Medical Marijuana Backers Submit Petitions
The initiative would add a regulated supply system of dispensaries and producers to the current medical marijuana law, which requires patients to produce their own medicine
Currently more than 36,000 Oregonians have medical marijuana cards, many of whom have access problems, said Jim Prahl, CEO of Oregon Green Free, who’s one of the chief petitioners.
If the measure passes, it would create two permit systems that would be overseen by the Department of Human Services – one for producers and farmers, the other for dispensaries, Prahl said. “People who produce good medicine would be able to sell their crops to dispensaries.”
By passing this initiative, people will no longer have to worry about growing their own medicine, said Greg Barton, a Portland attorney who represents Oregon Green Free. “It will provide a place for safe access instead of the black market when you don’t know what you’re getting.”
The initiative also calls upon DHS to conduct research on the safety and efficacy of medical marijuana on conditions such as cancer, AIDS and hepatitis C. Supporters spent the past two years gathering signatures.
New penalties worry backers
Medical marijuana supporters are also critical of changing the penalties for people who have unlawful possession of the drug. Legislation passed during the 2009 session (Senate Bill 728) requires the Board of Pharmacy to move medical marijuana from Schedule I to a lower level.
“It’s a technical conflict, only a paper exercise,” said Gary Schnabel, the board’s executive director.
But that’s not how marijuana supporters view the issue. They came out in force to testify at a public hearing on May 18, and encouraged the board to lower the offense to a Schedule 5 rather than a Schedule 2, which has been proposed. The board will make a decision on June 16.
It boils down to the difference between a felony (Schedule 2) and a misdemeanor (Schedule 5), according to Greg Barton, an attorney who represents Oregon Green Free, which has more than 5,000 medical marijuana cardholders.
“We want to decriminalize marijuana,” he said, “People who use medical marijuana are afraid of law enforcement. The Oregon Sheriffs Association wants to repeal the medical marijuana act. They’re completely against it”
Now people can have six mature cannabis plants as long as they are no taller than 12 inches. A person can go to bed one night having a plant that’s 10 inches tall and wake up to see their plant has grown 3 inches. “Then the police show up at their door since they’re over the limit, and they have a problem with the law and are now a felon,” Barton said.
Medical marijuana just doesn’t belong in Schedule 2, he insisted. It’s not as dangerous as an opiate such as Oxycontin.
“It’s a non-toxic drug,” said Roy Murray. “It doesn’t cause crime; people who use it are calmer and easier to get along with. God put this medicine in the world for us.”
But not everyone was in agreement at the hearing. If marijuana is being used other than for medical purposes, let law enforcement have a strong hand, said Jackson Leong. “If it’s being used appropriately, there’s no issue.”
Law enforcement doesn’t want any government agency to give the message that marijuana is a “good thing,” other than for medicinal purposes, Schnabel said.
Acting on complaints, there’s been lot of abuse of the medical marijuana program, the police have told him. “Some people have plants as big as Volkswagons; the program needs to be fixed.”
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OMMD will deliver medicine to patients with a valid OMMP card and picture ID!
$200/OZ reimbursement for cost of supplies and not for labor.
See:
Medicine must be provided to patients for “no consideration,” which means no money or anything of value may be charged. ORS 475.304(7) A patient or the patient’s designated primary caregiver of the cardholder may reimburse the person responsible for a marijuana grow site for the costs of supplies and utilities associated with the production of marijuana for the patient. No other costs associated with the production of marijuana for the patient, including the cost of labor, may be reimbursed. (http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/ommp/ACMMHandbook.pdf)
(7) A registry identification cardholder or the designated primary caregiver of the cardholder may reimburse the person responsible for a marijuana grow site for the costs of supplies and utilities associated with the production of marijuana for the registry identification cardholder. No other costs associated with the production of marijuana for the registry identification cardholder, including the cost of labor, may be reimbursed. [2005 c.822 §8; 2007 c.573 §2; 2009 c.595 §966] (http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/475.html)
We are a nonprofit corporation for the benefit of the public under Oregon law. WE are very professional and we are security minded- we will contact local law enforcement if we feel threatened!
