Pubdate: Mon, 07 May 2001 Source: Register-Guard, The (OR) Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard Contact: http://www.registerguard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362 Author: Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) MEDICAL POT, ABORTION TOP ISSUES THIS WEEK SALEM - The Legislature opens its upcoming week with hot-button issues, especially in the House Rules Committee where marijuana and abortion will share space on the same agenda. The panel on Monday holds hearings on bills to expand the state's medical marijuana law and to impose a 24-hour "informed consent" waiting period for abortions. Oregon voters in 1998 passed an initiative measure allowing people, with a doctor's approval, to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Eight other states also permit medicinal use of the plant. More than 1,600 Oregonians hold official cards permitting medical marijuana use. The law allows doctors to approve marijuana for specific maladies including cancer, glaucoma, HIV or AIDS, severe pain or nausea, seizures or muscle spasms. House Bill 3919 would expand coverage to include any medical condition that a physician believed "would be benefited by the medical use of marijuana." Nurse practitioners and naturopaths, in additional to medical doctors and osteopaths, could make patients eligible for medical marijuana under the bill. And the bill would increase the quantity of marijuana a patient could legally possess from three to five mature marijuana plants, from four to five immature plants, and usable marijuana - meaning dried leaves and flowers - from 3 ounces to 10 ounces. The bill has seemed to wither on the vine since its main advocate, former Democratic state Rep. Jo Ann Bowman of Portland, resigned her seat in the House to run for Multnomah County commissioner. Supporters of the measure say the law has worked but that patients have problems getting an adequate supply. Rep. Carl Wilson of Grants Pass, Rules Committee chairman and a conservative vote on many issues, said he's not ready to take a position on the bill but that he no longer opposes medical marijuana use generally. Wilson said he opposed the 1998 ballot measure but now supports it. "I've heard from a number of people who have had measurable relief from this," Wilson said. "If we find people are getting this relief, it's worth looking at. We ought to discuss who can prescribe it and who can grow it." Rising prices for conventional drugs also could work in favor of a broader medical marijuana law, he said. House Minority Leader Dan Gardner, D-Portland, said he asked that the bill be moved from a panel where it looked to be dead to Wilson's committee when Wilson agreed to give it an airing. Neither Gardner nor Wilson said they could gauge how much House support the bill might have. Top police around the state want nothing to do with the bill, said Kevin Campbell, lobbyist for the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police. The association opposed putting the measure on the ballot and is against "any attempt to broaden the ability to prescribe. It expands the potential for abuse." The bill also would "create more confusion about what's legal and what isn't," Campbell said. Another simmering issue is electric deregulation, with House Speaker Mark Simmons, R-Elgin, taking a lead with his bill to delay opening up free-market power purchasing by large businesses from Oct. 1 to January 2003. The minority Democrats, saying citizens are squeamish because of California's deregulation problems, are trying to force a vote on repealing the deregulation law outright. Simmons, whose party runs the House on a 33-27 count, said talks on a possible compromise are under way. He said he hopes a bill can emerge from committee by week's end. Senate Minority Leader Dave Nelson, R-Pendleton, said that chamber is waiting to see what the House does on the issue. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager