ENDORSEMENTS - STATE BALLOT MEASURES - MEASURE 33

Medical marijuana. YES

In 1998, Oregon voters approved a ballot measure to allow qualified
patients to posses, grow and use medicinal marijuana. Now, Measure 33
asks voters to make the medicine more accessible to patients. The
measure would: create state-regulated, nonprofit dispensaries where
patients could buy medicinal marijuana; increase the amounts of
marijuana that patients may possess or cultivate from three ounces of
usable marijuana and seven plants to one pound and 10 plants; add
naturopathic doctors and nurses to the list of physicians who can
prescribe medicinal marijuana; decrease the annual application fee
from $150 to $20, and fund medicinal marijuana research.

More than 1,300 Lane County residents hold medical marijuana cards --
many with serious conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, and HIV -- and
this measure would mean easier access to their medicine. The state
would benefit, too, since dispensaries would pay 10 to 20 percent of
their gross revenues to the state medicinal marijuana program. Let's
make medicinal marijuana more accessible.