MEASURE 33

Changes Oregon's Medical-Marijuana Law, Increasing the Amount of Pot
Patients Can Possess and Allowing the Establishment of Non-Profit
Dispensaries.

NO

What's the fuss? Some medical-marijuana patients can't score enough
weed.

What's the fix? Relax the regs.

Here's the deal: We'll be the first to admit (kind of hard not to,
given our cover) that medical-marijuana advocates are an easy target
for ridicule. But for some, marijuana is a safe and effective treatment.

That's why, in 1998, WW was one of the only major newspapers in the
state to endorse the ballot measure that created Oregon's
medical-marijuana system. The measure passed, and ever since, sick
people with cooperative doctors have been allowed to grow and use "the
medicine" to ease conditions including cancer, glaucoma and multiple
sclerosis.

Back in '98, law enforcement predicted medical pot would fuel a
cannabis catastrophe. Hate to say we told you so, but it hasn't
happened. Instead, the experiment seems a qualified success. More than
10,000 patients and about 1,400 doctors have participated. The program
even makes money for the state--it's running a $1 million surplus.

But medical pot's boosters say Oregon's law is flawed. It bans buying
and selling marijuana; patients must grow their own or find a
caregiver to grow it for them. That imposes a hardship on people who
lack the skills or abilities (remember, a lot of them are sick) to
grow dope. And its one-ounce limit, they say, makes the system
impractical for some patients who need more.

Their solution: allow nonprofit, licensed dispensaries to sell medical
marijuana to qualified patients. A dispensary could be a storefront in
downtown Portland, or a farm outside Mist. In counties where no
nonprofit stepped forward to run a dispensary, the county government
would be required to start one.

The measure would also radically increase the amount of weed a patient
could legally possess--up to six pounds, in fact. Another provision
would allow naturopaths and nurse practitioners to sign up patients,
which they now can't.

We're convinced of a couple things. One, M33's backers have correctly
diagnosed some problems with the current system that should be fixed.
Two, this measure is the wrong way to fix them.

Drug cops and DAs say allowing people to have six pounds of pot
amounts to de facto legalization. Maybe they're right--whatever. The
quantities involved don't really bother us. Measure 33's fatal flaw is
the odd provision that could force, say, Harney County in Eastern
Oregon to open its own publicly owned pot shop.

Though proponents say the system will pay for itself, it's hard to
imagine strapped counties rushing to comply--and easy to imagine
litigation aimed at forcing them to.

We're still all for medical marijuana. We just don't think this overly
ambitious measure is the fix it needs.