A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against the city of Keizer, several police officers and prosecutors accusing them of violating a medical marijuana patient's Fourth Amendment rights.

Anthony Beasley sued claiming false arrest and imprisonment and illegal search and seizure, among other complaints.

Beasley was growing marijuana legally under Oregon's medical marijuana act but was arrested in 2007 when police found evidence he was creating hash oil, which is illegal. Beasley was arrested on a charge of manufacturing a controlled substance, but a Marion County grand jury didn't indict him on the charge.

[end]

As Sheriff, County Consider Appeal, Costs Rise in Handgun License Legal Dispute

Sheriff Mike Winters' efforts to prevent medical marijuana patients from obtaining concealed handgun licenses has cost more than $13,000 in outside legal fees, plus the equivalent of $20,000 in time spent by Jackson County's in-house attorney.

"That's almost unbelievable," said Cynthia Willis, a medical marijuana patient who originally sought a concealed handgun license from the sheriff. "It's so much money and such a waste."

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Legislators are about to make it much more expensive to have a medical marijuana card. Why?

OK, so with many people the marijuana card may be a subterfuge, but so what? As long as people get the stuff legally, why should the state object?

A budget bill making its way through the legislature includes a fee increase from $100 a year to $200 for people holding the cards. It also adds a $200 annual fee for registered growers.

According to advocates for the card holders, the new fees are expected to generate $7 million in new income for the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.

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The Increase From $100 to $200 Could Take Effect July 1

Oregon lawmakers are considering whether to tap the medical marijuana program to fund other health programs.

This past week the joint Ways and Means Committee approved doubling the $100 annual fee for medical marijuana cardholders, and imposing a new $200 fee on growers who are not already patients. The estimated $7 million raised would go to other programs within the cash-strapped Oregon Health Authority, including clean water, emergency medical care and school health centers.

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Dwight Holton Has Initiated an Important Conversation About Medical Marijuana

Oregon's medical marijuana law is intentionally ambiguous, leaving plenty of room for abuse. Dwight Holton, U.S. Attorney for Oregon, and 33 of the state's district attorneys have stepped in to fill that void, serving notice that marijuana dispensaries, so-called cannabis clubs, remain illegal in Oregon.

It's about time someone took action on the increasing number of medical marijuana dispensaries. The dispensaries are ignoring both the law and the will of Oregonians, who voted in November to defeat Measure 74, which would have legalized state-regulated dispensaries.

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Sheri Levit is emphatic that the Linn-Benton Oregon Medical Marijuana Program Patient Resource Center is not a "pot parlor" where seedy characters sit in dark corners huffing on marijuana-filled pipes.

That's exactly what Levit, the center's executive director, and her partner in the project, Kathy Srp, don't want for Oregonians who hold medical marijuana cards.

"We are a safe place for people to meet and get educated about the medical benefits of cannabis," Levit said, responding to what she believes has been negative press. "Would you want your grandmother to have to get her medicine on the black market?"

[continues 464 words]

Drug abuse has been part of human existence for a very long time. Some might say it's been around as far back as the Garden of Eden (think of the forbidden apple that just couldn't be resisted).

So there's little that can be said to alter the fact that the abuse of illegal narcotics (and in some cases legal pharmaceuticals) is here to stay. That's not defeatist; that's just the way it is.

And the sleepy town of Sandy is no exception.

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Paul Stanford Comes to Corvallis to Stump for Oregon Cannabis Tax Act

Oregon has allowed marijuana for medical use since 1998, when voters passed Measure 67. Paul Stanford thinks it's time to make it legal for other purposes as well, and like M67's proponents before him, he hopes to decide the matter at the ballot box.

Stanford is the chief petitioner for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, an initiative that would regulate the sale of pot for recreational use and remove restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp, its less potent cousin.

[continues 610 words]

Our Neighbor's Twisted Logic When It Comes to Kids And Marijuana.

The top federal prosecutor in Oregon and 33 of the state's district attorneys announced last week that they are going to put an end to prescription pot sales. The authorities say that although Oregon currently has nearly 40,000 people enrolled in its voter-approved medical-marijuana program, law enforcement must take action because the system violates federal law and is "putting marijuana in the hands of more and more healthy kids." But is that really true?

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The Albany Downtown Association has asked for an "emergency moratorium" on pot-smoking parlors in the city.

"Naturally we are interested in keeping our historic downtown vital and healthy," Executive Director Oscar Hult wrote in a letter to Mayor Sharon Konopa on Monday.

"Many other cities have had problems with these establishments and have had to delve into crafting regulation after the fact. We are asking that the council be proactive and have staff develop these regulations now."

Hult asked for "an emergency moratorium on these kinds of businesses until it is known whether or not they violate state or federal law, and until such time as appropriate regulations can be developed."

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An Amsterdam-Style Pot Bar Is the Latest Controversy in Oregon's Marijuana World.

For Mario Mamone, the dream of opening a marijuana cafe started 10 years ago on his first trip to Amsterdam, where he visited famous hash bars like Green House and Dampkring.

