NO ON MEASURE 74, A FREE-FOR-ALL ON POT

If the main impact of Measure 74 was to improve the access of very
sick people to medical marijuana, Oregon voters could support the
initiative with enthusiasm.

But Measure 74 goes far beyond sick people, and far beyond medicine.
It would provide legal immunity to drug dealers and allow unlimited
dispensaries throughout Oregon. It would legalize marijuana
possession for more people who are not sick and create a special
program to provide low-income people with a steady drug supply.

Voters should reject this measure. Many sick and law-abiding people
would surely benefit from better access to medical marijuana, but
Measure 74 is not the way to do it.

Oregon voters legalized the use of medical marijuana in 1998. Current
law allows people to use marijuana if they have a doctor's
recommendation to do so. They are allowed to grow the marijuana
themselves or designate someone to grow it for them. The law is not
stingy: Patients can possess a pound and a half of medical marijuana
and six mature marijuana plants. Growers can possess four times that amount.

Measure 74 would require the state to give licenses to people who
want to open nonprofit dispensaries, complete with employees and
directors. These dispensaries would sell marijuana to people with
medical marijuana cards. That sounds reasonable enough, except for
the fine print:

* All employees and directors of the dispensaries would be immune
from criminal prosecution for most marijuana-related crimes if they
are in "substantial compliance" with medical marijuana laws. This
provision creates an astounding legal shield for people who use
medical marijuana as a front for illegal activity. Prosecutors and
law enforcement say if the measure passed, drug laws would be
practically unenforceable.

* Employees and directors don't have to be law-abiding Oregon
citizens. They can be drug dealers moving from other states to a
place where the grass is greener, and they can be convicted violent
felons recently released from Oregon prisons. It wouldn't take many
criminals to taint the dispensary system as a criminal enterprise.

* Dispensaries can't be within a residential neighborhood or within
1,000 feet of a school, but there are no other restrictions on their
location and no cap on their total number: It would be perfectly
legal, for example, to have 10 dispensaries across the street from
houses and less than a quarter-mile from a high school.

Cities in Colorado and California with restrictions this loose have
found themselves overwhelmed with more dispensaries than Starbucks
coffee shops.

* The measure contains no requirements to improve the safety, quality
or labeling of medical marijuana. It only says the state "may" fund
research to do so. However, the measure does strictly require the
state to develop and fund a program to provide low-income cardholders
with a steady supply of marijuana. Based on the demographics of
demand, it's easy to imagine how this assistance program could siphon
every available dime from research.

The activists who wrote the measure agree there are details to be
worked out. They say voters should trust the state to write
administrative rules that will address the public's concerns. They
say Oregon can learn from problems in other states.

But mostly, the proponents don't talk about problems, and they
certainly don't talk about the lack of standards for labeling or
quality control. They talk about how great dispensaries will be. They
talk about the jobs that will be created. They talk about the
millions that will be generated by program taxes and fees. And they
talk about the sick and suffering people who would benefit from
medical marijuana but don't know where to get it, how to grow it or
where to turn.

We agree that state and federal laws governing medical marijuana are
contradictory and collectively nonsensical. We also agree that many
sick people in Oregon might be better off if marijuana was
de-politicized as a medicine and treated more like morphine or other
prescribed, highly regulated drugs.

Measure 74 isn't a solution to those problems. It's just a
legalization measure with more protections for criminals than for patients.