MEDICAL POT A GROWING PROBLEM

Law enforcement officials in Albany and Linn County say there's been
a decline in seizures of large marijuana operations during 2009, but
they are growing increasingly concerned about abuse of the medical
marijuana card system.

The Democrat-Herald talked with Det. Capt. Paul Timm of the Linn
County Sheriff's Office and Capt. Eric Carter of the Albany police
about trends in drug enforcement.

Timm said his agency's "top four" drug concerns are marijuana, meth,
heroin and prescription drugs.

Here is a rundown of the year 2009 in drugs from the sheriff's
office:

Seized: Some 1,294 grams of meth, 9,905 grams of dried marijuana, 1 gram
of heroin, 27 prescription pills and six MDMA (Ecstasy) pills.

In 2008, 336 grams of meth were seized as were 1,831 grams of
marijuana, 1 gram of heroin, 3 grams of cocaine and 95 prescription
pills.

During the summer, Linn County runs special marijuana eradication
efforts. Of the 526 marijuana plants seized in 2009, only seven were
in outdoor grows. In those cases, 21 arrests were made.

In 2008, 380 plants were seized, including 18 outdoor marijuana grows
and 16 arrests.

Timm said detectives are seeing an increase in abuse of the Oregon
medical marijuana card program, so much so that the office began
keeping statistics for those cases this year.

"Of all those cases -- 43 were related to medical marijuana -- 17 of
those being out of compliance," Timm said.

Nearly 40 percent of medical marijuana cardholders investigated were
abusing the system.

Being out of compliance includes having more plants than legally
allowed, but more frequently it is having more dried marijuana than
is allowed by law. Sometimes the card is expired, or the person
applied for a card but was never approved.

At the Albany Police Department, Carter said cases involving Oregon
medical marijuana card abuse account for most of a jump in marijuana
seized. The department seized nearly 20 pounds of pot during 2009, up
from a mere half-pound the year before.

He said APD dealt with 12 major card abuse cases in 2009, four of
which involved violence. In six of the homes, the growers had firearms.

Carter said the trend is "concerning."

He clarified that people with glaucoma or stage 4 cancer are not the
ones abusing Oregon's medical marijuana law.

He said the offenders have grow operations, rather than a few plants,
and work with other growers to supply customers. They are also
"polydrug" dealers, often offering hallucinogenic mushrooms, Ecstasy
and diverted prescription medicines.

"These are not the people with one plant over the limit," Carter
said.

City police numbers show an increase in scheduled medications seized
- -- 1,095 pills in 2009, up from 314 in 2008 -- which Carter
attributes mostly to oxycodone abuse.

This includes both patients stealing written prescriptions, stealing
filled prescriptions or buying it from drug dealers.