Please visit OMMD and fill out the contact information. Will will verify that you are a patient and we will deliver to your address. We are also patients and that allows us to help you.
http://www.ommd.org/
NOTICE:
All local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and departments: It is a violation of civil and human rights to interfere with the legal access to medication. You will be held both personally and professionally liable in civil court for any and all injuries suffered by any patient if you interfere with access to prescribed medical marijuana. It is also a felony to interfere with a patients access to medication and we will work to prosecute anyone.
All visitors: We will prosecute anyone who uses this site for fraud or to obtain medical marijuana without a legal right under their local jurisdiction. We work with local law enforcement to report anyone who uses this site for a crime or fraud. We will pursue all civil and criminal charges.
I think that we as card holders should have the right to keep our rights to grow. some of us who are on a fixed income cannot afford the 1000.00 a year fee. It is hard enough to afford the fee for the medical card and the supplies for growing our own medicine. I think that it should remain the same for the low income card holders.If someone else has the 1000.00 to pay let them but the little people that are on a fixed income and people who rely on copassionate growers to supply them should not have to pay that kind of fee.
richard halford
Please support Initiative 28. It will provide safe access for sick and disabled patients while generating millions of dollars for the state. The revenue generated will help low-income patients, finance medical research and help fund social service programs, such as the Oregon Health Plan.
Opponents of Initiative 28, like Kevin Mannix, have their own agenda or are biased against cannabis to begin with (usually due to years of government propaganda.) Those with an agenda either make their living off of the prison-industrial-complex or prefer the status quo because patients are dependent off of them for medicine. It is simply shameful to perpetuate a system that incarcerates nonviolent citizens and leaves patients with no safe access for their medicine.
Protect patients' choices and rights and support Initiative 28.
www.coalitionforpatientsrights2010.com
Over the past few months I’ve been following the news about the Initiative I-28, “The Oregon Regulated Medical Marijuana Supply System” and why the patients should all support it this November. I’ve heard about how I-28 will provide low-income patients with medicine, and how it will support cannabis research. I’ve heard I-28 will create a safe, accessible supply of medicine for everyone that is currently going without. I decided to look a little harder at the language and see if I-28 will really deliver all that its supporters have promised.
Let’s start by identifying the problem we hope to fix. Who are the Oregon patients going without medical marijuana, and why don’t they have the medicine they need?
The Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, OMMA, has approximately 36,000 registered patients. About half of these patients have their own medical marijuana garden, or have a compassionate grower helping them. For these patients our program is the best medical marijuana program in the United States.
As for the other half of the patients, our program is difficult and frustrating at best. For many patients, producing their own medicine has turned out to be impossible. As you might suspect, physical limitations prevent some patients from having a garden. Other patients don’t have a discreet place at their home for an outdoor garden, and the cost of the equipment and electricity required to grow indoors far exceeds what they can afford.
Often, a patient’s home or apartment is too small to grow indoors. Some patients live in HUD housing or rental properties that will not allow a medical marijuana garden.
By my estimate, about half of the patients registered with OMMP don’t have an affordable and consistent supply of medicine. These patients are usually the most disabled and the lowest income patients registered in our program. Twenty-four percent of OMMP patients qualify as low income.
In a conversation I had several years ago with the Rev. Scott Imler, a chief petitioner for California’s Prop. 215, he recounted the problems they faced setting up one of the first legal dispensaries in California. Imler told me that early on he realized that a dispensary could not provide affordable medicine unless they produced it themselves.
There was little incentive for growers to sell marijuana to a dispensary any cheaper than they could sell it on the black market. Then the dispensary still has to cover the day to day operating costs.
Shortly after Scott Imler’s dispensary began producing its own medicine, the Feds shut it down. Imler lamented that California’s dispensary system has left many patients unable to afford the medical marijuana they need.
The first problem I see with I-28 is the plant count is too small to allow dispensaries to produce medical marijuana in-house. The proposed 24-plant limit will set up a system where dispensaries will become middlemen, purchasing marijuana from providers, and then reselling it at a higher price. I-28 does allow the OMMP to adjust the plant number in the future, but that’s about as likely to happen as OMMP adding new qualifying conditions.
Dispensaries allowed under I-28 will be pretty close to what I-28 supporters have claimed. The dispensaries will be non-profit organizations with a board of directors and employees. Dispensaries will be closely watched and most will keep good records. Dispensaries will pay a 10% tax on the marijuana sold to OMMP. Dispensaries will not be allowed in residential areas or within 1000 ft of a school.
