oregon

By. Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian

 

Peter Lewis, the billionaire chairman of Progressive Auto Insurance, is back dabbling in Oregon politics. He recently gave $12,800 for the November ballot measure allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon.

 

Given his past enthusiasm for pro-marijuana causes, it wouldn't be surprising if this isn't a down-payment for the Measure 74 campaign. Lewis and two of his fellow billionaires - currency trader George Soros and Phoenix University founder John Sterling - bankrolled the 1998 ballot measure allowing medicinal marijuana use.

 

In fact, that was just one of four medical marijuana measures passed that year thanks to the financial backing from the trio through their group, Americans for Medical Rights.

 

Lewis was also a big supporter of the Marijuana Policy Project, which sought to legalize the drug. If you can believe celebstoner.com (I confess a lack of familiarity with this segment of the news media), Lewis contributed some $40 million to the group over the course of a decade before having a falling-out with the organization earlier this year. Read more »

By. The Associated Press

 

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled that the state cannot take away children from a mother who tests positive for marijuana without evidence that shows her drug use endangers the children.

 

The court's decision on Wednesday reversed a Marion County juvenile court ruling in the case of a 19-month-old and a 6-month-old the state attempted to take from a woman who tested positive for marijuana during an investigation of the father's own drug use.

 

The Oregonian reports that the case began in 2009 when the state began investigating claims the father of the children was selling methamphetamine at the family's home. Read more »

By David Walker KVAL News

 

EUGENE, Ore. - Oregon voters will decide in November if the state should have dispensaries to sell medical marijuana.

 

Supporters of the idea gathered enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot.

 

Alice Ivany, who lives near Newport, was one of the chief petitioners for the initiative. She said marijuana has totally improved the quality of her life. "It works for pain like no other medication out there," she said.

 

It will be up to voters to decide if Oregon's medical marijuana act should be expanded. Ivany said the original law in Oregon didn't go far enough.

 

"As wonderful as the original act is, it still was fatally flawed in that it did not allow safe, legal access for patients to obtain medical cannabis," she said. Read more »

In State v. Berringer, (online here: http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/A137186.htm) the Oregon Court of Appeals held that Oregon was not required to give a California patient’s status as a patient ‘full faith and credit’ (reasoning that that status created an affirmative defense within CA only) and that the California patient’s federal constitutional right to travel did not protect this patient from being prosecuted and convicted under Oregon Law.  Although not a part of the holding, the Court also concluded that the application requirements of the law was ambiguous, and resolved that ambiguity by concluding that the law permits out of state patients to register here.

Initially, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), acting on advice of its counsel, the Oregon Attorney General, refused to process out of state patient applications.  But, on June 14, 2010, the Oregon Attorney general issued an opinion (online here: http://www.doj.state.or.us/agoffice/agopinions/op_2010_2.pdf) concluding that:  “(1) The OMMA contains no Oregon residency requirement for obtaining an Oregon registry identification card; and, (2) the Oregon legislature could limit eligibility for Oregon registry identification cards to Oregon residents without violating the federal constitutional right to travel.”

Read more »

by Morgan Fox, MPP

 

Last week was a busy one for medical marijuana reform efforts in Oregon.

 

First, the signature drive to put an initiative on the November ballot that would add medical marijuana dispensaries to the state’s existing law is coming to a close. With more than 74,000 signatures already verified, it is highly likely that this initiative will appear before the voters this year.

 

In other news, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that medical marijuana patients applying for a concealed-carry handgun license could not be denied based on their status as a “drug user.” While legal to use with a doctor’s recommendation in Oregon, marijuana is still considered an illegal drug under federal law. According to the federal Gun Control Act, marijuana use can be justification to prevent a person from carrying a concealed firearm. According to the Court of Appeals, however, state and local law enforcement personnel are required to follow state law, which does not explicitly prevent medical marijuana patients from obtaining the license. Read more »

By Steve Elliot, Toke of the Town

 

Oregon on Wednesday became the latest state -- and the first in many years -- to officially reclassify marijuana from its Schedule I status as a dangerous drug with no medical value.

 

The Oregon Board of Pharmacy (BOP) voted 4-1 on June 16 to move cannabis to Schedule II, thereby recognizing its medical use.

 

The BOP decision came after months of deliberation and input from the public. The Oregon Legislature passed SB 728, which directed the BOP to reclassify marijuana to Schedule II, III, IV or V, in August 2009.

 

Although Oregon and 13 other states in the U.S. have legalized marijuana for medical use, it has officially remained a Schedule I substance according to the federal government. Most states defer to that federal status. Read more »

By William McCall, Associated Press

 

The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that high school students can be searched for illegal drugs without a warrant if school officials have a reasonable suspicion based on specific facts.

 

The court said Thursday schools are not held to the higher standard of requiring probable cause for a search if officials believe there is an immediate risk of harm from possession of illegal drugs on school grounds.

 

The case began with the seizure of marijuana from a Rex Putnam High School student in Portland in 2005 after another student tipped school officials.

 

In a unanimous opinion by Justice Thomas Balmer, the court said schools provide a unique setting, “including the responsibility of protecting students from harm, maintaining order, and fulfilling the schools’ educational mission.” Read more »

By Jeff Skryzpek

 

EUGENE, Ore. -- The group Protect Your Rights 420 says many Oregon law enforcement officers don't distinguish between medical marijuana users and illegal pot users. Members say that's why it's even more important that people who used marijuana medicinally know their rights.

 

"I've heard it all," says Lorri Duckworth, a member of Protect Your Rights 420. "Most people who have that reefer madness way of thinking don't know you can use medical marijuana in other ways than smoking it."

 

Group members say that misunderstanding is giving them a bad name and it creates all sorts of headaches and unnecessary run-ins with the law.

 

"It's the specter of reefer madness," says member Christine McGarvin. "It really hasn't changed in a number or law enforcement perceptions." Read more »

By. The Canadian Press

 

CALGARY — A U.S. judge has ruled a young Calgary boy can return to Canada after being shuffled through a series of foster homes in Oregon for nearly two years.

 

Canadian lawyer Tony Merchant said the decision was made late Friday that 12-year-old Noah Kirkman can start a gradual process of moving back home.

 

"The court has said that he's to come back to Canada, live with his grandparents with a view to living with his mother, essentially, as soon as possible," Merchant said after attending the hearing in Eugene, Ore.

 

Lisa Kirkman said her son was seized in 2008 during a summer spent visiting his stepfather, who wasn't considered a legal guardian.

 

The boy, then 10, had been stopped several times by police for riding without a helmet and playing in areas he shouldn't have been, and officials grew concerned when they discovered Noah had social services files in Canada, including in British Columbia. Read more »

By Peter Korn

 

Jim Klahr needs a new liver. And he wants to take medical marijuana to help with the nausea he fights every morning as he battles hepatitis and cirrhosis. He says his body can’t tolerate most drugs that physicians have prescribed for his symptoms, but pot does the trick.

 

Southeast Portland resident Klahr has a medical marijuana card, but he hasn’t smoked since 2004, because Oregon Health & Science University, the state’s only liver transplant center, won’t provide organs for people with marijuana compounds in their blood, even if the patients are medical marijuana cardholders. Klahr is on the OHSU transplant waiting list.

 

Mike Seely, OHSU’s director of transplant and procurement services, cites two reasons for the transplant policy. First, he says, federal rules trump state law. OHSU is part of a consortium with the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and federal law does not recognize medicinal marijuana. OHSU could be in danger with federal authorities if it allowed marijuana users to receive organs. Read more »