33 ALLOWS LEEWAY FOR MARIJUANA

Creating licensed non-profit dispensaries for medicinal marijuana, limiting
the number of patients a caregiver can serve with medicinal marijuana and
increasing the amount of marijuana a registered patient or caregiver can
possess is the crux of Measure 33 on November's ballot.

If passed, the measure will also allow licensed neuropaths and nurse
practitioners to dispense medicinal marijuana.

The measure will set the number of patients a caregiver can serve at 10,
without a medical marijuana dispensary license. Currently, caregivers can
treat an unlimited number of patients.

The measure will also increase the amount of marijuana that can be
possessed by a registered patient or caregiver to 10 marijuana plants and
one pound of usable marijuana at any one time.

One exception is if the patient or caregiver can prove to the state that
they are growing only one crop per year, then that person may possess up to
six pounds per patient immediately following the harvest. With physician
approval, the patient may also exceed state limits.

And the measure would expand the term "debilitating medical condition" to
include any medical condition for which marijuana would benefit the patient
as determined by a physician.

In Oregon, use of medicinal marijuana has been legal for several years.
Nationally, there is great debate on the pros and cons of medical marijuana.

Richard Carmona, surgeon general of the United States, is firmly against
its use.

"Marijuana can harm the brain, lungs and mental health. Research also shows
that marijuana is addictive," he said in a recent interview.

But his predecessor, Joycelyn Elders, currently professor of public health
at the University of Arkansas Medical School, disagrees.

"The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of
pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as
multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS - or by the harsh drugs sometimes used
to treat them," she said. "And it can do so with remarkable safety. Indeed,
marijuana is less toxic than many of the drugs that physicians prescribe
every day."

Medicinal marijuana is most often used to alleviate pain and the side
effects of chemotherapy treatments.

One of the most common side effects related to chemotherapy is fatigue.
Fatigue is a feeling of tiredness and lack of energy. Fatigue faced by
cancer patients differs greatly from fatigue faced by normal people. Rest
does not always relive this kind of fatigue and it can last for days, weeks
or months.

Ashland cancer specialist Steven Strum, who has been on the cutting edge of
medical advances in his treatment of cancer patients, sees no medical
reason for using marijuana to combat nausea in chemotherapy patients. And
he noted there is no study available to show its positive effects in
relieving fatigue.

"We need to go back to the old Jack Webb mentality - the facts ma'am, just
the facts," he said. "The question is, do we now have the things available
now that are superior to marijuana in any form?"

The answer is absolutely, according to Strum.

"The seratonin antagonist drugs are far superior," he said. "In the early
'80s, I was a part of a study of a new drug, Reglan. And that was a major
breakthrough in the treatment of nausea and vomiting. That was surpassed in
the early '90s by newer drugs like Zofran and all analogs of Zofran, like
Kitrol and multiple other anti-emetics.

"But it is only effective if the doctors use what is available in their
toolbox. If they give the patients a 10 mg Compozine and give them chemo,
they are going to get sick. In that setting, where the physician has not
truly protected the patient, then marijuana has a role."

Strum was involved in a protocol study of government tetrahydrocarbinol
(THC) in the form of capsules containing the ingredient. And he noted,
while serving in the U.S. Army in the '70s, a positive effect of the use of
marijuana by soldiers.

"We noted significant improvement in nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy
with soldiers who were actually smoking joints at Brooke Army Hospital in
Texas," he said. "We thought that was interesting and exciting. We did
nothing to stop the soldiers that were doing it because we saw improvement.
That was 1970-72."