MEDICAL MARIJUANA STORIES SHARED

They tried everything, but nothing worked. They gave him medicine,
which he threw up. They gave him food, which he also vomited. So they
fed him through an IV tube in his arm, which made him stronger for a
time. But Leif Place, suffering from a painful, incurable digestive
disorder, still couldn't eat like other 13-year-olds. Desperate for a
permanent solution after another extended hospital visit, Leif's
mother asked his doctors for advice.

"They told me that if he didn't smoke marijuana, they didn't know if
he'd ever eat again," said Sharon Place, 48. She had given her son a
small dose once before as he was in the throes of another vomiting
bout, which seemed to help ease his nausea and pain, but by that time
Leif's recurring symptoms were so severe that he soon ended up in the
hospital again.

Now 17, Leif smokes marijuana every day to ease his symptoms so he can
eat. His mother says the controversial drug saved her son's life.

The boy's mother joined about 80 others at an office-warming party at
Compassion Center's new clinic in west Eugene on Saturday. The clinic,
which specializes in providing education and support and medical
services to medical marijuana patients, was filled with volunteers,
patients and supporters, who took tours of the new office, exchanged
stories, and participated in a hemp cooking exhibition. While the
atmosphere was light and upbeat throughout the afternoon, the occasion
also allowed those in attendance, some of whom smoke marijuana legally
through the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, to sound off about federal
regulation of the drug.

"It's time for a change," said Eileen Erdelt, a coordinator for the
Lane County Cannabis Initiative. The initiative, which needs about
9,000 signatures to make it onto next year's ballot, would forbid the
county's sheriff's and district attorney's offices from spending
general fund money on enforcement, arrests, prosecutions and county
jail time for adult marijuana users. In addition, the initiative would
prevent local authorities from cooperating with federal raids on
medical marijuana patients and caregivers.

Erdelt and other medical marijuana advocates are upset that the
federal government can seize plants from and issue citations to
state-licensed medical marijuana caregivers.

Sharon Place is especially passionate about the subject. In addition
to Leif, who became Oregon's youngest medical marijuana cardholder at
age 13 in 1998, she has another son - also a cardholder - with a
milder disorder.

And Sharon herself is a patient. Afflicted with a similar, but less
severe, digestive disorder than Leif's, she has used marijuana to cope
with stomach pain since her teenage years in Los Angeles.

So when she watched 12-year-old Leif lose 20 pounds in a three-week
period in August 1998, Sharon became frustrated. Six visits to the
hospital during this period had done little to improve his condition,
and his incessant vomiting aggravated his stomach pain. Leif, the
youngest of three boys, spent two years traveling to Doernbecher
Children's Hospital in Portland and endured several lengthy hospital
stays in Eugene.

After years of costly medical care, which continues today, the best
medicine turned out to be marijuana.

"If he doesn't have it that day, he doesn't eat," she said. Though he
takes 12 pills a day, still fights pain and struggles at times to
maintain an appetite, Leif is a completely different person than the
boy with the tube in his arm four years ago, Sharon said.

Though she appreciates that she can legally grow and consume marijuana
in Oregon, one of nine states that has adopted a medical marijuana
law, Sharon said the medical marijuana act has too many loopholes.

One objection she has is with the amount cardholders are allowed to
possess. The law allows a person with a medical marijuana card to
possess 3 ounces of the drug.

She was jailed this year for possessing about 20 pounds of marijuana
plants that she had grown.

Others, like Erdelt, the LCCI coordinator, pointed to one recent
political victory.

On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court declined the Bush administration's
request to consider whether the federal government can punish doctors
for recommending marijuana to sick patients.

"I think doctors will start listening and stop fearing the government
so much," she said.

Doctors had been wary of signing slips enabling patients to obtain
medical marijuana, Compassion Center executive director Todd Dalotto
said. He said the Supreme Court's ruling would likely clear the way
for prospective patients to receive medical marijuana more easily.