OREGON SHERIFFS WORRY ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA MIXED WITH GUNS

A Case Before the Oregon Supreme Court Will Determine Whether
Medical-Marijuana Users Are Entitled to the Same Gun-Carrying
Privileges As Everyone Else.

MEDFORD, Ore. - Cynthia Townsley Willis, a retired school-bus driver
and grandmother of four, carries a spray bottle of marijuana-infused
skin oil in her purse to treat her frequent, painful muscle spasms.
Her Walther P22 pistol most often gets slipped into a shoulder
holster under her jacket: Driving the lonely roads that traverse the
hills and dense woodlands of the Rogue Valley, who knows when she
might need it?

Here in the pot belt of rural southern Oregon, possibly the only
thing more ubiquitous than marijuana is guns, and Willis, who is
legally registered with the state as a medical-marijuana user, feels
better when she has both.

But Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters doesn't, and he is trying to
pull Willis' concealed-weapon permit. Willis, 54, is now one of four
plaintiffs in a case before the Oregon Supreme Court to determine
whether medical-marijuana users are entitled to the same gun-carrying
privileges as everyone else.

For sheriffs across Oregon, who claim that the state's 13-year-old
medical-marijuana law has spawned tens of thousands of hobby users,
the case is a crucial step toward preventing what they see as a
dangerous mix of guns and drugs.

"This whole medical-marijuana thing is a farce, and you can quote me
on that," said Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin, president of the
Oregon State Sheriff's Association, who believes only a fraction of
the state's nearly 40,000 registered medical-marijuana users have a
legitimate need for the drug.

"I always ask them how many times a day do you medicate? They say
it's like four or five times a day," Bergin said. "Well, that's 16
hours a day you're running around stoned. Do we even want them behind
vehicles? No. Do we want them carrying around a gun? Absolutely no."

Oregon essentially requires sheriffs to issue concealed-weapons
permits unless the applicants have a history of violence, threats or
drug convictions.

The sheriffs argue that forcing them to issue the permits to
marijuana users puts them in conflict with federal law, which makes
it a crime for users of illegal drugs to possess a gun. Despite the
15 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that now have medical-marijuana
laws, the substance remains illegal under federal law.

"We'll enforce any law that's out there, but when they're
conflicting, we have to do our best to decide which of those laws has
dominance," said Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon.

Willis and others say owning and carrying a gun is such an accepted
part of life in rural Oregon that those who rely on marijuana to
treat legitimate medical issues shouldn't be rendered defenseless.

In the case of Willis, who drives several miles each day from her
home in rural Gold Hill to volunteer at a medical-marijuana supply
shop in Medford, her muscle spasms are so severe that often she can
barely stand. Eating a marijuana cookie or rubbing cannabis oil on
her skin is the only way she's found to relax her muscles. She never
uses enough to get high, she said.

Paul Sansone, from Gales Creek in Washington County, another
plaintiff in the case, started carrying a concealed handgun in the
1980s for self-defense, and said the sheriff at the time actually
helped him buy his gun.

Since then, the county got a new sheriff, and Sansone developed a
chronic gastrointestinal condition that gives him such severe nausea
he is almost unable to eat. The only thing that helps is small
quantities of medical marijuana.

Two trial-court judges and a state appeals court sided with Sansone,
Willis and the other two plaintiffs. The Supreme Court heard oral
arguments in the case in March, and is expected to rule in the coming months.

In his ruling in 2008, Circuit Court Judge Steven Price said the
plaintiffs are "hardworking, honest, conscientious people who use
medical marijuana as contemplated by the statute to alleviate pain
and their symptoms. They are similarly responsible in their use and
possession of weapons."

But sheriffs say there are growing questions about how to maintain
public safety as medical-marijuana use rapidly escalates.

"I think that 100 percent of our home-invasion robberies have been
tied to narcotics, and probably 95 percent of those, this is just my
best guess, involve medical-marijuana growers," Sheriff Gordon said.
"It's just ripe for somebody to get hurt."