MEDICAL POT CHANGES DEBATED

A Bill in the House Combines a Number of New Restrictions That Failed
in Earlier Bills

SALEM -- Medical marijuana advocates turned out in force at the
Capitol on Thursday to take part in a sometimes-rowdy public hearing
on a bill that would make a number of changes to Oregon's medical
marijuana laws.

House Bill 3664 was drawn up in recent weeks by a group of bipartisan
lawmakers -- including three former law enforcement officers -- after
approximately 20 other bills aiming to restrict medical marijuana in
Oregon in different ways failed to get anywhere this session.

Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany, the bill's chief sponsor, said HB 3664
represents an amalgamation of the earlier bills and has two primary
purposes: protecting patients who genuinely need medical marijuana for
physical ailments, while creating boundaries to prevent abuses of the
program.

"Do we have a problem with this issue? Indeed we do," he
testified.

The multilayered bill would make several modifications, which
include:

Stiffening the requirements for when a doctor can recommend medical
marijuana to a patient. Doctors would have to certify that medical
marijuana will provide therapeutic value and mitigate medical symptoms
for a patient, as opposed to current statutes that specify only that
it might do so.

Providing Oregon State Police with the addresses of every registered
medical marijuana grow site in Oregon, on a rolling three-month basis,
whether or not they are investigating a crime.

Requiring medical marijuana users under the age of 18 to renew their
card every six months by a doctor who specializes in treating children.

Reducing the number of cardholders for whom a grower can legally
provide marijuana from four to two.

Restricting eligibility for the program to Oregon residents
only.

Requiring a nationwide criminal background check for cardholders,
growers and caregivers. Currently, only statewide background checks
are conducted when a medical marijuana card is issued.

At Thursday's public hearing, several Oregon police officers and
district attorneys outlined some of the program abuses they have witnessed.

Ray Myers, a detective with the Grants Pass Police Department, said
the ability of criminals to hide behind Oregon's medical marijuana
laws is immense. Experienced growers can produce huge quantities of
marijuana from the six mature plants they are allowed to possess, he
said, and that marijuana often ends up being sold illegally.

"It has never been as bad as it is right now," he said.

Brad Berry, the district attorney for Yamhill County, concurred. "We
are dealing, in law enforcement, with the daily abuse of this law,
(people) using it as a fence or wall to hide behind for the
illegitimate growing, selling and distribution of marijuana throughout
the state and the country."

Robert Wolfe of the Oregon Marijuana Policy Initiative, a coalition of
pro-medical-marijuana interest groups, said proponents of the bill are
losing sight of the real problem. "There are no legitimate studies,
reports or surveys to back up these anecdotes of (medical marijuana)
abuse," he said. "I think what these officers are describing are
problems with the black market ... and this bill doesn't address the
black market problem whatsoever."

Opponents also slammed the bill's idea of providing information about
the location of legal grow sites to law enforcement.

Wolfe said police officers throughout the state already are wildly
prejudiced against medical marijuana users, and HB 3664 would only
encourage them to "go fishing."

He pointed to public records requests by his organization that
revealed that law enforcement across the state made 51,811 inquiries
into the cardholder database on evenings and weekends alone in one
calendar year, from September 2009 to September 2010.

Under current law, police officers can only access the database during
active investigations and can only receive a "yes" or "no" answer as
to whether a suspect is a cardholder. Wolfe said requests by his
organization to see the numbers of those calls have been denied.

Regardless, the number of inquiries for that calendar year clearly
dwarfed the 32,929 cardholders in Oregon at the time, Today, the
number of Oregonians using the program has grown to approximately
40,000. The number of Oregonians kicked out of the medical marijuana
programs for abuses in 2010 was 60.

Andrea Meyer of ACLU Oregon said she is concerned about the
constraints that HB 3664 would place on doctors. "I don't think
(doctors) can ever say a medication will mitigate symptoms for a
particular patient," she said.

Whether the bill will be approved by lawmakers this session remains
unclear.

Some legislators and advocates feel it is being rushed through toward
the end of the session to avoid serious debate. Rep. Jeff Barker,
D-Aloha, one of the bill's sponsors, acknowledged that that isn't a
completely inaccurate point.

"If I was an opponent of the bill, I would think that there hasn't
been enough discussion," he said. "This is a big change, but I think
we're bringing it back to what the voters wanted."

While Olson has garnered bipartisan support in the House for the bill,
he also characterized the changes it makes as "pretty minor,"
something other legislators vehemently disagree with.

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D- -Eugene, said that while he supports some
concepts in the bill -- such as restricting eligibility to the medical
marijuana program to Oregon residents, and including out-of-state
crimes in the background check -- he is very concerned about the
sections that would constrain doctors and make more of cardholders'
and growers' personal information available to law
enforcement.

"If it comes to the Senate as is, I will have a problem because it
undercuts the will of the voters in our state," he said. "There's no
evidence that Oregonians are clamoring for major changes to our
medical marijuana laws, and that's what this bill would do."