PAIN RELIEF WITH LEGAL POT

Madeline Martinez, 54, is allowed to grow and use marijuana as
medicine to treat pain.

Madeline Martinez smokes marijuana everyday. She medicates herself
with about an ounce of green buds each week, which she grows herself.

She is a 54-year-old grandmother, a retired peace officer from a
women's prison in California and a sufferer of chronic pain. Martinez
has a degenerative disk and joint disease.

She says of all the drugs prescribed to her, marijuana keeps her
quality of life high, without the nasty stomach irritation brought on
by opiates prescribed by her doctor.

Martinez is lucky, she says, because her medicine is protected under
the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act of 1998, but since joining to program
allowing her to grow and possess the drug legally, she says her fight
is not over.

On Nov. 2, voters will face Measure 33, a new medical marijuana
initiative, which would create licensed and regulated non-profit
dispensaries to sell medical cannabis to qualified patients. The
measure would also increase a patient's possession limit to six pounds
of marijuana per year, and up to one pound at a given time.

"The biggest problem is keeping the garden growing," she said. "Once
you get the card that says you qualify as a patient, you're on your
own."

Martinez said she could kill ferns in her garden just by looking at
them before she became an expert grower of her marijuana, nearing the
legal limit with five flowering plants and eight in a vegetative stage.

She has converted her basement into a grow space, using strong,
expensive lighting and special soil to keep her crop healthy. One of
her greatest fears is growing a crop that gets infested with insects
or mold, or does not produce cannabis buds at all.

"I am afraid. If we don't get our medicine, what are we going to do?
That's why Measure 33 is so important," she said.

John Sajo, executive director of Voter Power, is advocating for
Martinez's cause, and that of 10,000 other Oregonians who are
registered under the state's medical marijuana program. His group
along with the political action committee Life With Dignity, is
working to pass Measure 33.

"A lot of people think we passed medical marijuana and it's working
fine, but literally thousands of patients in the program are
struggling to get their medicine," Sajo said.

Financially self-sustaining dispensaries proposed by Measure 33 would
carry marijuana for medicine in various forms, including baked goods,
candies and oils, which are said to be safer than smoke inhalation.

Stormy Ray, a poster child of the original medical marijuana
initiative in 1998, is among those who have purchased arguments
against the measure in the Oregon Voter's Pamphlet.

Ray, 48, suffers from multiple sclerosis. She and others worry the
measure will make the federal government's war against the medical use
of marijuana even more aggressive.

"There is an ongoing struggle between states that have medical
marijuana laws and the federal government," admits Sojo.

Other opponents of Measure 33 call the initiative a thinly veiled
effort toward legalizing marijuana for all.

But Sajo says it will remain a felony to buy or sell marijuana under
the proposal.

"I personally am a supporter of legalization, and I hope we get to
vote for that someday," he said.

The measure is endorsed by Pacific Green Party, the Oregon Criminal
Defense Lawyers Association, the American Civil Liberties Union of
Oregon and the local Freedom Socialist Party.

"We think it's important that medical marijuana be more readily
available to those who are medicinally in that kind of need," said
party organizer Jordana Sardo. "Frankly, we are in favor of
decriminalizing or legalizing drugs in general because we feel it's
really important that the profit motive be taken out of the whole drug
trade."

For Martinez, she says the current state of the law leaves her with
few options.

"I'm in support of Measure 33 because when my crop fails, I have no
place to go for this medicine. My other option is to be on really
strong pain medication and I choose not to. I choose a quality of life
that allows me to enjoy my grandchildren, my pets and my family life,"
she said.