HERBAL MEDICINE IN THE MID-VALLEY

When federal drug agents raided a Lebanon man's property recently and
confiscated some marijuana plants, they were demonstrating the
practical impact of Oregon's medical marijuana law.

Oregon law allows licensed "care-givers," as some pot growers are now
defined, to grow up to seven plants for medicinal purposes. The feds
say they carted away 105 plants from Travis Paulson's place in the
mid-Willamette Valley, and they seem to have their doubts about the
medicinal nature of the crop. That's no surprise. We have our doubts
about the medicinal nature of the state law.

As Brian Blake, a spokesman for the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy pointed out to The Oregonian's correspondent Matt
Sabo, the backers of medicinal marijuana initiatives aren't exactly
your usual medical experts.

The law creates a certain amount of confusion and puts law-enforcement
agencies working at cross purposes. There would be less confusion for
law enforcement and everyone else if Oregonians had actually voted on
the real issue here -- whether marijuana use and cultivation ought to
be legal. We're not sure it should be, but a straight yes-or-no answer
on that topic would be better than the current mess.