News Jul 22, 2010 at 4:00 am

Measure Tears Rift in Marijuana Reform Movement

Comments

1
"Duckworth says her group doesn't think the time is right to pursue legalization." - Lori Duckworth, Southern Oregon NORML

This statement is reason alone to completely dismiss Lori and her organization. Does she even know what NORML stands for? A NORML Director who favors keeping it illegal? What a sad, sorry joke she is.
2
I know Lori, and she is a realist, like me. Polling doesn't show enough support to support legalization yet. The worst crime of cannabis prohibition is keeping patients from having safe access to their medicine. Vote Yes on I-28.
3
We'll see how these entrepreneurs like it when the Oakland-style warehouses take hold and pay some taxes the local yokels can't compete with. Corporate weed! But these local activists at the medical marijuana groups such as Voter Power and Oregon Green Free still think they are gonna be the ones getting rich. They have no idea what's coming because, as they say, "This ain't California." Yeah, right.
4
Would have been nice to have more factual info on the referendum. Is the number of dispensaries unlimited? If a large number are allowed to operate it should start to drive the price of cannabis down.

5
NORML is wrong. Veterans for medical marijuana.org has been advocating for veterans use for four years, and we are not a commercial org.
We have three VA medical centers that now allow vet patients to use medmj.

martin chilcutt
6
My name is Sarah Duff. In college I was the President of NORML at the University of Missouri for two years. I was instrumental in changing local laws to allow people to posess marijuana without fear of arrest in my hometown. I moved to Oregon six years ago and have turned in more than a thousand volunteer signatures for the dispensary initiative. I think it is brilliant to legalize a local industry for Oregon residents with enough regulations to keep criminals from benefiting. The people from OR NORML are misinformed. And when did they stop being for the reform of marijuana laws? The organization should change their name to the National Organization Only for the Legalization of Marijuana Laws (even when only 35% of voters would vote for their initiative). NORML is being unrealistic and missing an opportunity to support the creation of jobs growing marijuana. Only local residents can be producers and dispensaries can only be Oregon non-profits. The Berkeley Patients Group did not open a dispensary in Maine, they merely consulted the dispensary. They gave the initiative a donation for the love of the cause, since they can not open a dispensary here.

What the world needs now is good jobs. Legalize them November 2nd.
7
Why does Any Rational Person Listen to an EX-Prison Guard who spent her Life Keeping Cannabis users IMPRISONED as well as Terrorized?
After Madeline Martinez Sabotaged Jack Herer's Families Benefit, why is she even being consulted on anything more than why is she still here?
Division is Madeline Martinez's Middle name. For the years she has been in Portland, she has Attacked and Disrupted every viable option that we have ever had.
Best place for this Prison Guard is as a Prisoner in Federal Prison!
TERRORISTS DESERVE TO BE HELD IN INDEFINITE CONFINEMENT!
8
Oregon NORML is just looking to protect their jobs as when marijuana laws are reformed they will have to go find real jobs!

BOYCOTT BEING NORML! LEGALIZE FREEDOM!
9
Read the initiative carefully. It says nothing about nonprofit dispensaries being limited to Oregon entities. Berkeley Patients Group would be entirely within their rights to start a nonprofit here, or to register as a foreign corporation doing business in Oregon (if they are already nonprofit).

Nothing in the initiative limits how many dispensaries can operate, either, but the nonprofit requirement may be a barrier to outrageous profits. Then again, the initiative states that "the provisions of this section ...do not allow for any selling of marijuana...." So where are the big corporate profits that people are worried about?
10
Initiative Petition 28 is supported by the vast number of cannabis activists in Oregon and across the country, just as a vast majority favor legalization. While activists may disagree upon which particular proposal is the right one, all of these activists are ultimately fighting for the same goals: safe, affordable access for patients and freedom to utilize cannabis for all adults.

Some activists may prefer nonprofit medical cannabis dispensaries as a great step forward while others feel that nothing short of complete legalization is the only acceptable proposal to support. Some activists look to government stores, such as the OLCC liquor store model, while others are fearful of government monopolies over cannabis commerce and want private entities to take the lead. These are legitimate arguments that the cannabis community should have. It is my job, and the job of nonprofit dispensary supporters, to educate everyone on the benefits to patients, the cannabis community and the entire state by the establishment of a nonprofit dispensary program.

I will be standing side-by-side with these same activists that oppose the dispensary program at the Oregon Legislature and at the ballot box when the next anti-patient proposal is introduced by Kevin Mannix or Sheriff Tom Bergin. All of these activists agree on important policy issues over 90% of the time. Thus, I feel that this so-called rift being torn within the marijuana movement is a bit overblown.

Initiative 28 provides safe access to Oregon patients by allowing nonprofit dispensaries, similar to pharmacies, to dispense medical cannabis to patients. The dispensaries must comply with state nonprofit laws and may only be reimbursed for all of their expenses. Maintaining nonprofit status and complying with the law will help prohibit the costly "prohibition pricing" some activists are concerned with. While expenses include labor, exorbitant salaries and excessive amount of surplus revenue left in the coffers could lead to civil penalties and the loss of legal protection.

