Pubdate: Sun, 04 Feb 2001
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2000 The Register-Guard
Contact:  Mailbag, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188
Fax: 541-338-2828
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/
Author: Tim Christie, The Register-Guard
Note: Second of a two-part series on Oregon's medical marijuana law.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

A CHALLENGING CROP

Growing Medical Marijuana A Risky Undertaking

Sharon Place had grown medical marijuana before, but she was still 
impressed by the bountiful crop she had growing last fall on her deck on 
the outskirts of Eugene.

A dozen or so "big round monster bushes," some 14 feet tall, were nearing 
harvest, their thick branches heavy with potent buds prized by smokers, 
medicinal and recreational alike.

The plants, which Place was growing for her ailing son and two other 
medical marijuana patients, were "like a whole family project thing," she 
said, like a counterculture 4-H project.

Then came the nightmare.

About 11 a.m. Oct. 6, while Place was away, four masked gunmen, one wearing 
a "Scream" mask, cut the phone lines and burst into the house, rousting 
Place's teen-age sons and demanding money and drugs.

Her then-14-year-old son awakened to the sight of a gun barrel pointed at 
his head.

The boy suffers from a severe case of gastroesophageal reflux disease and 
uses marijuana to stimulate his appetite. He told the thieves the family 
didn't have any money and that the marijuana was being grown for medicinal 
purposes, to no avail.

The thieves kicked in a closet door to steal drying marijuana, cut the 
plants on the deck, and fled down the driveway to their car, leaving a 
trail of marijuana leaves in their wake.

"They could have killed my children for the marijuana growing there," Place 
said.

"I was naive to think it was OK to grow in your back yard. It's not a safe 
thing."

It was one of at least four rip-offs of outdoor medical marijuana gardens 
in Lane County last fall, when plants were reaching maturity, according to 
police.

None of the other thefts, though, were as violent or unsettling as the 
Place case.

The thefts highlight just one of the perils and challenges of cultivating 
marijuana, a hardy plant that's easy to grow but difficult to grow well. 
The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act permits people to use marijuana for 
medical reasons, but its restrictions leave many patients grasping for a 
reliable supply.

John Sajo, executive director of Voter Power, a Portland patient advocacy 
group, estimates that just 10 percent to 20 percent of medical marijuana 
patients have a steady supply of marijuana.

"There's a crying need for a dispensary or someplace where people can go 
and buy their medicine," he said. "That's the biggest problem with the law."

But the law didn't establish a mechanism for creating a centralized supply 
of medicine. It leaves patients to their own devices, and Sajo said most 
sick people with debilitating medical conditions aren't able to take care 
of a marijuana garden.

"A lot of people are trying to grow their medicine and failing miserably," 
he said. "It takes the right conditions and knowing what to do when things 
go wrong."

Someone diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live will scarcely 
have the time - much less the energy - to grow a crop before he or she dies.

That's where groups such as the Eugene Cannabis Grow-Op hope to fill in the 
gaps. The idea is to connect patients with reliable caregivers (people 
legally designated by patients to grow their marijuana), and to educate 
people on effective ways to grow, said Todd Dalotto, one of the founders.

The Grow-Op also plans to establish a "cushion" program to provide new 
patients with marijuana until their crops mature, he said.

That's already happening in Portland, where Voter Power members grow a 
seven-plant garden. They try to grow big plants, and then give away the 
excess to card-holders in need, Sajo said. The law permits a card-holder to 
give up to an ounce of dried marijuana away to another card-holder.

"At the last event, we gave medicine to 30 to 40 people," he said. "We're 
trying to give people a hand getting started and instill in them the value 
that if someone helped you, once you get going you can help out other people."

Once patients have a card from the state, the first thing they need to do 
is obtain seeds or clones, which are cuttings that can grow into a new plant.

A key decision is whether to grow indoor or out. A patient is allowed to 
grow three mature, or budding plants, and four immature plants.

An outdoor garden will yield bigger plants, but poses several problems. For 
one, such gardens will yield only one or two crops a year, so patients 
trying to grow enough marijuana to last for an entire year will likely be 
in violation of the legal limit of three dried ounces.

Another problem, as Place found, is security. Particularly in an urban 
setting, it can be difficult to grow without arousing the ire of suspicious 
neighbors or catching the attention of unscrupulous stoners looking for an 
easy score.

"If you're growing (medical) marijuana, you're not going to want to tell a 
lot of people you're doing that," said Detective Sgt. Byron Trapp of the 
Lane County sheriff's office.

"It's a product sought after by a certain population and some are going to 
take extraordinary means to take your property."

Growing indoors presents its own challenges.

The plant limit provides little margin for error, and for some patients 
growing smaller plants indoors, seven plants simply don't yield enough 
cannabis to sustain their needs.

"The numbers have everyone's hands tied," said Joe, a medical marijuana 
patient who requested his last name not be used. "A beginning grower will 
probably lose 15 plants before he gets one."

Growing indoors costs more, because of the need to buy lights and other 
equipment. And patients must find room in their homes to grow.

Joe has set up a sophisticated, drip-irrigated growing operation in his 
two-bedroom Eugene-area apartment. He's also an experienced greenhouse 
gardener and a hobbyist who has the time and skills to devote to his indoor 
garden.

Joe was in a car accident that nearly tore off one of his legs and left him 
with chronic, debilitating back pain. After years of taking 
anti-inflammatories and other painkillers that were damaging his liver, he 
found smoking marijuana helped him deal with pain and was far easier on his 
body.

Joe is an advocate of growing marijuana hydroponically, in which the plant 
isn't rooted in dirt but in a loose, soil-free material such as gravel or 
vermiculite. Roots grow directly in water mixed with nutrients, so 
adjusting the nutrient solution is far easier than trying to amend soil, 
Joe said.

Growing hydroponically takes less space, and the plants are far lighter and 
easier to move than plants rooted in dirt.

Growing indoors isn't cheap. Joe's setup costs about $500, which includes 
lights, timers, pumps, tubing, fans and other equipment.

But it's compact. In half of one closet, he has his four immature plants 
growing under fluorescent lights. In half of another closet, he has three 
mature plants growing under sodium lights that emit a red glow that 
encourages blooming.

Joe is still working to get his indoor garden on a reliable rotation so he 
always has a steady supply of marijuana.

"It can be done on a small scale," Joe said. "This is the way to do it."

But the fear of getting ripped off remains a real concern for many medical 
marijuana patients.

Sharon Place is still wrestling with how to provide her son with a steady 
supply of marijuana in the wake of last fall's robbery.

"It's my concern he has the highest quality," she said, because then he 
doesn't have to smoke as much.

Her experience growing medical marijuana goes back to the late 1980s, a 
decade before Oregon voters made it legal when they passed Measure 67 in 1998.

In 1989, when Place was doing volunteer hospice work in Southern Oregon, 
she said she was arrested and prosecuted for growing marijuana.

She was convicted, but because she was growing it for medical purposes, she 
said the judge gave her no jail time.

Since the theft last October, other caregivers have helped out and given 
her marijuana, but Place would rather grow it herself.

Yet her son remains spooked by the robbery.

"He's uncomfortable with it," she said. "We kept a quiet, secluded 
lifestyle. We took all the precautions we could take, and four masked men 
still came to rob us."

Place said she doesn't know how the thieves found out about her plants. 
Perhaps they spotted them with binoculars from the road, she said, or 
perhaps a worker who came to the house noticed the plants and let the news 
slip to the wrong person.

Place said the family may move to a new home so the thieves won't know 
where they live.
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MAP posted-by: GD