Ashland Daily Tidings :: Group works to legalize dispensaries :: September 27, 2008
Voter Power, a medical marijuana activist group with an office in Medford, plans to put a measure on a 2010 ballot to create dispensaries in Oregon, similar to those in California.Under the plan, licensed growers would sell marijuana to the dispensaries, where it will be distributed either at a minimal cost or for free. Customers would need a valid Oregon Medical Marijuana Program card to receive marijuana from dispensaries.
The dispensaries would be taxed and the money would go to other health department programs and help to fund research into medical marijuana, said Alex Rogers, outreach coordinator for Voter Power. A health department regulated program would also be implemented to help patients get access to marijuana.
Voter Power is collecting signatures for its initiative, which was finalized in August, before it can be placed on an upcoming ballot.
If the dispensary system is approved, patients will still be able to grow their own marijuana or select a grower, Rogers said.
“We have a two part strategy — make the best of the current law and at the same time work for a better law,” said John Sajo, Voter Power’s executive director. “The OMMA (Oregon Medical Marijuana Program) has done pretty well at stopping most patients from being arrested, but it has not really addressed how the patients are supposed to get their medicine.”
Rogers said only half of the 20,000 cardholders in Oregon have safe access to medical marijuana.
Dispensaries are prohibited under current law. The Medical Marijuana Program explains, “There is no place in the State of Oregon to legally purchase medical marijuana.”
There are two initiatives trying to get on the ballot in Oregon for 2010, the Voter Power I-28 initiative and the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act or OTCA (full disclosure: I am the Political Director for OCTA). Both initiatives set up a framework for the sales of marijuana to be regulated by the state and both create a system for growers to sell marijuana to the state.
The primary differences are that the I-28 model restricts sales to medical marijuana patients only and allows the sales to be controlled by non-profits, like California’s system; the OCTA allows sales to all adults over 21 and keeps the sales in control of the state through the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
Will it be confusing to voters to hear from two different marijuana initiative petitioners? Will the patient community be divided over whether to support both or only one initiative? Would the efforts of the community be better focused on passing only one initiative? Will supporters of one group campaign against the initiative of another group? If both get on the ballot and both pass, what then; does the one with more votes win? Do I ask rhetorical questions in order to voice my deep concerns without taking the Stash down the rabbit hole of personal grudges, rumored animosities, tactical disagreements, and assorted detailed idiocies involved in four decades worth of Beaver State marijuana politics?
Contact your elected representatives and urge them to 'Stop Arresting Marijuana Smokers'. 
Yeahrights comment is evidence enough that what I-28 is proposing is almost a matter of life and death for some people in Oregon. For anybody to not support it to the fullest is the same as saying they don’t believe there should be a way for people who are desperately in need, sick, and dieing to get the medicine that they so badly need. I would like to see a day when the words marijuana or cannabis were no were to be found in any law books and it was as free as rosemary or sage, but we need to take care of those who need this medically first!
I’m one of the people medical cannabis would benefit-but I’m in no shape to start gardening. I can barely feed myself (as in, lift food to my mouth, I’m typing this with a hand brace, for example). So even though I have a card, I can’t actually obtain any marijuana in Oregon. Getting a grower is damn near impossible, without being ripped off. And I’m too old and disabled to go looking for a drug dealer. So here I am with a perfectly worthless card. And everyone going on about how wonderful the program is. For who? Not for really sick people….
I have heard alot from people about the nonprofit part of I-28. Let me clear this up for uneducated.
A not for profit or nonprofit business does not mean you can not pay people. What it means is at the end of the year at tax time the business itself does not make any money. All the money made must be redistributed either by donating the money, providing services for free or paying employees more. this does not mean that you can not sell the medicine, this does not mean that you can not pay the growers, dispensary workers, mangers etc. IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU DO EVERYTHING FOR FREE. What it does mean is that you have to create an entity with 3 people and those 3 people can get paid but they must not turn a profit for the business. This stops a person from opening a dispensary and price gauging to make a huge profit for himself.
In a business you open the business with purpose of selling a product or service in order to MAKE A PROFIT. If it costs you $5 a gram to do business including paying people to do the work if you want you can sell it for $25 a gram.
In a non-profit you open a business with purpose of selling a product or service in order to PROVIDE THIS SERVICE. The price you charge reflects the cost of doing business. So if it costs you $5 a gram to do business including paying people to do the work then you have to sell your product for $5 a gram.
In exchange for doing this the government gives you tax breaks that make it easier to provide the goods or services which in turn make the product or service cheaper to the customer.
I leave you with this which is the bottom line.
There is only 1 reason why someone would want to create a dispensary as a business rather than a non profit. That reason is to make alot of money.
im so torn on this because there are alot of medical patients that dont have the ability to spend the time and money it takes to grow, and really care for, a cannabis plant. also i think that having dispensaries is a good way to keep dealing off the streets, make money in taxes for other healthcare issues, and create jobs BUT i dont understand this whole “non-profit” thing. im sadly misinformed and im really trying to understand the situation, but im hearing different things from different trusted organizations. i dont understand why patients wouldnt have to pay for their pot, i mean when i get prescribed with something from the doctor i have to pay for it at the pharmacy. so why cant legitimate medical dispensaries make money to pay growers, and other workers that help run the dispensaries, and pay taxes that would help fund other issues in our state. i certainly dont think products should be over priced, and patients shouldnt be taken advantage of. dispensaries certainly shouldnt provide to just anybody. isnt there more of a happy medium? and what details am missing because im really confused?
