OREGON POT PLANTS SEIZED DESPITE LICENSE

The Associated Press

LEBANON, Ore. - The Bush administration and the state of Oregon already
have picked public fights over doctor-assisted suicide.

Now, the battle has spread to the back yards of Oregon residents who have a
state license to grow marijuana for medical use - like Travis Paulson, a
resident of this Willamette Valley city who got an unwelcome house call
from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) recently.

The agents confiscated 104 plants from Paulson's home, despite his state
license. DEA agents said they simply were enforcing federal laws against
growing pot.

The raid marked the second time in a year DEA agents have seized marijuana
cultivated in Oregon for medicinal uses.

"(The Bush administration) is very quick to say they believe in states'
rights, except for (these issues) and anything else they don't agree with,"
said Oregon state Rep. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene.

Brian Blake, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said federal drug agents are not targeting Oregonians who grow
medical marijuana but are going after what he called "the marijuana
threat." And medical marijuana, he said, "is part of the marijuana threat."

DEA investigators raided Paulson's home Oct. 2 after receiving a tip about
his marijuana crop and obtaining a search warrant, said DEA spokesman Tom
O'Brien.

O'Brien said DEA agents confiscated 48 mature marijuana plants and 56
immature plants, far more than Paulson is allowed under state law.

By law, residents who are licensed to grow marijuana for medicinal use can
have three mature plants and four immature plants. Paulson concedes his 48
plants, which measured 10 to 12 feet high, exceeded that amount.

But he said he cultivates marijuana to maturity only in the summer and
harvests that crop for his entire yearly use.

The 56 immature plants were clones he intended to plant next spring, he
said, and he anticipated becoming a caregiver for another patient.

Paulson was not arrested. DEA reports were forwarded to the U.S. Attorney's
Office for possible criminal charges, O'Brien said.

Kevin Neely, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said that
although residents who participate in the state medical-marijuana program
are operating legally under state law, they still risk federal prosecution.

"There's nothing we can do to remove that risk or minimize that risk,"
Neely said.

Oregon has 6,062 licensed medical-marijuana patients, state records show.
The state also has 3,815 licensed caregivers, who legally are allowed to
furnish marijuana.

Blake, the federal drug-office spokesman, said the Bush administration's
position is that the medical-marijuana issue is being pushed by people who
want to legalize drugs.

"If you look at the people who are behind these initiatives, where the
money is coming from," Blake said, "the groups that are out there
presenting marijuana as medicine, they aren't the American Medical
Association."

Paulson said it doesn't make sense that state and federal officials can't
resolve the conflict.

"This has to be resolved." he said. "It just can't go on. My life is
controlled by the state. Those are the laws I follow."