PATIENTS USING MARIJUANA INCREASING

More Than 10,000 Oregonians Have Cards To Let Them Use The Drug

[ Picture: Shawn Flury walks through his marijuana garden Wednesday as he
tends to the plants. "It doesn't cost that much, $25 a plant and then we
give it away for free. It's a constant job taking care of them," said Flury,
who is director of Oregon Green Cross. The agency provides marijuana to 35
indigent patients each month.]

Morphine, Vicodin, carbitrol - 18 pills on even-numbered days, 17 on
odd ones, for almost 10 years.

That was all before William "Sonny" Watkins discovered medical
marijuana could ease the pain from a multitude of surgeries, which
have removed half of his brain and parts of his right knee.

"I should have been dead," said Watkins, whose health spiraled
downward after a 1991 motorcycle crash put him in an eight-month coma.

Marijuana has decreased Watkins' dependency on synthetic drugs: He is
down to one pill, twice daily, to control seizures.

"I'm in such good shape now," he said. "God put grass on this Earth."

Watkins is one of more than 10,000 medical marijuana patients in the
state, a number that almost has doubled in the past year. There were
415 Marion County patient cardholders and 134 in Polk County, as of
July 1.

As medical marijuana use increases and cannabis groves sprout in local
neighborhoods, the complexities and shortcomings of current laws
continue to create discourse between patients and their caregivers,
who grow the drug for them, and among state and local law enforcement
officials.

Shawn Flury, 43, is the director of Independence-based Oregon Green
Cross, which provides two ounces of marijuana per month to each of its
35 patients.

"Our patients are the indigent of the indigent," Flury said.

Clackamas County Sheriff's officers confiscated all of the group's 110
plants in May for suspected violations.

Flury immediately replanted their garden.

"Our patients cannot afford to be without medicine," he said.

Flury still is awaiting the official charges against him and Clackamas
County Sheriff's office would not comment.

In Salem, the Community Response Team comes across one case of
possible medical marijuana violations every week, in a conservative
estimate, said officer Marty Miranda of the eight-investigator unit.

As recently as last month, the team discovered that a North Salem
resident had been growing 76 plants more than allowed by his Oregon
Medical Marijuana Program card.

He claimed to be following physician recommendations that his four
patients required more than the limit, said Sgt. Russ Isham, head of
Community Response.

The North Salem caregiver was charged with manufacture of a controlled
substance. Officers seized and destroyed his excess plants.

Local law enforcement officials primarily are concerned with patients
and caregivers growing in excess, attempting to manipulate the system
and receiving illegal compensation for services.

"As people become more and more educated about what's legal and not
legal, it makes it more complex for us," Miranda said.

Legal loose ends

Oregon's medical-marijuana law, in effect for six years, does not
restrict the number of patients a caregiver can have.

Patients only need to designate a primary caregiver and provide the
medical marijuana grow-site address, said Mary Leverette, OMMP acting
program manager.

For every patient, a caregiver can grow up to seven plants.

"It's not uncommon to find a caregiver with at least five patients,"
Miranda said.

The largest grow site in the state is producing medical marijuana for
16 patients, according to OMMP data.

Multiple grow sites are necessary because the state offers no help,
said Watkins, who has co-founded the Salem-based Medical Cannabis
Resource Center, also known as MERCY, to help other patients.

He claims that MERCY has networked a couple of thousand patients over
the years, including some from Washington and California who had
Oregon licenses.

"There's that many patients, and there would be more," he said.

The rising number of patients prompts another concern for law
enforcement - there are no regulations on the location of a grow site
as long as it is registered.

Marijuana groves of all sizes are located throughout Salem, Miranda
said. Most are indoor, however, because caregivers choose to be more
private.

Adding fuel to the fire, caregivers cannot legally provide services
for cash or any exchange with monetary value.

Measure 33, an OMMA revision on November's ballot, would change this
by allowing compensation and creating dispensaries licensed to
distribute medical marijuana to patients.

Now, unless patients pick up production costs, caregiving is a
personal endeavor.

Jess Hanson, 41, a caregiver in Dallas, said he undertook the task
after recognizing a patient's obstacles.

"I get nothing out of this except that I'm helping somebody," Hanson
said.

Maximizing resources

"Most of the good caregivers have more than one patient," Watkins
said.

Hal Ballard, a caregiver since 1999, agreed.

"There is no real network of patients, caregivers or doctors except
word of mouth," said Ballard, 56, who provides for seven patients
beside himself.

Patients could grow their own marijuana, but there is a higher demand
for caregivers because production can be costly and difficult, Watkins
said.

Caregivers say the initial price of a seven-plant garden is at least
$1,000.

Outdoor grows can yield one major crop per year, but plants may
encounter damaging insects and diseases.

Indoor grows, the preferred alternative, involve high energy costs
year-round for the lighting.

"It's more cost-effective with more patients," Ballard said.

The debilitating medical conditions that qualify patients for cards
also can prevent them from growing.

"A caregiver is more physically able to do it," said Madeline
Martinez, executive director of the Portland-based Oregon National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Neighborly matters

Martinez thinks medical marijuana needs to gain mainstream
acceptance.

"We're your neighbors," she said. "We're not trying to be shady."

Watkins shares similar sentiments.

"The isn't about getting high," he said. "The people who are sick,
they're trying to have a quality of life that nobody would
understand."

Some Salem residents have expressed concern about drug use in their
neighborhoods, but they also reflect a sympathy for medical marijuana
patients.

Kim Spalding, 49, is not opposed to medical use.

"Abuse of drugs is the concern, not the drugs," he
said.

Marvin Anderson, 58, also agreed.

"Pot is part of the culture," Anderson said.

"My concern is if some person needs it, I'd hate to see somebody else
screw it up."

By the book

Oregon Administrative Rules regarding medical marijuana:

Unless patients have written documentation from their attending
physicians, they are not eligible for exemption from state criminal
penalties in regard to marijuana.

The state will not refer patients to physicians or to assist patients
with the growing process.

A caregiver may not collectively possess, deliver or produce more than
the following:

One ounce of usable marijuana if a patient is present where the
marijuana is not produced.

Three mature marijuana plants, four immature marijuana plants and one
ounce of usable marijuana per each mature plant, if a patient is
present where marijuana is produced.

Glossary

Legal definitions and data according to the Oregon Administrative Rules and
the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program:

Medical use of marijuana: Production, possession, delivery

or administration of marijuana, or paraphernalia used to administer
marijuana, for patients to ease the effects of their debilitating
medical condition.

Debilitating medical condition: Ranges from cancer to glaucoma to HIV.
The most common conditions reported by patients in Oregon are
persistent pain, muscle spasms and nausea.

Attending physician: A licensed physician who has primary
responsibility for the care and treatment of a patient diagnosed with
a debilitating medical condition.

Designated primary caregiver: Manages the well-being of a patient.
Must be 18 and older, but does not include the attending physician.

Usable marijuana: Dried leaves and flowers of the Cannabis Moraceae
plant and any mixture or preparation for medical use.

Mature plant: Male or female flower buds are readily observed on the
plant by visual examination.

Immature plant: Until there has been sexual differentiation.

By the numbers

Quarterly statistics provided by the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program
as of July 1:

10,196: Patients currently holding cards

8,750: Grow site addresses

5,384: Primary caregivers for these patients

4,623: Primary caregivers who are not patients

1,259: Pending applications July 1.

110: Applications denied Jan. 1 through June 30.