COUNTY URGES 'NO' VOTE ON MEDICAL-POT EXPANSION

DA, Commissioners Cite Problems With Measure 33

Deschutes County commissioners took a unanimous stand Wednesday,
urging voters to reject Measure 33 on the Nov. 2 ballot, which would
expand Oregon's medical marijuana program and require counties to
dispense up to six pounds of pot a year, to the indigent or to all
cardholders, if licensed dispensaries aren't in place.

District Attorney Mike Dugan had requested that the board oppose the
measure, pointing out that the county Health Department also would
have to provide the medicinal pot for free to indigent, at a cost that
hasn't been determined. Registered patients could possess up to 10
mature plants, any number of seeds, and a pound of usable marijuana -
six pounds, if the patient grows only one crop a year.

The DA told commissioners calculations show that much pot for one
person would provide "one joint per hour, 24 hours a day, for a year."

"How would you sleep?" Commissioner Dennis Luke asked.

"Very restfully," colleague Tom DeWolf joshed.

"I don't know how they'd sleep," Dugan said. "I don't know how they'd
move."

Commissioner Mike Daly asked if the county would have to grow pot, to
provide it to indigent residents. DeWolf said they could get it "from
the sheriff's office, after they confiscate it."

"I don't think there's any question, we don't want to go into the
marijuana-growing business and the marijuana-distribution business in
this county," DeWolf added.

"I'm glad you said that, Mister Commissioner," Dugan
replied.

Luke asked about the issue of county jail inmates. The DA said the
initiative doesn't spell it out, but it seems likely that if a medical
marijuana cardholder was arrested and jailed, "we would have to
provide medication" for the inmate.

DeWolf asked about recent polling on the issue, and Luke said he heard
it was trailing in statewide surveys.

Dugan said that if the measure passed, "there would be no way for the
county to control the spread of marijuana," and that the county would
have to dispense pot, if a non-profit wasn't established to do so
within six months of enactment. Luke pointed to the problem of each
county enacting its own rules, rather than a statewide program with
uniform standards.

Luke pointed out that some people indeed receive relief from painful
medical conditions with marijuana, and Dugan said he's not denying the
medicinal impact, but noted that a drug has been developed that can
mimic pot's active ingredient, THC.

Luke asked what the street value is for six pounds of marijuana, and
Dugan quickly figured it at roughly $3,840 a pound. But he also noted
that, since the '60s and '70s, the potency of pot has greatly
increased, from 2 percent THC to as much as 30 percent.