Kit Cambron, owner of "Wake N Bake" (Credit: Damon Alexander)

On Wednesday June 16, 2011, officers in Washington County served search warrants on Wake n Bake Lounge, located at 18918 Shaw St in Aloha, Oregon.  Three residences associated with the cannabis club were also searched.  Although computers, various equipment and cannabis were confiscated during the execution of the warrant for suspected “manufacturing and distribution of a controlled substance,” no arrests were made.

Sgt. David Thompson issued a press release stating, “Marijuana dispensaries are new to Washington County, have no legal basis to distribute or sell marijuana, and this search warrant is the first to be served on such a dispensary in Oregon.”

Whether or not dispensaries are “new to Washington County” is debatable, since Wake n Bake itself has been opened since November of 2010, according to the same press release, and many others were open in the area prior to the arrival of Wake n Bake Lounge.

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Wake n Bake Lounge raided after nearly seven months of openly operating in Aloha

Sen. Shields questioned the effect the increased fees would have on the low-income patients, after he received multiple inquiries from concerned constituents.

Sen. Bates responded that the “disabled” would still receive the reduced fee of $20, but those on Oregon Health Plan and food stamps would pay the increased fee of $200.  He used the term “disabled” to allude to specifically the definition under SSI, which refers to a person’s determined “inability to work.” However, all patients on the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program must have a “debilitating medical condition” in order to qualify.

Continue reading here:

SB 5529 passed the Senate Floor with a vote of 19-11

Fees for registering with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program will double, from $100 per year to $200 per year, due to a Budget Bill that passed out of the Joint Ways and Means Committee and into the main chambers late Wednesday.   The increase in fees was included in one of the over 30 bills that the Committee “barreled through” on Wednesday.

[Russ adds: Double is the least that will happen to our fees. If you're that guy paying $100 a year for your card and you have a friend who's your grower, you have to pay $200 for you and $200 for him... so that's quadruple.  If you're on Food Stamps or Oregon Health Plan and had used that status to qualify for the $20 registration fee for you and your grower, tough luck.  You will no longer qualify as 'low income' (only SSI will count) and you'll have to pay the same $400 as the first guy.  Is there a word for twenty-times the fee...?]

Bob Wolfe, Director and Spokesperson for the Oregon Marijuana Policy Initiative (OMPI), agrees. He describes the increase in fees as a “de facto tax” and questioned those behind the increase. “Medical marijuana patients are ill, disabled, and often poor. This stealthy budget item is a de facto tax on vulnerable people. I’d like to know which scurrilous legislator or bureaucrat is responsible for this disgusting maneuver,” he said.

OMPI is a coalition of twelve large patient organizations, including Oregon Green Free, Mama’s, The Human Collective, and Oregon NORML, as well as many other independent advocates of medical marijuana. OMPI represents thousands of patients in Oregon, and has been active working at the legislature to protect Oregon Medical Marijuana Patients protection under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.

While Oregon is slashing its many aspects of its budget, the Oregon Health Authority will receive an increase over current spending to its budget of nearly 11%, reports OregonLive. The increased fees for OMMP patients are expected to contribute about $7 million dollars over the biennium, and will go towards a program for drinking water and emergency medical services.

OregonLive further reports: “Conspicuously absent Wednesday was the public safety budget, which includes money to run state prisons. Lawmakers are still struggling for ways to stem the escalating cost of incarceration.”  Continue reading…

Chart shows ratio of registry database queries vs. patient population (horizontal) and drug crimes (vertical). Only counties with more queries than patients are shown.

The hearing for HB 3664, the omnibus bill that combines the various proposed medical marijuana bills presented to the 2011 Oregon Legislature into one bill, demonstrated the solidarity of the Oregon patient advocates.  Only one hour was allocated to oral testimony on this very important issue, and many advocates were not able to testify (even though there were over three pages of people signed up, most in opposition).  The hearing room and additional overflow spaces were packed with patients defending the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act from further restrictions.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Representative Andy Olson, the primary sponsor of the bill, stated that he would allow testimony through the end of the day on Friday (May 20, 2011).

Patient advocates are encouraged to send the following letter to the Committee on House Rules – just click the link and sign your name to the email:

Send your letter NOW by clicking here!

Read the original post:
URGENT: Write to the Oregon House Rules Committee, sample text enclosed

A hearing has been scheduled May 19, at 3:00 PM for this bill and it is vital that Oregon Medical Marijuana Program patients and activists get to Salem to tell the legislature NOT to pass this bill.  In addition to a variety of problematic clauses, like giving a complete list of all grow-sites to the Oregon State Police each quarter and tightening restrictions on minors in utilizing medical marijuana, this bill could unintentionally overturn the entire OMMA by requiring doctors to claim “therapeutic value” from medical marijuana – a standard not able to be met.

Write to your legislator, along with Rep. Andy Olson and other sponsors of the bill, to share your thoughts and to tell them to STOP this bill.  My letter to the legislators is included below for my personal concerns and thoughts about this bill:

Continue reading on Examiner.com: HB 3664 changes OMMA for the worst; public hearing scheduled for May 19, 3pm – Portland medical marijuana dispensaries | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/medical-marijuana-dispensaries-in-portland/hb-3664-changes-omma-for-the-worst-public-hearing-scheduled-for-may-19-3pm#ixzz1MYsEN9is

Modifies list of debilitating medical conditions for which medical marijuana is available and removes power of Oregon Health Authority to add other debilitating medical conditions to list.  Requires registry identification cardholder to provide updated documentation from physician about debilitating medical condition to authority every six months.

