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New rule could draw tourists seeking medical marijuana cards
With expansion of the Oregon medical marijuana program set for voters to decide in November, state officials have reacted to a recent Oregon Court of Appeals decision by slightly expanding the program now.
Sarah Bennett, director of the Tigard-based nonprofit medical marijuana clinic Human Collective, sits with one of her volunteers behind a sample case of various strains of marijuana offered to medical marijuana cardholders. State officials have slightly expanded the Oregon medical marijuana program to allow out-of-state participants.
As of four weeks ago, people from out of state can come to Oregon and participate in the Oregon medical marijuana program. Like state residents, they need only visit a medical marijuana clinic where a physician can authorize their state-issued program cards and then either grow their own marijuana, designate someone else to grow it for them or pay to join a local club such as the Cannabis Café, where marijuana is distributed to cardholders.
The state changed its rule after Department of Justice attorneys reviewed the Court of Appeals case and determined that the law as written doesn’t actually exclude out-of-staters. But the new rule opens the possibility that tourists from states and countries that don’t have medical marijuana could visit Oregon intending to join this state’s program. Currently, only 14 states and the District of Columbia authorize medical marijuana.
State public health officer Grant Higginson, who oversees the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, says he hasn’t seen evidence that large numbers of out-of-state residents will come to Oregon because of the rule change.
Higginson says that so far, three out-of-state residents have obtained Oregon medical marijuana cards. There is a possibility that legislators may address the new rule change during the next legislative session, he says.
“I have heard rumblings from some legislators concerned that this might open the program to people from out of state, which they believe was not the intent of the law,” Higginson says.
Sandee Burbank, executive director of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse, a pro-medical marijuana organization that runs a clinic for potential cardholders, says her clinic is seeing a woman from Texas who is spending a few months in Oregon and wanted medical marijuana for pain relief.
Tom Bergin, Clatsop County sheriff and vice president of the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association, calls the policy change “ludicrous and absurd.”
“Why should we allow people that don’t even live in this state benefit from the state?” Bergin says.
Regardless of whether medical marijuana tourism ever takes root, the accelerated rate of new cardholders continues. A year ago, there were approximately 26,000 Oregon cardholders in the 11-year-old program. The latest figures from the Oregon Department of Human Services show 41,417 cardholders.
Burbank says the rush of recent cardholders represents a different demographic than her clinic saw in the program’s first years. Previously, she says, the average age of applicants and cardholders at her organization’s Southeast Portland office was about 50. In the past year, she says, she has begun to see more senior citizens.
Burbank says word of mouth and publicity resulting from the upcoming ballot measure have made more people aware of different uses for medical marijuana and different ways of ingesting it, such as tinctures and balms.
“A lot of people are finding out you don’t have to smoke it. I hear that over and over again,” Burbank says.
The November ballot measure would authorize state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries where cardholders could purchase marijuana. It also would allow for-profit medical marijuana farms to supply the dispensaries.
Paul Stanford, who owns a network of medical marijuana clinics in nine states, including the state’s busiest in Northeast Portland, thinks 41,000 is still a fraction of the state residents who eventually might turn to medical marijuana.
Stanford says word of mouth and overall greater acceptance of medical marijuana usage are responsible for the growing number of cardholders. Stanford says that at least 10 percent of Oregonians and possibly as many as one in three could qualify for a card. The majority of applications approved by physicians list pain relief as the qualifying condition.
But the numbers of new cardholders can be deceiving, according to Stanford, who says only 55 percent to 60 percent of his clinic’s medical marijuana patients renew their cards. The rest, he says, forego the $100 annual fee because they find it too difficult to grow or acquire the cannabis.
Should voters pass Ballot Measure 74 in November – providing cardholders a state-sanctioned source for cannabis – renewals as well as new applications could skyrocket, Stanford says.
Publicity surrounding the ballot measure has probably contributed to the increase in card applications, says Stormy Ray, and that is unfortunate, in Ray’s estimation.
Ray, president of the Stormy Ray Cardholders’ Association, was one of the driving forces behind the ballot measure that established Oregon’s medical marijuana program 11 years ago. But she says the program has been corrupted, and the accelerated growth in the number of cardholders is a symptom.
“I would like to think it (the increase in applications) is because this great program is making such a great difference in the quality of patients’ lives,” Ray says. “But realistically, I think we’re just getting more and more information out about the program, and as we do, we get a lot of that outreach done by people who are taking advantage of the program.”
Ray says she is seeing an increase in the number of designated growers and caregivers making “a very nice income by diverting patient medicine for a price tag.”
Under the current program rules, medical marijuana growers and caregivers are not allowed to accept money for their services. Ray says she is preparing a Voters Pamphlet statement in opposition to Measure 74.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: The Portland Tribune
Author: Peter Korn
Contact: The Portland Tribune
Copyright:2010 Pamplin Media Group
Website: Out-of-staters now eligible for pot
With expansion of the Oregon medical marijuana program set for voters to decide in November, state officials have reacted to a recent Oregon Court of Appeals decision by slightly expanding the program now.
