Kristin VanAnden, a free-lance writer and translator who lives in Northwest Portland,
got the bad news in late January. Breast cancer had moved into her bones. She would have
to undergo a series of chemotherapy sessions to kill off the invading cancer cells.
In classic understatement, VanAnden, 58, said chemotherapy was
not fun. For the first few days, she said, she felt nauseated, and everything tasted like
cardboard.
She recalled hearing that marijuana could combat the nausea and improve her appetite,
so she decided to try it.
A couple of puffs produced a kind of a feeling in the stomach that its somehow settled,
that it feels OK, she said. There’s a deep relaxation response.
But getting marijuana is always difficult, she said. And there’s always the threat
of arrest. I’m frankly quite irritated, she said. Marijuana is so clearly beneficial
as an anti-nausea medication.
Not everyone agrees. Opponents of medical marijuana use say that existing anti-nausea
medications work fine, that marijuana’s benefits are scientifically questionable and
that legalizing medical use opens the door to increased drug abuse. Oregon voters will
soon have their say on the issue.
On Nov. 3, Oregonians will vote on Ballot Measure 67, deciding whether marijuana is a
breakthrough in compassion for the sick and dying or the beginning of a slide down a
slippery slope toward legalization of all drugs.
Early statewide polling points to widespread support for
legalizing medical marijuana, with strong backing across age, income, political and
geographic lines. Ironically, Oregonians also will vote in November on Ballot Measure 57,
which would make possession of small amounts of marijuana a criminal offense. Early
polling shows more voters opposing than supporting that measure.
See
Oregon
Medical Marijuana Initiative To Be On Ballot Along With Measure To Repeal
Recriminalization
Rob Elkins, Molalla police chief and a director of Oregonians Against Dangerous Drugs,
views the medical marijuana measure as an open door for all marijuana use.
"My beliefs come from long before I became a cop, he said. I have seven brothers.
I saw every one of them get arrested. Four of them served time in penitentiaries. All were
into drugs to a pretty high degree.
And they all started with marijuana, he said.
But Dr. Richard Bayer, a Portland internist and a chief petitioner for the marijuana
initiative, said the ultimate goal isn’t legalization of all drugs—just to make
it possible for sick people to obtain marijuana at a pharmacy, with a prescription.
See
A Portrait Of The
Doctor Leading The Oregon Medical Marijuana Drive
In the eyes of the federal government, marijuana occupies the same dangerous-drug
status as heroin and LSD. All are considered to have no medical value and thus can’t
be prescribed.
Bayer said the point of state campaigns is to force the federal government to
acknowledge the medical benefits of marijuana.
In November 1996, voters in Arizona and California approved ballot measures sanctioning
marijuanas use for medical purposes. Two months later, the White
House asked the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine to conduct a $1 million
study to find out what science knows and doesn’t know about the medicinal value of
marijuana. The study has not been completed.
Oregon’s campaign for legalization is heavily financed by three wealthy out-of-state
men: George Soros, a billionaire currency trader and international financier; John
Sperling, a Phoenix businessman, Reed College graduate and founder of the University of
Phoenix; and Peter Lewis of Cleveland, the president, chairman and chief executive officer
of Progressive Corp., a large automobile insurance company.
See
The AP Reveals
That Funding For Oregon Medical Marijuana Initiative Came From Out Of State;
When Will They Examine The Funding Of Marijuana Prohibition?
Financing comes to Oregon through Americans for Medical Rights, a Los Angeles-based
organization run by the people who led the campaign that legalized medical marijuana in
California.
Dave Fratello, campaign coordinator for the organization, said Americans for Medical
Rights plans to spend about $2 million on campaigns in five states: Oregon, Washington,
Nevada, Alaska and Colorado. About $500,000, he said, will go to Oregons campaign, with
much of the money to be spent on advertising in the three weeks before the election.
The principal opponent of Measure 67 is Oregonians Against Dangerous Drugs, a thinly
financed group composed mainly of law enforcement officers. Paul Phillips, a campaign
coordinator for Oregonians Against Dangerous Drugs, said the organization has raised about
$3,000.
"We are hopeful that once the business community understands that this measure
would totally wipe out drug-free workplaces, well see more donations, Phillips said.
Heres how the law would work:
A number of firsts
Oregonians have a long history of accommodating marijuana.
In 1979, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill that required Oregon State Police to
provide confiscated marijuana to the state Health Division for use by patients undergoing
chemotherapy or suffering from glaucoma, an eye disease.
The law made Oregon the first state in the nation to have a state-run program to
distribute marijuana for medical purposes. Both the Oregon Senate and House of
Representatives passed the measure without dissent.
Then-Gov. Vic Atiyeh signed the measure into law, calling it a good example of what can
be done out of compassion for people.
The law eventually proved unworkable. It called for the Health Division to certify the
confiscated marijuana as free of contamination. But Kristine Gebbie, Health Division
administrator at the time, said no test was available to guarantee the safety of the drug.
Efforts to obtain marijuana grown for the federal government under contract with the
University of Mississippi were unsuccessful, and the law was repealed in 1987. In 1973,
Oregon became the first state to remove criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of
marijuana.
