Pot of Gold

TEN THOUSAND POUNDS OF POT. That’s the amount of medical
marijuana State Representative Ron Maurer estimates Oregonians burn
through every month. After 10 years of legal medical marijuana use in
Oregon, politicians in Salem are beyond debating whether weed is good
or bad. Instead, a surprising coalition of legislators including
Republicans like Maurer are sponsoring several bills that would create
an over-the-counter infrastructure for the Beaver State’s most beloved
drug.

Representative Carolyn Tomei wasn’t planning to have pot on her
policy plate this session. But when she held a town hall earlier this
year for several hundred Southeast Portland constituents, a show of
hands revealed that almost every voter in the room supported the
medical marijuana users.

“I expected there would be more people who were really concerned
about inappropriate use of medical marijuana, but there weren’t!” says
Tomei, who decided to sign on as a supporter of House Bill 3274. The
bill would create state-run marijuana fields, ban private growers, and
institute a $98-per-ounce tax on medical marijuana.

“We control alcohol, beer, wine, and all other medicines,” says
Tomei. “Isn’t this another substance we could control? And frankly,
make some money?” At $98 an ounce, Representative Maurer, who
introduced the bill, estimates that the state could bring in $188
million a year for the strapped state budget. “Even if we cut [the
estimated revenue] in half, we’re still talking real money for the
State of Oregon,” said Maurer at a legislative hearing in Salem on
March 18.

That kind of talk makes some medical marijuana patients scared. “We
need a medical supply, but we don’t need a profiteering one. It needs
to stay in the hands of patients,” says Jerry Wade, spokesman for the
Stormy Ray Cardholders Foundation.

Wade and others say state-run marijuana farms could work well for
people who can’t grow their own pot, but many patients would rather
stick to their homegrown and organic varieties. Over 30,000 Oregonians
are cardholding marijuana users or growers.

Passionate patients have packed the public hearings in Salem on
medical marijuana bills during March. At a hearing on March 18, the
moderator had to remind the audience to be keep proceedings civil. “By
the way, yelling out from the audience will not do anyone any good,”
the legislator announced.

Voter Power spokesman John Sajo—whose group advocates for pot
smokers’ rights—spoke out strongly against a “state monopoly” on
marijuana which would distribute pot through pharmacies. “That just
won’t happen as long as marijuana is prohibited by federal law. I’ve
talked to pharmacists and that’s just not a workable plan,” said
Sajo.

Meanwhile two other bills up for debate in Salem aim to ban
marijuana use in the workplace—House Bills 3052 and 2497.

According to Representative Bruce Hanna, who is co-sponsoring House
Bill 3052, 60 to 80 percent of people who take a pre-hire drug test for
Oregon small businesses fail. That’s a 50 percent higher failure rate
than the rest of the country, with 70.8 percent of failures due to pot,
according to Hanna.

“It is safe to say that marijuana in any form, including medical, is
the leading threat to safety in the workplace,” says Maurer, who is
also supportive of the workplace measures, as well as proposing HB
3274.

While Barack Obama’s new attorney general, Eric Holder, announced on
March 19 that he would end raids on medical marijuana distributors, the
president himself stated last week that he had no intention of
legalizing the drug.

Several legislators sponsoring HB 3274 describe it as a “concept
bill” which is unlikely to actually reach a floor vote this year.
Representative Tomei compared the bill to the Oregon Bottle Bill, a
pioneering idea for recycling that went through three years of House
debate before finally reaching a vote in 1971.

“It’s an interesting idea,” says Dylan Amo, communications director
for Representative Jim Thompson, another Republican sponsor of HB 3274.
While the debate over state-run pot fields has stimulated discussion,
Amo points out that many important details (like where the fields would
be located) “have not been hashed out yet.”