Unfortunately, dispensaries will need to charge enough to cover the 10% tax, overhead, salaries, rent, security, liability insurance, bookkeeping, and a host of other expenses, not to mention the $150 an ounce or more they will pay to purchase the marijuana from the providers. It is difficult to imagine the dispensaries could sell marijuana for under $300 an ounce. I’ve heard speculation about much higher prices.
Unlike California, Oregon has a very limited patient base that will be supporting the dispensaries. The only customers of dispensaries will be new registrants and the patients that cannot afford to grow themselves. Of these patients, almost half will qualify for the free marijuana I-28 promises.
It is reasonable to conclude that 50% of the patients will rarely be paying dispensary prices when they have their own producing gardens. We also know that 24% of OMMA patients qualify as low income and receive a discounted medical marijuana registration card each year.
This only leaves approximately 26% of patients purchasing marijuana on a regular basis from the dispensaries. Remember, most of these patients are not rich; they just don’t meet the threshold to qualify as low income.
I do not see how a 10% tax on 26% of OMMP patients provides medicine for the other 24% that are low income? It looks like this is also the same pool of money that will pay for the administrative costs, research, and money to support other department programs.
Section 3. (5) System revenues shall be used to fund:
(a) Costs associated with the implementation and operation of the system established under this Act;
(b) The registry system established under ORS 475.300 to 475.346;
(c) The scientific research program established under section 5 of this Act;
(d) The program to assist low-income and needy registry identification cardholders in obtaining medical marijuana, established under section 4 of this Act; and
(e) Other department programs.
How will this program be administered? From what I gather, OMMP will collect the 10% tax from all the dispensaries and then create some sort of voucher program like food stamps so that patients can obtain marijuana from dispensaries.
SECTION 4. (1) The Department of Human Services, with input from the Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana, shall develop and adopt rules to implement a program to assist low-income and needy registry identification cardholders in obtaining medical marijuana. The purpose of this program is to help patients who would not otherwise have safe access to obtain a minimum safe supply of medical marijuana.
(2)(a) The department shall annually review the program, submit an annual
report on the program to the Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana, and, with input from the Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana, adopt rules and procedures necessary to improve the operation of this program.
(b) The department shall, if necessary; establish penalties for violations of the rules adopted under this section.
(3) No general fund revenue shall be used for this program. This program shall be funded by system fees.
There is nothing in I-28 that gives OMMP the authority to require dispensaries to discount the marijuana purchased with these vouchers. The language also precludes any general funds to offset the obvious insufficient funding of this program.
The next big leap of faith in I-28 is to believe OMMP will create such a voucher system. I-28 requires the OMMP to collect funds and then purchase marijuana for low income patients. This will force state employees to break Federal law by aiding in the commission of a felony. This is not going to happen!
It will be very easy for OMMP to just say that the available revenue is insufficient to support the creation of the low income marijuana assistance program. And they will be right.
With most of the clients that will use the dispensaries having limited incomes, it will take a large patient base to support each dispensary. A small client base will mean higher prices for the patients using the dispensary. Rural areas with only a few patients will not have dispensaries. Dispensaries will mainly be in the populated urban centers.
The next empty statements I found in I-28 are that dispensaries and providers will be inspected and regulated.
Section 3 (7) any dispensary, or any location used by a licensed producer to produce medical marijuana is subject to reasonable inspection by the department.
The Key wording in this section is “subject to” and “by the Department”. “Subject to” gives OMMP the authority to inspect, but does not mandate that OMMP must inspect dispensaries or providers. The OMMP is a state registry, not an investigatory enforcement agency. This is equivalent to saying that gardens will be subject to inspections from the tooth fairy. It is preposterous to believe OMMP could, or will inspect gardens.
During the last legislative session, the Stormy Ray Cardholders’ Foundation introduced SB-388 that tried to establish an arbitration system within OMMP to help with patient/grower conflicts. We were told OMMP will never send its employees into possibly dangerous situations looking for violations of our law. For OMMP to do inspections they will have to create an enforcement branch of OMMP with trained investigators; however, there is nothing in I-28 that gives OMMP the authority to create such a branch. The programs budget will never support Department inspections.
Language in I-28 goes further specifically preclude law enforcement from inspecting or searching dispensaries and providers. Dispensaries, providers, and all of their employees are given the exact same protection from search as patients are.
