MEDICAL MARIJUANA ON RADAR

Regarding the editorial "Don't make a bad marijuana law worse" (Feb.
4), for the record, as chairman of the House Committee on Business and
Labor, I have always been in favor of Senate Bill 465.

SB465 should have been assigned to House Business and Labor in the
2007 session. Instead, it was sent by the speaker of the House to the
House Committee on Elections and Rules, where that committee chair,
with the help of the chair of the House Committee on Education,
watched it die.

The much narrower bill referred to in your editorial is a reflection
of my belief that something is better than nothing. Stricter
regulation of medical marijuana has been before the House Committee on
Business and Labor the past three sessions in a row, where it has
always enjoyed my support.

The question I've always asked is this: do the people of Oregon think
it is OK for workers (a school bus driver, for example), to come to
work with medical marijuana in their system? I challenge the opponents
of Senate Bill 465 to poll that one.

Mike Schaufler

State representative

Happy Valley