TRY FOR SENSE IN LAW ON POT

Law enforcement continues to spend time chasing marijuana growers. It
will have to continue doing so until our lawmakers start applying
better sense.

With our voter-approved medical marijuana program, spending law
enforcement resources on catching small-time growers seems pointless.

The Linn County Sheriff's Office, for example, reports investigating
140 marijuana grow operations this past season. Only 20 of them turned
out to be "illegal." The rest presumably were of a size and nature to
be allowed under the law.

How much logic is there to this distinction? People are OK if they
grow the stuff for others with medical marijuana cards and don't sell
it. If they grow too much, or if they do sell it, they are in big trouble.

In Albany a woman is planning to open a business of turning marijuana
into products card holders can use without smoking it. One city
council member wondered whether it was legal. The police chief wasn't
about to give legal advice, but if somebody hands marijuana to
somebody else that's "delivering," and that can be a felony. The
prospective business owner pointed to another law that says the ban on
"delivering" doesn't apply to medical card holders.

The whole thing looks like a farce. But it's not funny. Because it's
outside the law, the marijuana business still attracts criminals, even
from abroad.

Police occasionally raid commercial operations that are run by people
ready to defend their crop by force of arms. These operations could be
run out of business without anybody risking getting shot. They would
disappear if Oregon took the next logical step and said we're not
going to outlaw marijuana any more.

Sure, there's a downside to this. Maybe more people would use it in
stupid ways -- the way some do now with tobacco and alcohol.

We have campaigns against smoking and drunken driving, but the state
still gets its cut from both smoking and booze. If it wanted to be
both smart and tolerant of citizens' habits, Oregon would treat pot
about the way it treats those.