Jim, I’m not campaigning against any initiative; I’m expressing my opinion. I’m an opinion writer. That’s what opinion writers do. I have not encouraged anyone to vote against I-28; in fact, on Monday Anthony and Lee will be guests on my live show supporting I-28 and I’m giving them 13 minutes to deliver all the encouragement they wish. I’m not even really that much against the initiative – it still allows for home grow, for instance, so it’s not like some dastardly MPP marijuana monopoly proposal. And for someone who’s been denigrating OCTA to everyone within earshot, I’d like you to meet my friend, Kettle.
I do not represent Oregon NORML. I am not on the board of Oregon NORML. I’m sorry that not everybody in Oregon wants to be a cheerleader for $15/gram marijuana stores to enrich lifelong pot dealers on the backs of the 5% of the most desperate customers and that a few of us with some clout and an audience disagree with you. I’m sorry that you want me to represent NORMML and not NORML and keep quiet about the twelve-year exclusive focus on sick people while 95% of us still face incarceration and life upheaval for marijuana use. Politics is tough; buy a helmet.
The chapter isn’t “so-called” and you should do better as a NORML chapter board member to not denigrate other NORML chapters, especially to the guy who is in charge granting and revoking that privilege. The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Times of London, Guardian UK, and Al Jazeera don’t seem to think Oregon NORML is “so-called”. I gave Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon all the proper respect; you should do the same, especially considering the “so-called” chapter dwarfs all other NORML chapters in Oregon combined in membership numbers and contributions to National.
For another point, my board members in Oregon NORML don’t split their allegiances by being board members of other competing organizations. NORML stands for legalization for all. ASA most assuredly does not. Voter Power does, but has been focused exclusively on OMMA tinkering. Whom do you serve, Jim, the 5% or the 100% of marijuana users in Oregon?
Finally, the difference is that Oregon NORML fastidiously obeys OMMA and never sells medicine to anyone. The judges of the OMCA pay a $100 fee for a bar-coded judges journal, a catered meal, a t-shirt, a piece of glass, and entry to a day-long festival and awards gala. Then those judges — cardholders — are freely given an ounce of medicine for no consideration by another cardholder. Plus the OMCA does not bill itself as a health care provider for all of Oregon’s patients; it’s an awards show.
So, if you want to explain to me that your proposed dispensaries are going to sell to patients a journal, a meal, a t-shirt, a glass piece, a day’s entertainment, and an ounce of medicine for $100, then there would be no difference at all. Ahhh, but all you dispensary people are vehemently against a proposed $100/ounce price cap, the only concession you needed to make to bring Oregon NORML fully on board.
I find it funny that y’all want to dis “so-called” Oregon NORML. According to claims, every single patient activist group in Oregon is for I-28 except Oregon NORML, which is officially neutral on the subject. Well, if you’ve got such overwhelming statewide support, what difference does it matter what I or Oregon NORML think, especially if it’s just a “so-called” statewide chapter? Why do you seem to so desperately care? Could it be that state and national media just don’t pick up the phone that often to dial Willamette Valley NORML? Could it be that when I’m fielding emails, as I did yesterday, from the Wall Street Journal looking for comment on Oregon statewide initiatives, they always ask for Madeline Martinez’s number and never for Jim Greig’s? (For the record, I replied back with Madeline’s email, Lee Berger’s email, and Anthony Johnson’s email addresses. You know, people who don’t write comments in my blog sarcastically slamming me and denigrating the largest NORML chapter on the planet with paid memberships from nearly every county in the state and regular four-figure donations to National.)
I hope you do get I-28 on the ballot and the voters of Oregon are allowed to decide. But just remember that if it does get on the ballot and win, it didn’t do so from the signatures and votes of patients alone; it succeeded, just like OMMA, because a whole bunch of healthy pot smokers supported it. When you open your dispensary, I want to see a whole bunch of donations to NORML and profits (let’s not kid ourselves; these “non-profit” dispensaries will make a shit-ton of money) re-invested into passing legalization for us all. If I can believe that Oregon dispensaries will produce more Richard Lees than Luke Scarmazzos, I’ll be happy to see it pass.
Russ, you retorically asked “Will supporters of one group campaign against the initiative of another group?” It looks like you answered your own question.
I have a question for you. What is the difference between a dispensary selling medicine, and the so called Oregon NORML chgapter selling medicine for the OR Medicaal Marijuana awards?
Jim Greig
Board member Voter Power
Board member WV NORML
State Organizer Americans for Safe Access
Organizer Global Marijuana March-Eugene
Marijuana is such a depressing issue to me now, ever since I was arrested here.. I’ve never been to jail in my life (I spent a total of 12 days in) and now I’m starving just so I can pay the court. :(
…I had a medical card in CA, and didn’t realize another state with a plan in place wouldn’t honor it. They call my legal problem a “thinking error”. I was arrested under false pretenses and have talked to several lawyers who all refused to help me. I feel so helpless.
I-28 (Dispensaries in Oregon) ballot will be voted on in Nov of 2010. We are already at the half way mark of the signatures that we need to have the initiative on the ballot! Voter Power is working very hard to gather signatures, your support is appreciated!
i think that the ommp is good the way it is!!!!!
DOes anyone know when people will be able to apply to open a dispensary or how they would go about doing so?
You needn’t worry, as the OCTA has been pulled from signature gathering.
I understand your concern for the division in Oregon. Unfortunately I must support the Voter Power medical marijuana initiative over the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act initiative because OCTA would abolish the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act protects growers and patients. OCTA does not protect the current Medical Marijuana growers and patients or the records that make them legal today.
It also mandates that the state distribute cannabis. We have already seen the meaningless Arizona Medical Marijuana law which calls for doctor’s prescriptions for marijuana. Marijuana can not be prescribed. Sates will not violate federal law.
Why should we abolish a good medical marijuana system for a system that can never be implemented?
I’ll go out on a limb and say “Yes” to all your Rhetorical questions, which are dern good questions.