The nonprofit dispensaries' directors and employees must be 21 years of age and Oregon residents. Dispensaries will provide competition for each other and help keep prices down. The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) may not limit the number of dispensaries or producers, but may impose reasonable regulation requirements. The proposal prohibits dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a school and within residential areas. The OMMP must also approve security plans and may conduct inspections of both dispensaries and their producers.

Dispensaries must pay a $2,000 annual licensing fee, while their producers pay $1,000. Quarterly, they both must pay a fee equal to 10% of their gross revenue. The fees collected will fund medical research, assistance programs for low-income and homebound patients and other Oregon Health Authority programs. The Oregon Health Authority estimates that the nonprofit dispensary program will generate $20 million in the first year and $40 million by the fourth year. All at a time when Oregon is experiencing an extreme budget shortfall and state agencies are contemplating cuts of nearly 10% across the board.

These nonprofits will also provide jobs to Oregonians at a time when our state is suffering through a recession with the unemployment rate above 10%. In Oregon, and across the country, medical marijuana programs are experiencing great growth as people become educated about the medical benefits of the nontoxic natural medicine. Cannabis commerce may be the new industry that helps lift Oregon out of the economic doldrums. Initiative Petition 28 can be the foundation of that new industry.

Voters don't often have the opportunity to pass a law that demonstrates compassion and makes good business sense. Nonprofit dispensaries provide that opportunity. Please, become educated and get involved. Read the text and think of the consequences. Do we move forward with a new compassionate program that helps patients, creates jobs and generates revenue or do we remain with the status quo that prohibits commerce and forces sick, disabled patients to go without medicine or turn to the black market?

I am confident that Oregon voters, after learning of the benefits of the nonprofit dispensary program, will vote YES this November.

Anthony Johnson

Co-Author & Co-Chief Petitioner of Initiative Petition 28
Board Member of Oregon Green Free & Director of Oregon Green Free Clinical Services

www.coalitionforpatientsrights2010.com
www.oregongreenfree.net
11
A movement to reform marijuana laws that is united in making the steps that lead to legalization will eventually suceed. A movement that divides itself over details like whether out-of-staters can set up nonprofits here or who is going to make the money after we end prohibition may fail and hand victory to the police and other anti-marijuana forces.

Marijuana is on the ballot this fall. If you want reform of marijuana laws, vote yes. If you never want to see marijuana reform, vote no. Its really as simple as that.
12
I 28 creates jobs, produces revenue and provides regulations so we can have some control of the medical cannabis industry which is growing very rapidly in Oregon as we speak.

Most of the money goes to the black market, where we have very little control and zero benefit from the money changing hands. I don't think black marketeers check I.D., I am pretty sure we don't see income tax from their black market activities.

I-28 creates a system to ensure safe, reliable access to medical cannabis to all Oregon med can patients, regardless of their ability to pay,

It is ENTIRELY self funding, as is the current OMMP. No General Fund money goes into it, instead, so far, over a million bucks has gone from OMMP coffers into the state budget,

It allows for research, both on medical cannabis and also surveying patients so we can get feedback about how the program is working for them, who has gardens/medicine, who needs it, what strains help for what conditions, emergency room visits due to cannabis, bad reactions to cannabis, home invasion issues any other data we want to gather.

For example: many medical cannabis patients find that after they begin cannabis therapy, their need for narcotics for pain relief is reduced or eliminated.

If we knew how many patients needed how much less of the more expensive pharmaceuticals , we would know how much of a savings it is for the taxpayers not to be paying for the pharmas, the increased productivity of the patients who reduce their narcotics dependence and are able to get up off of the couch, go to work, be available to their families and add to the tax base is worth looking at.

People will be amazed at the savings.

We should be tracking this kind of data.

As it is now, the OMMP says they do not have the statutory authority to conduct research or surveys. They are the only ones with a complete list of patients and the list is HIPPA protected.

I 28 gives us a way to work within the rules and to gather the information to help us better understand medical cannabis and how it fits into peoples lives.

As far as big biz hopping on board.

Who cares? We have wal-mart and costco and we have new seasons and the co ops and we have high end specialty grocery stores. They all seem to be surviving and they all pay taxes and they all provide jobs.

We will have the same ability to vote with our dollars that we have now with grocery stores.

There are already advocate orgs who are doing charity work. That will not stop after I 28 passes. It will simply be easier for them to help more patients more often because the patients who can afford to pay and are willing, will be allowed to pay.

Noone will be forced to go to a dispensary. OMMP patients will still be able to grow their ow or choose someone to grow for them

They will have the right to go to the retail outlet for their meds, just like we all do for the medicine that we need from the pharmacy or the grocery store or the co op.

As for SONORML recognizing that there is not enough voter support to pass legalization,
I say good on them for being sensible and working tirelessly and diligently from right where they are, to improve the lot of cannabis in society.

That they are willing to address the needs of the ill before the needs of the well,
well,
isn't that what we are supposed to do?

