Medical marijuana users hide in plain sight

Reporter interviews office personnel at the Human Collective in Portland, Oregon

Carol Forsloff-----20 states have passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use,  with Illinois the most recent; yet marijuana users often voluntarily hide in plain sight as they remain part of the collateral damage from the war on drugs.

Nancy Reagan’s good-intentioned “let’s say no” reinforced the notion that anyone who uses marijuana is doing harm to their bodies and violating the law.  Crime stories abounded with tales of people using marijuana as they counted their money in the smoke-filled back rooms with pipes and paraphernalia that spoke of errant ways and defiance against authority.  With this backdrop, the marijuana user often hides in plain sight in order to avoid the stigmas associated with marijuana in any form for any reason.

Whereas the news media reports the states as they adopt new laws on marijuana use,  many do not highlight the conflicts that take place between the states and the federal regulations on marijuana use.  Growers, distributors and users find themselves dodging the proverbial bullet, when clinics are raided by heavy booted, armed folks who can arrive at any time, reinforcing marijuana use as a crime, when 20 states have declared the drug to be a medication worthy of regulation, distribution and use by people who need it for medical reasons.

Most of the people who obtain their marijuana medication at Human Collective II, a distribution center in the greater Portland, Oregon area, are over the age of 50.  Many of these people have chronic pain conditions, and whereas they are familiar with marijuana use, sometimes in those young days of pot smoking, folk singing and protesting, they still recall it as something done by subterfuge and viewed as snubbing one’s nose at authority.  Now those stereotypes haunt the new user who looks for relief with a known substance but still retains the prejudices that came with marijuana years ago and that continue to linger in the minds of many,  according to Donald Morse, assistant manager of the Human Collective clinic.

“The drug still carries the stigma,” Morse maintains.  “It’s all about the money.  And as it took decades to get rid of the prejudices towards gays, it will take time for people to truly accept marijuana as a viable option for treating health complaints.”  Morse is one of those distributors who face Federal authorities in a case going to trial later this year, having been indicted for distributing marijuana to users who have the legal right to use it and to select the grower of it as well.  And Human Collective has been seen as a model clinic for others in the State of Oregon because of its professional manner and methods of providing medical marijuana.  These are the concerns facing those who use medical marijuana and those who provide it for them, as the war on drugs continues to create wounds and casualties, even as it appears to be on its way to resolution, at least within the several states.

Discrepancies in marijuana laws continue to create serious problems forpatients

[caption id="attachment_14051" align="alignleft" width="300"] Medical marijuana sign - wikimedia commons[/caption]

Top news on MSNBC includes a story of the arrest of actor Armie Hammer in Texas for possession of marijuana.  The evidence of his offense consisted of less than an ounce of marijuana in addition to three medicinal marijuana cookies and one brownie.  This is the kind of product those who use marijuana for medical purposes would carry with them, especially for certain chronic conditions and a prime example of the problems involved when some states allow medical marijuana use while the federal government and other states do not.

The recent raids in California continue to reveal the problems involved in the dispensing of marijuana.   More than 20,000 persons were arrested in California last year for possession of marijuana.     It has also been found that African-Americans are among the most likely to be arrested for marijuana use, four times more likely than whites.

On one side of the debate about marijuana are the proponents of legalizing marijuana use for everyone.  On the other, are those who oppose marijuana based on a view that states the drug is simply that and too often used for a “high” that can impact perception and judgment.  Caught in the middle are those who have medical conditions that help in the control of those conditions or who allow the patient to manage the pain and discomfort of sometimes disabling conditions.

Oregon is one of those states where medical marijuana users walk the line on using the drug, either inside or outside the state.  The card-carrying marijuana user who has been approved to use the drug for medicinal purposes also receives a warning letter when the card is issued that the Federal government does not approve of the drug and that the user is on her/his own in fighting any legal battle regarding the use of marijuana.  That risk is enhanced if a user crosses the state line into any other state where the law prohibits use of marijuana for any purpose.  Texas is one of those states.

Human Collective, an organization in Tigard, Oregon,  is one of those centers that promote the legal use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.  Unlike other dispensing facilities, this center is scrupulous in who it allows into the facility and literally requires not just the evidence that the customer’s use is legal under Oregon law but that the delivery is rational, discreet and within tight guidelines that follow virtually a drugstore-type reception.  They, like the patients they serve, must be cautious as a result of the conflicts within the Oregon community of politicians, the Federal government and other states.

Texas does not recognize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes and therefore prosecutes those possessing the drug on a criminal basis.  Armie Hammer, and others like him, if caught with the small amount of marijuana as in the situation reported this morning, can face up to six months in jail and a $2000 fine on the first offense.

Feds target joints, not jobs

[caption id="attachment_9816" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Marijuana indoor grow room"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff - A local medical marijuana dispensary in Oregon looks at the recent medical marijuana controversy as something hurtful to many people who rely on the drug to control pain and treat a number of medical conditions by making these people feel like criminals. In Oregon and California, the Obama administration is specifically testing state and federal drug laws in ways that worry those who dispense and use marijuana, who see it as contrary to Obama’s 2008 election promises.

US Federal laws specifically prohibit marijuana sale and use. On the other hand, 16 states have passed laws allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The Obama administration is now specifically targeting marijuana growers by letting them know they are violating US federal laws by growing and dispensing the drug.  In California dispensaries have already been told to shut down.

In late September, the Oregonian reported about a man whose property was raided by federal officials looking for and confiscating marijuana plants after using guns to intimidate people living in rental houses in the area where the plants had been grown. Keith Rogers is described as an insurance agent who owns the property and whose growers have met the requirements of Oregon’s medical marijuana laws. Nevertheless, as Rogers is quoted as saying about the raid on his property:
"They are throwing their weight around and saying the voters of Oregon don't have any rights."

The Oregonian article continues: “The raid seems to conform to guidance offered in U.S. Department of Justice memos directing federal agents to enforce federal drug laws, even in states that have legalized medical marijuana.”

Monday, October 3, Drug Czar Kerlikowske wrote to Rep. Cohen about the Obama administration's position on marijuana research. In his reply, summarized here, Kerlikowske alleged that the Congressman’s concerns regarding the federal scheduling of cannabis are unwarranted because, “We ardently support research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine.”

Kerlikowske added, “In fact, the federal government is the largest source of funding for research into the potential therapeutic benefits of marijuana, and every valid request for the use of marijuana for research has been approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration.” On the other hand, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), oversees 85 percent of the world’s research on controlled substances, and has stated its policy is to reject medical marijuana research.“As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use,” a NIDA spokesperson told The New York Times in 2010. “We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”

The liberals hoped President Obama’s administration would end raids on medical marijuana facilities, which had been the pattern of the Bush administration and are disappointed that the raids have not only continued but have increased recently, with the notifications in California sent by federal officials in underlining the superiority of federal law with reference to drug policies. “I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users,” was Senator Obama's statement in  August 2007. “It’s not a good use of our resources,” he continued, as joints continue to be targeted according to the marijuana industry instead of jobs.

In the meantime, Tennessee Congressman Steven Cohen is co-sponsor of HR 2306: The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 , which asks Obama  to support changing the cannabis’ federal status as a schedule I prohibited drug and to respect and follow the state laws that allow marijuana for medical uses.