MARIJUANA ADVOCATES DEFEND LAW

Strict Rules Protect Controversial Medicine

If medical-marijuana activists were fazed by the latest political
onslaughts, they did their best to hide their feelings.

Business proceeded as usual at this month's cardholders' meeting with
no overwheming sense of dread in losing the right voters gave them in
1998 to use doctor-prescribed cannabis for a certain set of medical conditions.

A conservative Oregon Republican is attacking the law with a
referendum to appeal the statute. The Drug Enforcement Administration
has also stepped up enforcement of federal laws against marijuana.

Most cardholders respond by expressing support for a strict
interpretation of the state law.

Oregon's top advocate for marijuana legalization defended her
organization's continued effort to keep the program tightly
controlled as federal agents investigate another high-profile medical
marijuana promoter Don DuPay for growing more plants than the law allows.

The DuPay case "is a fluke in the system," says Madeline Martinez,
executive director for the state chapter of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "We have to make sure that we are
always, always covering our behinds."

DuPay has claimed that the DEA overstepped its authority by reeling
in his concerted efforts to provide for eligible patients, but
Martinez refuses to take any chances as her group develops a
political game plan.

NORML's staff accordingly kept close watch over the happenings at the
cardholder meeting this month. The members were allowed to offer
cuttings from marijuana plants, but no exchange of money or any other
type of consideration was permitted.

"If you are caught doing so, you will be asked to leave with your
membership revoked, effective immediately," Martinez said.

Medical-marijuana cardholders may only reimburse licensed growers for
the cost of the utilities that the plants require.

In what Martinez called "the highlight of these peoples' month,"
several hundred cardholders lined up around the block for pieces of
rare species of hemp noted for special effects. They also gathered
around a table with a large sign saying, "It's NORML to write to your
elected officials," which encouraged letters against the initiative
petition filed by associates of Kevin Mannix, the Republican lawmaker
who lost a race for governor in 2002.

Mannix calls his proposed repeal a "crime-fighting" measure that
would still allow for synthetic marijuana to be used as medicine, but
Martinez sees the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act as a huge success.

"The beauty of the OMMA is that it's self-supporting," says Martinez,
citing the over $900,000 in revenue that the program's fees generated
for state human-resource departments. "If the Mannix bill passed,
taxpayers would have to pay for the artificial drugs made by big pharma."

Going back to the same arguments that passed the act in the first
place, Martinez tells the heart-warming story of a glaucoma-plagued
elderly woman who found her only comfort in the pressure-reducing
effects of marijuana.

At least one grandmotherly type by the name of "Betty" attended the
meeting, but she declined to give her last name, saying that she
feared community ostrasization. Most of the attendees were
middle-aged and white.

Martinez, whose ancestry is a mix of Mexican, Navajo and Apache,
fears the stereotyping of Oregon's nearly 15,000 medical-marijuana
beneficiaries and actively seeks to diversify the membership. She
points out the relative homogeny of Oregon at large, saying, "Our
program has become diverse, because diversity draws diversity, and
having a brown person at the helm really draws people in."

One of the program's many African Americans, Linda Mason, has quickly
advanced in the organization. She contends that the most important
thing she brings to the group is her first-hand experience with the
lack of discrimination protection for cardholding employees.

"I had some dirty urine and got fired from my job even though I had a
card, so I became an activist ever since," Mason says. "The days of
sitting back and not doing anything are over."

A powerful pair of advocates, they agree that they have a good chance
of protecting and refining the medical-marijuana law.

"We write letters and tell our cardholders what's going on and who to
contact," Martinez says. "We found when we started we can't really
affect that much change in a year, but we have the momentum of six
years behind us."