Sarah Bennett, director of the Tigard-based nonprofit medical marijuana clinic Human Collective, sits with one of her volunteers behind a sample case of various strains of marijuana offered to medical marijuana cardholders. State officials have slightly expanded the Oregon medical marijuana program to allow out-of-state participants.
As of four weeks ago, people from out of state can come to Oregon and participate in the Oregon medical marijuana program. Like state residents, they need only visit a medical marijuana clinic where a physician can authorize their state-issued program cards and then either grow their own marijuana, designate someone else to grow it for them or pay to join a local club such as the Cannabis Café, where marijuana is distributed to cardholders.
The state changed its rule after Department of Justice attorneys reviewed the Court of Appeals case and determined that the law as written doesn’t actually exclude out-of-staters. But the new rule opens the possibility that tourists from states and countries that don’t have medical marijuana could visit Oregon intending to join this state’s program. Currently, only 14 states and the District of Columbia authorize medical marijuana.
State public health officer Grant Higginson, who oversees the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, says he hasn’t seen evidence that large numbers of out-of-state residents will come to Oregon because of the rule change.
Higginson says that so far, three out-of-state residents have obtained Oregon medical marijuana cards. There is a possibility that legislators may address the new rule change during the next legislative session, he says.
“I have heard rumblings from some legislators concerned that this might open the program to people from out of state, which they believe was not the intent of the law,” Higginson says.
Sandee Burbank, executive director of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse, a pro-medical marijuana organization that runs a clinic for potential cardholders, says her clinic is seeing a woman from Texas who is spending a few months in Oregon and wanted medical marijuana for pain relief.
Tom Bergin, Clatsop County sheriff and vice president of the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association, calls the policy change “ludicrous and absurd.”
“Why should we allow people that don’t even live in this state benefit from the state?” Bergin says.
Regardless of whether medical marijuana tourism ever takes root, the accelerated rate of new cardholders continues. A year ago, there were approximately 26,000 Oregon cardholders in the 11-year-old program. The latest figures from the Oregon Department of Human Services show 41,417 cardholders.
Burbank says the rush of recent cardholders represents a different demographic than her clinic saw in the program’s first years. Previously, she says, the average age of applicants and cardholders at her organization’s Southeast Portland office was about 50. In the past year, she says, she has begun to see more senior citizens.
Burbank says word of mouth and publicity resulting from the upcoming ballot measure have made more people aware of different uses for medical marijuana and different ways of ingesting it, such as tinctures and balms.
“A lot of people are finding out you don’t have to smoke it. I hear that over and over again,” Burbank says.
The November ballot measure would authorize state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries where cardholders could purchase marijuana. It also would allow for-profit medical marijuana farms to supply the dispensaries.
Paul Stanford, who owns a network of medical marijuana clinics in nine states, including the state’s busiest in Northeast Portland, thinks 41,000 is still a fraction of the state residents who eventually might turn to medical marijuana.
Stanford says word of mouth and overall greater acceptance of medical marijuana usage are responsible for the growing number of cardholders. Stanford says that at least 10 percent of Oregonians and possibly as many as one in three could qualify for a card. The majority of applications approved by physicians list pain relief as the qualifying condition.
But the numbers of new cardholders can be deceiving, according to Stanford, who says only 55 percent to 60 percent of his clinic’s medical marijuana patients renew their cards. The rest, he says, forego the $100 annual fee because they find it too difficult to grow or acquire the cannabis.
Should voters pass Ballot Measure 74 in November – providing cardholders a state-sanctioned source for cannabis – renewals as well as new applications could skyrocket, Stanford says.
Publicity surrounding the ballot measure has probably contributed to the increase in card applications, says Stormy Ray, and that is unfortunate, in Ray’s estimation.
Ray, president of the Stormy Ray Cardholders’ Association, was one of the driving forces behind the ballot measure that established Oregon’s medical marijuana program 11 years ago. But she says the program has been corrupted, and the accelerated growth in the number of cardholders is a symptom.
“I would like to think it (the increase in applications) is because this great program is making such a great difference in the quality of patients’ lives,” Ray says. “But realistically, I think we’re just getting more and more information out about the program, and as we do, we get a lot of that outreach done by people who are taking advantage of the program.”
Ray says she is seeing an increase in the number of designated growers and caregivers making “a very nice income by diverting patient medicine for a price tag.”
Under the current program rules, medical marijuana growers and caregivers are not allowed to accept money for their services. Ray says she is preparing a Voters Pamphlet statement in opposition to Measure 74.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: The Portland Tribune
Author: Peter Korn
Contact: The Portland Tribune
Copyright:2010 Pamplin Media Group
Website: Out-of-staters now eligible for pot