All participants in the hearing, including the bill’s sponsors, seemed confused on the intent of SB 777; the Chair of the Committee, Senator Monnes Anderson (who is also listed as a co-sponsor of the bill), concluded the hearing by stating that the bill needed “major amendments, in my eyes” in order for it to pass.  No one testified in support of the bill.

Senate Bill 777 would eliminate many of the qualifying conditions currently allowed under the OMMA, and would replace them with seemingly arbitrary conditions.  For instance, cancer would no longer be a qualifying condition – but nausea as a result of chemotherapy or appetite loss associated with cancer would still qualify;  cachexia in general (wasting syndrome) would be replaced with only appetite loss associated with AIDS or cancer; seizures and muscle spasms including but not limited to multiple sclerosis would be replaced with multiple sclerosis with spasicity.  Leland Berger testified that thousands of patients that currently benefit from the use of medical marijuana would become criminals for their therapuetic use of medicinal cannabis, which is what the OMMA was intended to prevent.

More: SB 777 D.O.A., needs ‘major amendments’ to pass, says Sen. Monnes Anderson

Henry Guist (PDXMugShots.com)

Salem police arrested Henry Guist after a SWAT raid located stolen property and a medical marijuana grow.  KATU reports that “Guist is an Oregon Medical Marijuana Program card holder but police said he was operating well outside the program restrictions.”

According to KATU, leading up to the arrest, Guist’s house was “the subject of several drug house complaints from the community and when officers asked to inspect his medical marijuana grow operation, the man was uncooperative.”  By “uncooperative,” they mean that he invoked his civil rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure when the police thought that they could just come in and look around with no probable cause.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Anti-medical marijuana propaganda overshadows the recovery of stolen property – Portland medical marijuana dispensaries | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/medical-marijuana-dispensaries-in-portland/anti-medical-marijuana-propaganda-overshadows-the-recovery-of-stolen-property#ixzz1FfAiIWa6

Stormy Ray of Stormy Ray Cardholders' Foundation

However, in more recent years, Stormy has spent very little time coordinating with the rest of the medical marijuana patient community, and ironically, she has become highly focused on what law enforcement wants, instead of what the patients need.  Both times that a dispensary measure has made the ballot, Stormy has been very vocal in her opposition.  One of the main reasons she has claimed to be opposed is due to the high price patients would be forced to pay under a dispensary model.

Highlights of the Stormy Ray bill (read more explanation and criticism from the original source: Stormy Ray’s co-op bill introduced to Oregon Legislature – contact your Rep):

1. Requires at least 10 patients to join together to start a cooperative.
2. Requires that all gardens be for no more than two patients at any one location.
3. Patients that are said to “own” their medicine through a cooperative will have to “buy” it from themselves at a heavily taxed rate.
4. Mandates that all cooperatives sign a waiver allowing inspection by law enforcement anytime during business hours, and any other time that law enforcement deems necessary.
5. Grants immunity to law enforcement and other officials.
6. Requires that patients identify the tax lot of their medical marijuana garden.

Read the full text of House Bill 3046.

Contact Representative Mike Schaufler:

Rep. Mike Schaufler (D)
District: 048
900 Court Street NE
Suite H-382
Salem, OR 97301-4054
Phone: (503) 986-1448
Fax: (503) 986-1998
WebSite: http://www.leg.state.or.us/schaufler
E-Mail: rep.mikeschaufler@state.or.us

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Stormy Ray’s co-op bill introduced to Oregon Legislature – contact your Rep – Portland medical marijuana dispensaries | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/medical-marijuana-dispensaries-in-portland/stormy-ray-s-co-op-bill-introduced-to-oregon-legislature-contact-your-rep#ixzz1CpnQbHIV

However, much of our politics results in very few people considering the larger picture, and reacting to emotional insinuations, like that there are many people on “public assistance” who are on drugs.  The cost is presumed to “solve” the problem somehow, without any consideration for what happens to all these people we dump from the public assistance programs designed to help them.

In reading through various comments posted on this subject, including those posted at KATU’s website and a linked facebook page for the reporter (discussed further below), this theme is repeated again and again without considering the potential outcome of such a bill.  Many comments declare their strong agreement with drug testing those on public assistance at KATU’s website, such as:

“Yes yes and more yes. It’s really about time.”

“just do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s about time…….”

“It is a terrific idea! I am behind this 100%!”\

These comments are clearly an emotional reaction to two emotional stimuli:

1. Justified:Nearly all employees are required to submit to drug testing; therefore, those that are gainfully employed (which is the majority of the population by the way) have a sense of justification in making the unemployed and poor submit to the same testing that they have to submit to.  There are many comments that express this precise thought.  This fails to address whether or not employment drug screens actually prove effective to reduce drug abuse in the workplace (and many studies have demonstrated that employment drug screens do not work to reduce drug use in the work place; 70% of drug users are employed full-time according to a government study!).
2. Budget Cuts:Our Oregon government is facing extreme budget deficits (ranging around 3.5-4.5 billion, depending on who you ask), unemployment and underemployment is high, so more and more people are turning to public assistance to make ends meet.  With increased demand on a constrained budget, there is a rising demand for accountability from those that receive public assistance and to limit the caseload of those on public assistance.  This presumes that cutting those that fail drug screens will reduce the costs to the state.

While those comments fail to actually look at the issue and weigh the pros and cons, there were some more thought-out arguments that allow for productive conversation as well.  One such comment appears on KATU reporter’s facebook page – after she requested public discussion in her article on the subject, illustrating the overall argument in favor of Senate Bill 538.

Continue reading Oregon SB 538 Commentary: About time public assistance recipients drug tested?