OREGON URGED TO LOOSEN MEDICAL MARIJUANA RULES

SALEM, Ore -- Backers of Oregon's medical marijuana law urged a House
committee on Monday to expand the law by allowing patents to possess larger
quantities of marijuana and to give doctors authority to prescribe pot for
more conditions.

People suffering from multiple sclerosis and other ailments said that using
marijuana has eased their symptoms and greatly improved the quality of
their lives but that the current law makes it difficult to get enough of
the drug.

The House Rules Committee heard opposition, however, from law enforcement
officials and others who said expanding the medical marijuana rules could
lead to abuses. Opponents argued that such changes would go beyond what
Oregon voters intended when they approved the law in 1998.

Oregon is one of nine states, including Washington, that permit medicinal
use of the plant. Oregon's law allows doctors to approve marijuana for
specific maladies including cancer, glaucoma, HIV or AIDS, severe pain or
nausea, seizures or muscle spasms.

The measure, HB3919, would increase the quantity of marijuana a patient
could legally possess from three to five mature marijuana plants and from
four to five immature plants. A patient would be able to have 10 ounces of
usable marijuana, meaning dried leaves and flowers, instead of 3 ounces.

Stormy Ray, a medical marijuana activist who suffers from MS, said she and
other qualified patents are constantly faced with short supplies of he
drug, prompting some to purchase it illegally on the streets.

"I have paralyzing fear that I won't he able to find any on time. Without
marijuana, my MS symptoms will cause the pain to consume me," Ray told the
committee.

The chairman of the panel, Rep. Carl Wilson, said he's open to arguments
that the law needs to he changed so that qualified patents can possess
larger amounts of marijuana.

But the Grants Pass Republican said he has major reservations about another
provision of the bill that would expand eligibility to include any medical
condition that a physician believed 'would be benefited by the medical use
of marijuana."

"That is the biggest go-slow of all," Wilson said, echoing concerns raised
by law enforcement officials and others that the provision would make the
law too open.

Barbara Cimaglio, head of the state Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Programs, said her office strongly opposes that provision because Oregon
voters had a "clear understanding" that marijuana would he prescribed only
for specific illnesses.

Cimaglio also expressed concerns about allowing patients to possess larger
quantifies of the drug, saying that it might "increase the opportunity for
criminal behavior."