OUT-OF-STATERS NOW ELIGIBLE FOR POT

New Rule Could Draw Tourists Seeking Medical Marijuana
Cards

With expansion of the Oregon medical marijuana program set for voters
to decide in November, state officials have reacted to a recent Oregon
Court of Appeals decision by slightly expanding the program now.

As of four weeks ago, people from out of state can come to Oregon and
participate in the Oregon medical marijuana program. Like state
residents, they need only visit a medical marijuana clinic where a
physician can authorize their state-issued program cards and then
either grow their own marijuana, designate someone else to grow it for
them or pay to join a local club such as the Cannabis Cafe, where
marijuana is distributed to cardholders.

The state changed its rule after Department of Justice attorneys
reviewed the Court of Appeals case and determined that the law as
written doesn't actually exclude out-of-staters. But the new rule
opens the possibility that tourists from states and countries that
don't have medical marijuana could visit Oregon intending to join this
state's program. Currently, only 14 states and the District of
Columbia authorize medical marijuana.

State public health officer Grant Higginson, who oversees the Oregon
Medical Marijuana Program, says he hasn't seen evidence that large
numbers of out-of-state residents will come to Oregon because of the
rule change.

Higginson says that so far, three out-of-state residents have obtained
Oregon medical marijuana cards. There is a possibility that
legislators may address the new rule change during the next
legislative session, he says.

"I have heard rumblings from some legislators concerned that this
might open the program to people from out of state, which they believe
was not the intent of the law," Higginson says.

Sandee Burbank, executive director of Mothers Against Misuse and
Abuse, a pro-medical marijuana organization that runs a clinic for
potential cardholders, says her clinic is seeing a woman from Texas
who is spending a few months in Oregon and wanted medical marijuana
for pain relief.

Tom Bergin, Clatsop County sheriff and vice president of the Oregon
State Sheriffs' Association, calls the policy change "ludicrous and
absurd."

"Why should we allow people that don't even live in this state benefit
from the state?" Bergin says.

Regardless of whether medical marijuana tourism ever takes root, the
accelerated rate of new cardholders continues. A year ago, there were
approximately 26,000 Oregon cardholders in the 11-year-old program.
The latest figures from the Oregon Department of Human Services show
41,417 cardholders.

Burbank says the rush of recent cardholders represents a different
demographic than her clinic saw in the program's first years.
Previously, she says, the average age of applicants and cardholders at
her organization's Southeast Portland office was about 50. In the past
year, she says, she has begun to see more senior citizens.

Burbank says word of mouth and publicity resulting from the upcoming
ballot measure have made more people aware of different uses for
medical marijuana and different ways of ingesting it, such as
tinctures and balms.

"A lot of people are finding out you don't have to smoke it. I hear
that over and over again," Burbank says.

The November ballot measure would authorize state-licensed medical
marijuana dispensaries where cardholders could purchase marijuana. It
also would allow for-profit medical marijuana farms to supply the
dispensaries.

Paul Stanford, who owns a network of medical marijuana clinics in nine
states, including the state's busiest in Northeast Portland, thinks
41,000 is still a fraction of the state residents who eventually might
turn to medical marijuana.

Stanford says word of mouth and overall greater acceptance of medical
marijuana usage are responsible for the growing number of cardholders.
Stanford says that at least 10 percent of Oregonians and possibly as
many as one in three could qualify for a card. The majority of
applications approved by physicians list pain relief as the qualifying
condition.

But the numbers of new cardholders can be deceiving, according to
Stanford, who says only 55 percent to 60 percent of his clinic's
medical marijuana patients renew their cards. The rest, he says,
forego the $100 annual fee because they find it too difficult to grow
or acquire the cannabis.

Should voters pass Ballot Measure 74 in November - providing
cardholders a state-sanctioned source for cannabis - renewals as well
as new applications could skyrocket, Stanford says.

Publicity surrounding the ballot measure has probably contributed to
the increase in card applications, says Stormy Ray, and that is
unfortunate, in Ray's estimation.

Ray, president of the Stormy Ray Cardholders' Association, was one of
the driving forces behind the ballot measure that established Oregon's
medical marijuana program 11 years ago. But she says the program has
been corrupted, and the accelerated growth in the number of
cardholders is a symptom.

"I would like to think it (the increase in applications) is because
this great program is making such a great difference in the quality of
patients' lives," Ray says. "But realistically, I think we're just
getting more and more information out about the program, and as we do,
we get a lot of that outreach done by people who are taking advantage
of the program."

Ray says she is seeing an increase in the number of designated growers
and caregivers making "a very nice income by diverting patient
medicine for a price tag."

Under the current program rules, medical marijuana growers and
caregivers are not allowed to accept money for their services. Ray
says she is preparing a Voters Pamphlet statement in opposition to
Measure 74.