morning to the Oregon Secretary of State's Office, in support of bringing "Initiative 28" to a state ballot.
Initiative 28 would allow privately owner, non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries to start up in Oregon. Under the current initiative, those dispensaries would be state regulated.
Oregon's current medical marijuana law requires patients to grow their own medicine. If they can't grow their own, patients have to find licensed growers to buy from on their own.
A Eugene resident and Initiative 28 supporter, Jim Greig is a legally compliant patient under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Greig is wheelchair bound, suffering from a debilitating form of rheumatoid arthritis, glaucoma and other medical issues. He says marijuana use has helped his health.
"Within about two weeks I could feel a smoothness, and a better range of motion with my arms and neck and stuff like that," says Greig.
But Greig says obtaining the drug for medical use was difficult and remains troublesome for many. Greig's physical condition makes it impossible for him to grow his own marijuana.
"If you can't (grow marijuana,) if you're in a situation that's even close to mine, or even if you just live in an apartment even if you're able bodied a lot of people choose not to grow so there's a lot of reasons why patients aren't able to get access to their medicine at this time," says Greig.
Greig says allowing medical marijuana dispensaries would allow safer and easier access to the drug. "We all have registered cards from the program, we have medical necessity, and this is going to help a lot of patients. Less than half of them renew their cards because they don't have safe access to the medicine," says Greig.
John Sago is one of the chief petitioners of Initiative 28, and Chief Executive for one of the groups behind the initiative, "Voter Power."
"Well the program does work, it just could work a lot better. You know we have thousands of patients that have qualified for the program, but they have to struggle to find the medicine and it doesn't have to be that way," says Sago.
As of April 2010, Oregon has nearly 33,000 registered medical marijuana users.
Initiative 28 needs 82,769 valid Oregon voter signatures to get on the November 2010 ballot. The more than 110,000 signatures turned in today, May 20th, 2010, meet Oregon's "early turn-in" deadline. Sago believes the group will likely need to gather more signatures by the July 2nd, 2010 deadline.
If the initiative passed, it would also allow the Oregon Department of Health & Humans Services to research the safety of medical marijuana, to try to establish quality control standards. The measure would continue to allow people to grow medical marijuana at home, with a license.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: KMTR.com
Author: Chris McKee
Contact: KMTR.com
Copyright: 2010 Newport Television LLC
Website: Signatures in for Oregon medical marijuana dispensary initiative
