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.