THE WAR ON THE WAR ON DRUGS

Now that Oregonians have approved medical marijuana, don't expect the
debate on legalizing pot to mellow out

Maybe the prospect of a plague of pony-tailed doctors prescribing reefer
for the blues has turned us into poor sports, but the passage of Ballot
Measure 67 Tuesday promises to set Oregon off on a long, strange trip.

Four other western states -- Alaska, Arizona, Nevada and Washington -- and
the District of Columbia approved laws on Tuesday allowing the smoking of
marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Oregon's new law is a study in vagueness and contradiction. Even the laws
supporters acknowledge that. They argued during the campaign that the
Legislature could, and should, go back and fix some of the law's more
glaring flaws. So it should, although it's hard to believe that the worst
flaws in the law are fixable.

Where possible, legislators should work on the law to remove its
ambiguities and to spell out the duties of state and local health and
law-enforcement officials, as well as set out some procedures to follow.

The new law requires, for example, that patients who use marijuana to
relieve their suffering from "severe pain" brought on by such things as
"muscle spasms" be issued identification cards. Legislators will need to
decide exactly how that will work and who will issue the cards. We were
thinking maybe the police station would be a good place to get them.

The cards themselves will serve to separate medical marijuana users from
your average dopers when police swoop down on their sickbeds. Since there
is no legal means, under the new law, to obtain the necessary ingredients
for medical marijuana, the cards have no other value. You can't present
them at the pharmacy to buy marijuana cigarettes or anything.

Selling marijuana continues to be illegal. Growing small amounts of it for
medicinal purposes will be legal after Dec. 1. But the law remains silent
- -- because no other course is possible -- on where one legally obtains the
raw materials for growing the medicinal plants. We could see a whole new
agricultural industry growing . . . oh, that's right -- one already exists.
It's just illegal.

Of course, you don't really need the cards under the new law because it
gives you an affirmative defense if you are charged with possession and
didn't happen to remember to go register. You can see how convenient that
might be -- and how difficult it will be for police and prosecutors.
Unfortunately, that probably is one of the things the Legislature can't fix
without violating the spirit of the law.

What is that spirit?

For most Oregonians who favored it, we don't doubt that it was one of
compassion toward seriously ill patients whose suffering might be
alleviated by smoking marijuana. Its hard to know whether some of the laws
more ridiculous requirements (police can't destroy marijuana plants seized
from medical users and medical regulators cannot discipline doctors who
prescribe the illegal substance to their patients) were the result of poor
drafting or actually part of the measures spirit, too.

Certainly, part of the spirit of the law was to get the federal government
to take a more open view of experimentation on marijuanas effects --
medicinal or otherwise. That's definitely overdue.

And, part of the spirit of the law must emanate from the stated motives of
the organizations that financed the medical marijuana efforts or offered
other support from afar. Their main objectives are to change national drug
policy -- to make war on the war on drugs, so to speak.

And, sorting out the contradictions in Oregon's new law will really require
a debate over the legalization of marijuana here. No doubt that is part of
the spirit of the new law, too. Arguably, it has been the real issue all
along. Too bad we didn't vote on that one.

Checked-by: Richard Lake