J. Pat Horton, a former Lane County district attorney, favored
decriminalization. He testified before Congress about what he considered the successes of
the new law—unclogging the criminal courts and encouraging police to pursue more
serious criminals.
Horton, now in private practice, still thinks decriminalization was a good idea and
calls legalization of medical marijuana a "no-brainer."
"Doctors prescribe codeine and all these dangerous things for pain," he
said. "Why would anyone say there’s something wrong with a doctor prescribing
something that’s going to help eradicate pain or help a patient?"
But Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Noelle, a director of Oregonians Against
Dangerous Drugs, says the legal implications of the measure take it far beyond the simple
question of medical use.
"It really gets down to what’s the message and what’s the intent of this
bill," he said. "I firmly believe this bill is intended to be part of a national
campaign to legalize drugs , in this country . . . I think it’s about legalizing
drugs under the disguise of appealing to people’s compassionate guilt."
See
The Party Line On
Medical Marijuana In Oregon From A Sheriff And An "Addiction Specialist"
Hidden in the proposal are law enforcement land mines, he said.
Noelle objects to what he sees as vague language defining who could get medical
marijuana. Anyone can complain of severe nausea, pain and lack of appetite, he said. And
as long as a doctor agrees, the patient gets a registration card.
As for the requirement that law officers return seized marijuana plants in their
original condition—that’s impossible, he says.
Noelle sees the measure being backed by a daunting array of non-Oregonian financial
powerhouses pitted against a financially poor but dedicated opposition. Oregonians Against
Dangerous Drugs, he says, is basically a grass-roots organization armed
with law enforcement speakers who will make the rounds of civic groups to bring a message
of warning.
(Ed. note: However, they are doing this -- lobbying against an
initiative -- at taxpayer expense.)
See
Review of All The
Proposed Oregon Marijuana Initiatives – Which Do Police Fear Most?
Doctors stay neutral
Oregon’s medical community has contributed to an atmosphere of acceptance for
medicinal marijuana. ‘In April, the Oregon Medical Association, which represents
5,800 of the state’s 8,300 physicians, handed proponents of medical marijuana a
victory, voting to remain neutral on the issue.
See
Oregon Medical
Association Declines to Oppose Medical Marijuana; Believe It or Not, This Is A Victory
Bayer called the vote "a wise and compassionate decision."
See
CMA Joins Many
Others Backing Removal Of Marijuana From Schedule I Prohibitive Status
and
Oregon Democrats
Support Medical Marijuana; Called "Crazy Plank" By Party Chairman
In lengthy debate, members of the association’s house of delegates split generally
into three camps: those who think marijuana can help their patients and thus should be
legal; those who think more study is needed to assess side effects; and those who think
that other anti-nausea drugs, such as Marinol make smoking marijuana unnecessary.
The OMA’s stand is at odds with the American Medical Association, which recommends
a ban on smoked marijuana until experiments prove its usefulness.
Although Bayer is a chief petitioner, Rep. George Eighmey, D-Portland, could well be
regarded as the father of the medical marijuana measure.
Eighmey said he became involved in the issue of medical marijuana several years ago as
chairman of the board of directors of Our House of Portland, a center for people with
AIDS. "We had many, many deaths during the time I was on the board," he said.
"Many of those people suffered agony in the last days of their lives."
One hallmark of AIDS is wasting syndrome, in which patients undergo dangerous weight
loss. Eighmey said some of them seemed to benefit from marijuana, which they smoked
illegally and which stimulated their appetites.
As an attorney, he said, "I could not condone illegal activity." So he
sponsored a bill in the 1997 Oregon Legislature to legalize marijuana for medical
purposes.
The measure died without a hearing but not without a certain amount of national
publicity. That brought Eighmey to the attention of Fratello and Americans for Medical
Rights.
Fratello’s organization grew out of the successful campaigns to legalize medical
marijuana in California and Arizona. After those elections, Fratello said, "we knew
we had to keep fighting to find friends and advocates in other states."
"(Eighmey’s bill) was very interesting to us," Fratello said. "Here
was a bona fide piece of legislation, and people were supporting it. This idea of
involving the state in the program was attractive. In California, the state was separate
from the marijuana program."
California’s medical marijuana law acts as a defense in court after an arrest has
been made. But Oregon’s measure puts a state agency in the position of certifying who
is permitted to use marijuana, thus eliminating the need for an arrest.
In Washington state, voters in November will decide on their own medical marijuana
measure. A big difference between the Oregon and Washington measures is the involvement of
a state agency. In Oregon, the Health Division would issue cards to people covered by the
act. But in Washington, patients and their caregivers would be required to carry a signed
statement from the patient’s physician.
Stormy Ray of Ontario, a chief petitioner for Oregon’s medical marijuana measure,
suffers from multiple sclerosis. The 43-year-old computer artist said marijuana was
effective in fighting the pain of muscle spasms caused by her disease.
"I don’t think patients should have to be exposed to the underworld to get
their medicine," she said.
Patrick O’Neill of The Oregonian’s Health/Medicine/Science Team can be
reached at poneill@news.oregonian.com.
Also see Portland NORML’s "History of Oregon Reform Efforts" page at: http://www.pdxnorml.org/history.html
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