Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 19, 1995)
ju s t o u t ▼ m ay 1 9 . 1 9 9 5 ▼ 1 7 A Portland buyers* club gets medicinal marijuana to people who need it T by Inga Sorensen • photos by Linda Kiiewer T wenty-nine year old Marc Brown, agay man living with HIV, watched his longtime partner, Pat Belcher, waste away. on HIV/AIDS issues, is not limited to people with HIV/AIDS. Anyone with a genuine medical need for cannabis and [who] can obtain a physician’s statement is eligible for membership.” Brown, who says his personal physician is supportive of his cannabis use, says it is virtually impossible to get a physician to formally state that cannabis use is of therapeutic value to his or her patient. “Doctors and lawyers don’t want to publicly touch this issue,” he says. “So instead we ask that potential members supply us with a formal diagnosis of their condition and then I decide whether that person can become a member.” According to Gary Meabe, a Multnomah County senior deputy district attorney who handles drug cases, there are three potential main drug charges: possession, delivery and manufacture of a controlled substance. Meabe will be the first to admit the laws around marijuana are “extremely complex.” Generally, if a person is caught possessing less than an ounce of marijuana— and there is no evidence the person intends to deliver it— then he or she is likely to face a charge of possession of less than an ounce: a violation punishable by up to a $ 1,000 fine. If the person is caught with more than an ounce, it is a Class B felony; if convicted, the guilty party could see some time behind bars, though Meabe says a first-time offender who shows no ccording to Richard Cowan, national director for the Na intent to deliver would probably get probation coupled with a little tional Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, jail time or community service. If a person is caught selling or medicinal cannabis is legally available to only eight people manufacturing any amount of cannabis, it is a felony. Finally, if a in the United States through a federal program known as the person is caught giving (not selling) someone less than 5 grams of Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program. marijuana, it is a violation— again, punishable by up to a $1,000 “During the Bush administration a handful of people were fine. approved for the program, but they started getting flooded by “There’s probably a lot of low-level growing and possession out “Pat died in 1992 [at the age of 37] of an opportunis tic infection that attacked his digestive tract. Like so many people with AIDS, he suffered from wasting syndrome. He vomited 12 times a day. He couldn’t eat. He was the most beautiful man and he suffered so much,” says Brown, who moved to Portland from California’s Bay area in 1988. “People should not have to suffer like that if they don’t have to.” Brown, who believes he contracted HIV when he was 20, says he not only understands the emotional suffering associated with losing a loved one, but also the physical suffering bom of disease. “I would wake up in pain every day. I have chronic hepatitis B, which causes periodic flare-ups of my liver. I got night sweats. After I found out 1 was HIV positive, I began taking AZT and ddC. The side effects from these treatments were awful. I was nauseated, and I was very edgy because of the meds. I tried smoking cannabis and it worked wonders. I was much more relaxed; my appetite was stimulated. It helped regulate my bowel move ments. I can sleep again.” Cannabis, marijuana, pot, hemp, weed, call it what you will— many people living with chronic illness say using the plant for medicinal purposes helps relieve pain more effectively than any legally available medication. In HIV/AIDS cases, many people who use le gally prescribed treatments such as the anti-retroviral drugs ddC and AZT say they have experienced severe side effects including constant nausea, dis orientation, body aches, depression and an inability to keep food down. They further maintain that cannabis stimulates their appetite, thus countering the devastating “wasting syndrome.” People with glaucoma say using cannabis relieves painful eye pressure; those suffering from conditions such as multiple sclerosis say smoking pot alleviates spasms. As we well know, there is no known “miracle cure” for AIDS, which recently became this nation’s leading cause of death for men between the ages of 25 and 44. Researchers have a lot of questions and few answers about the disease. What most will tell you, however, is that people living with HIV/AIDS who maintain their strength through a healthy diet and exercise have a greater chance of prolonging their lives. “Nothing makes me feel better than cannabis,” says Brown, who as a teenager smoked an occa sional joint. “Doctors can give people with HIV and AIDS medications that may decrease the nausea caused by drugs like AZT, but they don’t have anything—anything—that can stimulate appetite. So many of us die because we waste away. Can Tom Zink, co-founder and president o f the Portland CBC, demonstrates the medicinal use o f cannabis nabis can help put a stop to that.” Brown could have settled for smoking cannabis on his own. After all, he has a “wonderful life” with hundreds of requests from people with AIDS,” says Cowan, who is there that we don’t even know about,” says Meabe, who cannot his current partner, 33-year-old David Olstein, who gay. "That’s when James O. Mason, who headed up the Public recall any case in Multnomah County where a person who claimed is also living with HIV. The couple share their Northeast Portland Health Service under Bush, decided to close the program to new to use marijuana for medicinal purposes faced prosecution. “Quite applicants. He is even quoted as saying that people with AIDS home with two women, three dogs, two cats, and a chicken. “It was frankly, going after someone who is dying of AIDS and smokes shouldn’t be able to get medicinal mari an Easter gift,” laughs Brown. cannabis because it helps him feel But improving his own health wasn’t enough for Brown, who juana because they’d be more likely to better probably isn’t going to be law engage in unsafe sex.” left a job as a social services administrator two years ago to go on enforcement’s top priority. It’s just Cowan adds, “Clinton has not re disability: In mid-March he founded the Portland Cannabis Buyers’ not the same as a hardcore seller who Club, a not-for-profit, above-ground organization that makes can opened the program to new applicants.” is pushing drugs on kids.” So aside from those few cases, us nabis available for medicinal purposes to its members. He adds, "The police tend to look ing marijuana remains illegal thanks to An estimated 35 buyers’ clubs have sprung up around the at the more serious offenders, but a complex and often draconian web of country during the past couple of years. The first above-ground that doesn’t necessarily mean they federal and state laws. Although about CBC was founded around 1993 in Washington, D.C., by Steve should turn a blind eye on other ille a dozen states, including Oregon, have Smith, a gay rights and AIDS activist living with HIV. Some CBCs gal activity that may be going on.” decriminalized cannabis possession to operate above ground, others, under. Some have only a handful of For people like Brown, the risks some extent by making the possession members, while the San Francisco CBC boasts a membership of are worth it: “Pat had a moral code, 4,000. According to Brown, the Portland CBC currently has 16 of small amounts a violation, it remains and he didn’t smoke marijuana. He illegal, and there are constant efforts to members: 14 members are living with HIV or AIDS, one member wasted away. I don’t know if it would reinstate criminal penalties for cannabis possession. (For instance, has multiple sclerosis, and one, a woman, is dealing with a painful have helped him, but it helps me and others like me.” state Rep. Jerry Grisham (R-Beavercreek) introduced two bills this ailment that affects the lining of her bladder. Joanna McKee, who runs a buyers’ club called Green Cross on According to a CBC information packet, the club is “open to all session calling for tougher criminal penalties for possession of less Continued on page 19 than an ounce of cannabis. The bills are all but dead.) people living with HIV/AIDS who are able to obtain a physician’s statement acknowledging the therapeutic value of cannabis for the treatment of their condition. Membership, while focused primarily A Cannabis, marijuana, pot, hemp, weed, call it what you will—many people living with chronic illness say using the plant for medicinal purposes helps relieve pain more effectively than any legally available medication.