Now the 62-year-old retired wildlife biologist is close to bringing his vision to Gladstone. Next month he plans to open the Maritime Cafe in a Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard strip mall, between a Curves Fitness Center and a headshop called the Stash. The cafe will be open only to medical-marijuana patients over 18. Plans by Mamone and his partner, Tim Welsh, include intimate booths, potleaf murals and killer buds for $10 a gram.

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Doctor Poses 'An Immediate Danger to the Public and to His Patients'

The Oregon Medical Board has issued an emergency suspension for the doctor working at Astoria's new medical marijuana resource center.

Dr. Gregory Rodriguez Gomez' license to practice medicine in Oregon -- already on a 10-year probation -- was put on hold indefinitely Thursday afternoon.

An Oregon Medical Board investigation revealed that Gomez had not notified the board of his practice locations and didn't follow through on education commitments outlined as part of his September 2010 probation.

[continues 385 words]

The Linn-Benton chapter of the Pacific Green Party is sponsoring a talk by the chief petitioner of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, Paul Stanford, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, at the Westminster House, 101 N.W. 23rd St.

Stanford hopes to qualify the measure for the 2012 ballot.

If approved by voters, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act would control marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. It would be regulated and taxed by the state, thereby generating revenue and eliminating costs of enforcing the current restrictions, supporters say.

[end]

Those behind a planned local medical marijuana dispensary recently sought an endorsement from the City of Seaside in establishing the facility in town.

The medical marijuana club will "be patterned after the one in Astoria," said Seaside Mayor Don Larson.

He referred to the Nature's Choice Alternative Medicine club, located at 229 West Marine Drive, Suite C, in Astoria.

Both local clubs are franchises of Club Pit Bull, an arm of medical marijuana education provider Portlandsterdam University, of Happy Valley, Ore. Owners Mike Mullins and his wife Jennifer Valley also operate Stoney Girl Gardens, a marijuana breeder.

[continues 267 words]

People Have Donated Money to Keep the Ashland Operation Running in the Black

ASHLAND - More than 150 medical marijuana cardholders are now getting their pot at a resource center that opened last month in town.

The Greenery, 1746 Ashland St., offers several types of marijuana to cardholders on a donation basis. While many people give nothing or $1, others have given up to $200 to the nonprofit, allowing it to stay in the black so far, said co-founder Andrea Adams.

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In response to Larry Crompton's extremely demeaning letter regarding the use of medical marijuana for their pain and suffering (May 22):

I was brought into this world by a violent, abusive, alcoholic prize fighter and learned early on the meaning of pain and suffering.

Eventually my mother divorced and married the most generous, God-fearing man ever put on this earth, who provided her with far too few years of comfort, care and love.

Then came esophageal cancer. It became almost impossible to eat, sleep or even come close to a normal life. Fifty pounds lost, no strength and no reason to live.

[continues 79 words]

All of the recent fuss over marijuana makes me wonder - why the charade?

Why do some charlatans argue that toasting up a bowl of Grape Skunk heals everything from hangnails to anxiety attacks?

Why has the glossary been euphemized? How did we get from "stoner" to "cardholder", "dealer" to "caregiver", and "dope" to "medicine"? Since when did a "party" become a "gathering of patients"?

And why does a disagreement with a marijuana user often result in the use of caricature? Reluctant about decriminalization and legalization? Clearly you're a Reefer Madness scold. Such juvenile stereotyping is exhausting.

[continues 98 words]

HB 3664 is a travesty and should be denied a hearing. It's an issue of privacy rights, and denying the will of the voters.

Providing the personal information associated with registered marijuana grow sites to police without reason is a clear circumvention of Federal HIPAA laws and an underhanded manner in which to deny Oregon residents their constitutionally guaranteed 4th Amendment rights. This bill is the very definition of unreasonable search and seizure.

The prominence of the additional fees indicates a contempt for the patients, and a disregard for the concepts of providing one's own medicines without the financial constraints and atmosphere of intimidation that is the pharmacological industry.

[continues 191 words]

On the same day lawmakers debated the future of the state's Medical Marijuana Act, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that county sheriffs can't deny medical marijuana users concealed handgun permits.

Attorney Leland Berger, who represented the medical marijuana users at the court, testified Thursday. He told lawmakers their proposed changes to the act should be reconsidered. "Please kill this bill," he said. "This is a bill that shouldn't go anywhere."

House Bill 3664 would give Oregon State Police a database of medical marijuana growers. It also would limit the number of people growers can provide medical cannabis to, from four to two.

Voters created the medical marijuana program in 1998. There are two newly established cannabis clubs in Bend, the Central Oregon Alternative Therapy Club and the Herb Center.

[end]

"Medical marijuana grower gears up" (May 15, 2011) makes me wonder how long you need to be in an oxygen deprived bubble why are our filled with pot smoke before you are completely insane.

A pot-smoking loser with marijuana arrests in his past is now allowed to grow pot for over 70 pot-smoking, card-carrying individuals with everything from chapped lips to bald heads. It is time for sane people to wake up and fight this "undercover" attempt to legalize this dangerous drug.

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