Pubdate: Sat, 30 Apr 2011
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2011 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times
Bookmark: http://www.drugsense.org/cms/geoview/n-us-or (Oregon)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

OREGON SHERIFFS WORRY ABOUT MEDICAL MARIJUANA MIXED WITH GUNS

A Case Before the Oregon Supreme Court Will Determine Whether 
Medical-Marijuana Users Are Entitled to the Same Gun-Carrying 
Privileges As Everyone Else.

MEDFORD, Ore. - Cynthia Townsley Willis, a retired school-bus driver 
and grandmother of four, carries a spray bottle of marijuana-infused 
skin oil in her purse to treat her frequent, painful muscle spasms. 
Her Walther P22 pistol most often gets slipped into a shoulder 
holster under her jacket: Driving the lonely roads that traverse the 
hills and dense woodlands of the Rogue Valley, who knows when she 
might need it?

Here in the pot belt of rural southern Oregon, possibly the only 
thing more ubiquitous than marijuana is guns, and Willis, who is 
legally registered with the state as a medical-marijuana user, feels 
better when she has both.

But Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters doesn't, and he is trying to 
pull Willis' concealed-weapon permit. Willis, 54, is now one of four 
plaintiffs in a case before the Oregon Supreme Court to determine 
whether medical-marijuana users are entitled to the same gun-carrying 
privileges as everyone else.

For sheriffs across Oregon, who claim that the state's 13-year-old 
medical-marijuana law has spawned tens of thousands of hobby users, 
the case is a crucial step toward preventing what they see as a 
dangerous mix of guns and drugs.

"This whole medical-marijuana thing is a farce, and you can quote me 
on that," said Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin, president of the 
Oregon State Sheriff's Association, who believes only a fraction of 
the state's nearly 40,000 registered medical-marijuana users have a 
legitimate need for the drug.

"I always ask them how many times a day do you medicate? They say 
it's like four or five times a day," Bergin said. "Well, that's 16 
hours a day you're running around stoned. Do we even want them behind 
vehicles? No. Do we want them carrying around a gun? Absolutely no."

Oregon essentially requires sheriffs to issue concealed-weapons 
permits unless the applicants have a history of violence, threats or 
drug convictions.

The sheriffs argue that forcing them to issue the permits to 
marijuana users puts them in conflict with federal law, which makes 
it a crime for users of illegal drugs to possess a gun. Despite the 
15 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that now have medical-marijuana 
laws, the substance remains illegal under federal law.

"We'll enforce any law that's out there, but when they're 
conflicting, we have to do our best to decide which of those laws has 
dominance," said Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon.

Willis and others say owning and carrying a gun is such an accepted 
part of life in rural Oregon that those who rely on marijuana to 
treat legitimate medical issues shouldn't be rendered defenseless.

In the case of Willis, who drives several miles each day from her 
home in rural Gold Hill to volunteer at a medical-marijuana supply 
shop in Medford, her muscle spasms are so severe that often she can 
barely stand. Eating a marijuana cookie or rubbing cannabis oil on 
her skin is the only way she's found to relax her muscles. She never 
uses enough to get high, she said.

Paul Sansone, from Gales Creek in Washington County, another 
plaintiff in the case, started carrying a concealed handgun in the 
1980s for self-defense, and said the sheriff at the time actually 
helped him buy his gun.

Since then, the county got a new sheriff, and Sansone developed a 
chronic gastrointestinal condition that gives him such severe nausea 
he is almost unable to eat. The only thing that helps is small 
quantities of medical marijuana.

Two trial-court judges and a state appeals court sided with Sansone, 
Willis and the other two plaintiffs. The Supreme Court heard oral 
arguments in the case in March, and is expected to rule in the coming months.

In his ruling in 2008, Circuit Court Judge Steven Price said the 
plaintiffs are "hardworking, honest, conscientious people who use 
medical marijuana as contemplated by the statute to alleviate pain 
and their symptoms. They are similarly responsible in their use and 
possession of weapons."

But sheriffs say there are growing questions about how to maintain 
public safety as medical-marijuana use rapidly escalates.

"I think that 100 percent of our home-invasion robberies have been 
tied to narcotics, and probably 95 percent of those, this is just my 
best guess, involve medical-marijuana growers," Sheriff Gordon said. 
"It's just ripe for somebody to get hurt."  
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake