MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW STYMIES POLICE

Law Enforcement Agencies Throughout The State Are Trying To Set Up
Guidelines For Marijuana Arrests In Light Of A Law

Until a week ago, law officers could assume that anyone they caught with
marijuana was a lawbreaker.

Not anymore.

Now officers have to answer a critical question: Is it dope or is it medicine?

On Dec. 3, Oregon's new medical marijuana law made it legal for gravely ill
people to grow and own a small amount of marijuana to treat symptoms of
certain diseases.

With the law came the possibility -- for the first time in Oregon -- that
someone who was found in possession of marijuana was not violating a state
law. That means law officers have to try to figure out whether the person
with the marijuana is permitted to have it under the law. It also leaves
open the possibility -- likelihood, some say -- that recreational users
will try to hide behind the marijuana law to escape prosecution.

Oregon's new law, passed by voters Nov. 3, allows seriously ill people to
apply for a special permit through the State Health Division to possess
marijuana. The permit system is scheduled to go into effect by May 1. But
even before then, the law can be raised as a defense in court.

This week Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers released a list of
recommendations designed to help law enforcement officers tell the
difference between criminal and medicinal use of marijuana.

The recommendations suggest that officers verify claims of medical use by
asking questions to determine whether someone who has been found with
marijuana:

- - Has submitted documentation to the Oregon Health Division;

- - Has been diagnosed with debilitating medical conditions and, if so, what
they are;

- - Will give the name of his or her doctor and the hospital or clinic where
treatment takes place;

- - Has documentation from the doctor indicating that marijuana might help
alleviate symptoms.

Because the sale of marijuana is still a crime under the law, the
recommendations suggest officers should look for scales, packaging
equipment and records that would indicate a commercial operation.

The recommendations urge caution before seizing or destroying marijuana
plants and growing equipment. The new law prohibits officers from
destroying or even neglecting marijuana plants that they've seized from
someone who is protected under the law.

Rob Elkins, Molalla police chief, said the law requires officers to return
marijuana plants to their owners if the owners qualified for protection
under the law.

But Elkins said giving back the marijuana would put officers at odds with
federal laws against trafficking in drugs. While the new law gives immunity
from prosecution under state law, federal law still forbids even sick
people to use marijuana.

Elkins, a member of the working group that drew up the recommendations,
said the list wasn't perfect.

"We realized there were going to be no absolute clear guidelines that we
could give," he said.

Michael Schrunk, Multnomah County district attorney, said the working
group's recommendations are close to those drawn up by his office.

Schrunk said he did not expect a flood of requests for medical exemptions
from marijuana law. His office prosecuted about 900 felony marijuana cases
during the past year. But in the past three years, his office has had only
19 cases in which suspects said they were using the marijuana for medical
reasons. Of those cases, he said, all but two or three were dismissed.

The law permits marijuana to be used by anyone who has been diagnosed with
a "debilitating medical condition" and who has been advised by an attending
physician that marijuana might help alleviate symptoms. Those conditions
include cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma as well as severe
nausea associated with chemotherapy.

Patients and certain designated caregivers are allowed to cultivate a
maximum of three mature and four immature marijuana plants and one ounce of
usable marijuana per plant.

Checked-by: Richard Lake