ALLOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA: MEASURE 67 WOULDN'T LEGALIZE DRUG

Physicians who prescribe morphine to relieve intense pain are not seen as
promoting drug addiction, even though morphine is a terribly addictive
drug. Yet a proposal to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana is criticized
as promoting drug abuse, even though marijuana is far more benign than many
widely accepted prescription drugs. Oregonians should understand that they
can support humane medical practices without undermining efforts to control
dangerous drugs. They should support Measure 67, the Oregon Medical
Marijuana Act.

Measure 67 has the same aim as a similar initiative approved two years ago
in California: to give patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma, AIDS and
other diseases safe and legal access to a drug that many say is uniquely
effective in controlling pain and nausea. Oregon's measure, however,
improves on California's law in several important respects.

Marijuana could be prescribed only by a patient's primary physician: There
would be no shopping around for a pot-friendly doctor. The prescription
would be presented to the Oregon Health Division, which would issue a card
identifying the patient as being allowed to possess marijuana for medical
purposes. California has no such registry, making it hard to differentiate
legal from illegal marijuana use. Measure 67 also prohibits the sale of
marijuana. The absence of such a prohibition in California's law has given
rise to the notorious buyers' clubs at which access to medical marijuana is
poorly controlled. Oregon's initiative would also prohibit the use of
marijuana in public places or in public view.

Measure 67 would not legalize marijuana any more than the widely accepted
medical use of cocaine legalizes crack. Except for the addition of a
carefully limited medical exemption, state laws against the possession and
cultivation of marijuana would be unchanged. And marijuana would remain a
Schedule 1 drug under federal law - a drug like LSD for which there are no
approved medical uses. Morphine, cocaine and a long list of other heavy
drugs are classified as Schedule 2 drugs, regarded as addictive but as
having accepted medical uses.

The conflict between Measure 67 and federal law would lead many Oregon
physicians to refrain from prescribing marijuana. Attorney General Janet
Reno has said that doctors who prescribe marijuana risk losing their
prescription-writing privileges and could be denied reimbursement for
treating Medicare and Medicaid patients. Approval of Measure 67 - and of
similar measures in Alaska, Colorado and Washington - would pressure the
federal government to alter its absolutist stance. Ideally, the federal
government would simply reclassify marijuana as a Schedule 2 drug,
eliminating the need for state laws such as Measure 67.

The primary problem with Measure 67 arises from the question of supply. How
could patients fill their prescriptions for marijuana? Many would continue
getting it from the illegal sources they use now. But Measure 67 would
allow patients registered with the state Health Division to grow up to
three marijuana plants of their own. This would permit many patients to
break their ties to the underground marijuana economy. As long as the
federal government refuses to acknowledge the therapeutic uses of
marijuana, however, many patients will continue to turn to illicit sources
for marijuana or for fertile seeds.

The therapeutic benefits are widely recognized. An editorial in the Jan.
30, 1997, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine said that
"thousands" of patients have obtained "striking relief" from "nausea,
vomiting or pain" by smoking marijuana. It is inhumane and unnecessary to
let drug control policy stand in the way of medical access to this drug.
Oregonians should add their weight to the campaign for federal
reclassification of marijuana as a Schedule 2 drug by supporting Measure 67.