Section 3 (18) Effect of possession of producer card or dispensary card on search and seizure rights shall have the same effect of possession of registry identification card or designated primary caregiver card established under ORS 475.323
475.323 Effect of possession of a registry identification card or designated primary caregiver card on search arid seizure rights.
(1) Possession of a registry identification card or designated primary caregiver identification card pursuant to ORS 475.309 does not alone constitute probable cause to search the person or property of the cardholder or otherwise subject the person or property of the cardholder to inspection by any governmental agency..
As for “Regulated”, Dispensaries and providers will be required to fill out a report every three months detailing how much marijuana was purchased and then resold.
Section 3. (8) All dispensaries and producers shall submit quarterly reports on all of their financial transactions, including transfers for no consideration.
I do believe most dispensaries will be honest and keep accurate records, but to claim dispensaries will have oversight and be regulated is a gross overstatement. It will be very easy for anyone who wants to cook the books to do so with little risk of being caught.
The next problem I see is that I-28 will flood Oregon with providers. Providers will quickly be producing far more marijuana than the dispensaries will be able to sell.
Section 3 (12) The Department of Human Services shall establish by rule a medical marijuana production site registration system to authorize production of marijuana by a producer. The medical marijuana production site registration system adopted must require a producer to submit an application to the department that includes:
(a) The name of the producer responsible for the medical marijuana production site and any employees of the producer.
(b) The addresses of the property used by the producer to produce marijuana.
(c) A nonrefundable fee paid to the department in the amount established by the department by rule. The initial fee for a producer license is $1,000.
(d) Proof of Oregon residency and age. Producers and employees of producers must be at least 21 years of age.
(e) Any other information the department considers necessary.
(1) A producer license is valid for one year and shall be renewed prior to the expiration of a current license.
(g) The Department shall issue a producer registry identification card to each listed producer and employee of the producer within 30 days of issuing a license who has met the requirements of this section. The fee for each card shall initially be set at $10.
(h) The Department shall issue a medical marijuana production site card to each producer that has met the requirements of this section. The medical marijuana production site card must be prominently posted at the location of the medical marijuana production site.
“The Department shall issue a medical marijuana production site card to each producer that has met the requirements of this section.” no authority is given to OMMP to limit the number of providers allowed to grow and possess marijuana.
For a $1000, anyone and everyone in Oregon who wants to legally be able to possess marijuana, will be able to. A provider card will be four times better than a patient card, and much easier to get.
• A provider will not need a doctor’s recommendation to enter our program.
• A provider will be able to possess 24 plants, or four times the number of plants a patient can.
• A provider will be able to possess six pounds of marijuana, or four times the amount of medicine a patient can.
• A provider will be able to have an unlimited number of employee or helpers cards for only $10 a card. A patient only gets two volunteers cards.
• A provider can sell marijuana to a dispensary, but patients and caregivers cannot.
• A provider is given the exact same protection under Section 3 (18) that a patient has from search by police.
• A provider does not have to sell marijuana to a dispensary; providers just have to report what they sell every quarter and what they give away.
It is obvious that every marijuana smoker in Oregon that can afford to pay the $1000 will become a provider. It is foreseeable that the number of providers could quickly outnumber the patients. The provider card is easier to get and four times better. Why wouldn’t someone that uses marijuana on a regular basis get this card? How is I-28 not a complete legalization bill allowing anyone with a $1000 to possess marijuana?
This glut of marijuana on the market will drive the price that dispensaries pay the providers down very quickly, just as it has in California. But just like California, dispensaries will still have overhead and salaries to pay, so the prices the dispensaries will have to charge patients will remain high.
Many providers will choose to sell the marijuana themselves rather than accept what dispensaries will pay. Providers will easily be able to undercut the prices the dispensaries will have to charge. Most patients without medicine will turn to the lower priced black market to find medicine. With limited patients able to purchase marijuana from dispensaries and an overabundance of providers, the whole dispensary system is doomed to collapse in a very short amount of time.
The real danger of this initiative is the backlash our program could face when voters find out the initiative they passed to help sick and disabled people actually just legalized marijuana in Oregon. I do not believe it will take long for Oregon voters to repeal our entire program if I-28 passes. THIS IS A VERY REAL DANGER!
I absolutely support creating a safe supply system for the patients who need this wonderful medicine; unfortunately I-28 is not what Oregon patients need! Access without affordability is an empty promise.
PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT I-28!!!
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