I hope folks will get educated, donate time or money to the campaign, hold a fundraiser,
write letters to the editor in support of I 28 and help make it law by voting yes on I 28.

thank you
blessed be

13
My my, all the dissension and paranoid delusions do nobody any good. Reasonable people can disagree on political strategy. That doesn't make either party "agent provocateurs", "saboteurs", or rapacious capitalists lining their pockets (nobody at Oregon NORML makes any salary, Todd, so there are no jobs to lose.)

I am NORML's National Outreach Coordinator and I live here in Portland, so I may have a better perspective than anyone posting here. I came up through my work with Oregon NORML, but I am also the person who approved and still champions the affiliation of Southern Oregon NORML.

Conflict and drama make for good Portland Mercury stories, but they are often fed by the extreme fringes of the participants rather than the bulk of the fair-minded among them. Here's the real deal:

Oregon NORML is not opposed to I-28. Oregon NORML just doesn't have the full backing of its board and members to openly support it. Thus they have maintained official neutrality toward it.

The sticking point is not dispensaries; it is prohibition pricing. The experience of California, Colorado, and Michigan has shown that these "non-profit" dispensary models produce a pricing structure that nearly always matches or exceeds the black market. "Better access" doesn't mean much when you live on $600 a month disability and your medicine costs $300 per ounce; it just means you can't pay that price in a store rather than the street. Many Oregon NORML members are patients on fixed incomes who believe that dispensaries will mean more growers selling marijuana for profit and that will diminish the level of access provided to patients who rely on donations.

There is also concern about the entrenchment of non-profits whose business depends on a prohibition price model, which can only be sustained through keeping marijuana illegal for the 90% of Oregonians who use cannabis but are too healthy for a medical marijuana card. Will they marshal their resources and customer base to oppose efforts to legalize? Already I know of at least six medical marijuana dispensaries and advocates who are putting their time and money to oppose California's effort to legalize via Prop 19 this November.

Yet there will be plenty of Oregon NORML members - probably a vast majority - who will be voting yes on I-28 this November. Oregon NORML's stance has been neutral and "make up your own mind" - I've been at the meetings and heard the speeches (you can too; I stream most of them at http://live.norml.org) The objections to I-28 have been raised, but so have the benefits (which are fairly self-evident anyway - there would be medical marijuana for sale!)

On the other hand, Southern Oregon NORML and dispensary proponents are correct about the relative level of political support statewide for medical marijuana dispensaries rather than legalization for healthy people. And if you are a patient with an extra $300 in your pocket, why shouldn't you have the access to a variety of quality medicine in a safe controlled environment? If you're a medical grower, why shouldn't you have some (reasonable) reimbursement for your labor? And, perhaps, the only viable path from here to legalization must go through dispensaries.

These are also reasonable opinions. This is why NORML, at a national level, has a very hands-off attitude when it comes to our chapters. The attitudes in the cannabis community are varied and many points of view are valid. Allen St. Pierre was right when he noted that Southern Oregon is a very grower-dominated area, and Northern Oregon is a very patient-dominated area. There will be disagreements!

Finally, at its core, NORML only has one "M" - we are not solely focused on medical marijuana. Some medical marijuana activists actually despise the "legalizers" for muddying their issue and would take Oregon NORML's neutrality on the issue as a benefit to their cause and Southern Oregon NORML's support as an albatross around its neck.

NORML maintains full support of all its chapters in Portland (Oregon NORML), Eugene (Willamette Valley NORML), and Medford (Southern Oregon NORML)... even when they disagree.

Russ Belville
NORML Outreach Coordinator
14
Southern NORML is a 50+ organization of rural hick hippies, who gives a damn what they think?
15
Prohibition pricing?

Which of the states mentioned has written into the law that there will be a program to ensure safe access to med can patients regardless of their ability to pay?

Oregon, post I 28 passing : )
16
We are still ignorant and in the "Stone age".Come on....alchohol,tobacco,pills?I cant wait for the flip flop mentality when the weed is flowing free.I'd rather light up a reefer than get drunk anyday.Pills?Yea now those are flowing everywhere.What a back-ass dumb mentality some embrace.
17
Sigh... just legalize it already. This whole fucking debate is such old hat, not to mention a waste of time. The amount of evidence documenting the potential dangers and the potential benefits of marijuana is preposterously large, and easily accesible to anyone who might actually attempt to learn something about it instead of just relying on regurgitated sound bytes to form their opinion. The verdict has been in for decades, people - marijuana should be legal for sale and use to adults, for whatever purpose they damn well feel like utilizing it for.

Seriously. Debating the legality of marijuana makes about as much sense as debating the necessity and value of hospitals, public schools and libraries - in other words, it's a total fucking non-sequitur. Barring any new and stunningly devastating revelations about marijuana being dangerous (or more dangerous than alcohol, which isn't likely to happen), anyone who seriously advocates for its continued illegality ought to be ignored, and marginalized from the discussion of how best to handle the (pun intended) growing economic complications attendant with the rise of marijuana as a viable, taxable, cash-crop.

Let's move the fuck on and get this thing done, people. Sheesh.
18
Stop beating around the bush and legalize. Until a measure comes up for vote legalizing cannabis, I will not be voting for it. What about the rest of us? I do not support these older generation run advocate groups anymore. Their agendas are beyond me.

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