CANNABIS PATIENTS CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF DEBATE

Few in the medical marijuana movement would deny the police
assertion that some growers are abusing the medical marijuana law.
The issue of greater importance is the legal status of an herb that
many people are willing to pay outrageous prices for.

As well, "carpet-bagging" of profiteers who care little for the
welfare of patients fuels the recreational cannabis market, while
supplying desperate patients with some medicine.

But that is the problem: How can farmers be expected to cultivate a
product worth $300 an ounce in a capitalist society, then give it
away for free?

The economic forces of supply and demand will continue to suck the
life out of the medical marijuana movement until there is outright
legalization that removes obscene profits. Law enforcement has
proposed elimination of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program
and are pushing their version of a cure: Eliminate the OMMA and
give everyone pharmaceuticals.

Put the rest in jail. They have an agenda, and it does not dignify
suffering people.

Until cannabis is regulated as a commercial commodity, the abuses of
unscrupulous growers will continue, as will the prison industrial complex.

In the mean time, Initiative 28 offers a regulated, monitored and
intelligent alternative to the "Wild West" commercialization of
medical marijuana that Oregon (and especially California) is struggling with.

Ed Glick

Corvallis

Voter Power Foundation

Editor's note: Voter Power Foundation, based in Portland, advocates
on matters regarding use of medical marijuana.