ju s t o u t ▼ January 3 . 1 9 9 7 ▼ 1 3
Up in smoke
After two years, a local CBC is out of business, and access to medicinal marijuana
is being complicated by mistrust and infighting
▼
by Inga Sorensen
or Diane Densmore, it came down to
one thing: the medicine.
Olstein, 35, whose partner Marc Brown, 30, took
a lead role in establishing the Portland CBC. Both
men are living with HIV/AIDS.
Olstein says his partner is now too sick to
speak with us, but in 1995 Brown told us he was
motivated to launch a buyers club after watching
a former partner suffer from wasting syndrome
and die.
“People shouldn’t have to suffer like that if
they don’t have to,” he
said.
M arijuana,
he
added, helped counter
wasting syndrome and
nausea by stimulating
people’s appetite.
During the follow
ing year and a half—
and after a spurt of
media attention— the
Portland CBC’s con
sumer list would grow
to an estimated 300
members.
Though Densmore
says consumers ini
tially received their
medicine, she main
tains the CBC was
plagued by misman
agement and, in some
cases, unethical activ
ity.
The charges include
price gouging, the vin
dictive cutting off of
some consumers, and the hoarding of quality
marijuana.
“It was felt that a few people were keeping the
best medicine for themselves and leaving the poor
quality stuff for everyone else,” Densmore says.
The CBC closed in September because, says
Olstein, CBC suppliers failed to provide high-
quality cannabis.
Several weeks later, Olstein contacted the
Portland Police Bureau and Drug Enforcement
Agency to turn in a well-known local marijuana-
law reform activist, Phil Smith, who was report
edly caught growing 45 marijuana plants in his
home.
Olstein says he had been working with mari
juana growers like Smith and the Portland chapter
F
“And they couldn’t get it. If they
were able to, we would have stayed
with them, but it wasn’t happening.
What were we supposed to do?” asks Densmore,
who says she is living with a host of disabling
ailments including irritable bowel syndrome, ar
thritis and chronic pain stemming from a back
injury.
Densmore is discussing why she and purport
edly many other consumers of the now-defunct
Portland Cannabis Buyers Club were essentially
forced to seek relief elsewhere.
Just Out first reported on the local CBC in a
May 19, 1995, cover story, “The Dope on Can
nabis.” At that point the club was in its embryonic
stage, with less than a dozen members.
“I was number 21,” Densmore says. “I was
there pretty much at the beginning.”
Like others living with chronic illness,
Densmore says she “was there” because she found
that using marijuana for medicinal purposes re
lieved pain more effectively than legally avail
able medication.
The Clinton administration recently announced
it would oppose voter-approved initiatives in
California and Arizona that allow marijuana to be
used for medicinal purposes.
Donna Shalala, U.S. secretary of health and
human services, flatly contended that “all avail
able research has concluded that marijuana is
dangerous to our health.”
Marijuana is outlawed by the federal Con
trolled Substances Act, and federal officials say
they are sending notices to medical groups and
licensing boards nationwide warning that physi
cians who recommend or prescribe illegal drugs
including marijuana will lose their authority to
dispense certain drugs, and may be barred from
treating patients through Medicaid or Medicare.
Yet while the Clinton administration, as well
as past administrations, has maintained there is no
scientific proof that medicinal marijuana works,
the personal testimonies of consumers like
Densmore—and thousands of others living with
AIDS, cancer, glaucoma or multiple sclerosis—
unequivocally contend that it does.
And these thousands have flocked toCBCs for
their medicine.
“That’s what this has always been about—
helping sick people,” says Portland resident David
Mora, isacson
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of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws to obtain supplies.
‘The way we saw it, if people didn’t have the
money, but needed the medicine, we gave it to
them. That was the mindset we were working
with,” says Olstein.
He says suppliers, however, had a different
idea, including jacking up prices to unreasonable
levels. “They just told us to charge members
m ore,”
says
Olstein. “They saw
the potential to ex
ploit sick people
and ran with it.”
Another prob
lem, he says, is that
suppliers “pushed
a bigger agenda”
including the pas
sage of a statewide
initiative
that
would have legal
ized marijuana and
permitted its sale
in liquor stores.
"We wanted to
iv- ►
• •••«• keep
focus on
medicinal mari-
ju an a,
says
O lstein.
“ We
wouldn’t support
their
overall
agenda.”
The conflicts,
he adds, were too
big to overcome.
They led to the CBC’s closure and an ensuing
squabble that not only included the Smith inci
dent, but a dispute with another activist, Chris
Iverson, who is behind the fledgling Alternative
Health Center, which promotes holistic health
remedies.
According to a Dec. 18 Willamette Week ar
ticle, “Smith says he was growing the [45] plants
for Iverson, who was starting a new cannabis
buyers club called the Alternative Health Center,
which would pick up where the original club left
off.”
The paper suggested that Olstein turned Smith
in because he “felt that if he couldn’t make a go of
it, no one should.”
Iverson says he has been the target of Olstein
tirades, and maintains he doesn’t know why Olstein
is “harassing” him.
The verbal attacks have gotten ugly, with
Iverson claiming Olstein is suffering from
“dementia.”
In turn, Olstein says Iverson “is basically a
drug lord” who shouldn’t be involved in the
medicinal marijuana business “because he’s not
even sick.”
Olstein also says the original CBC sterilized
the product to make it safe for consumption for
those who have suppressed immune systems.
‘T hey’re not going to do that. It’s not safe for
people with AIDS and other illnesses,” he says.
Iverson wouldn’t comment on whether me
dicinal marijuana was being made available via
the Alternative Health Center.
As for the criticism that CBCs should be
operated by consumers, Iverson says he can un
derstand why some people feel that way, “but if a
healthy person can get this going than so be it.”
Sandee Burbank, founder of Mothers Against
Misuse & Abuse, says, “I know there are a lot of
politics here ... It’s too bad this is all so male-
dominated.”
Burbank, who lives in Mosier, founded MAMA
in 1982. The group advocates in part for a rational
drug policy and questions the government’s cru
sade against substances like marijuana while ig
noring the widespread abuse of legal drugs like
alcohol and tobacco.
“It’s sad that rivalries get in the way of people
getting their medicine,” she says. “It’s a huge
responsibility to become a provider. When you
mention those names [Brown, Olstein and I verson]
I think of courageous people who are willing to
take on that responsibility.”
Densmore, meanwhile, says she has estab
lished a relationship with Iverson’s Alternative
Health Center and is receiving relief.
However, she says she remains “a little
shellshocked” from all the controversy. “[CBC
members] have been hurt by this. It makes you
less willing to put your trust into others.... We’ll
just have to see how things go.”
For his part, Olstein says he is somewhat
worried about his well-being in light of his deci
sion to go to law enforcement officials.
“But I just couldn’t stand by and watch sick
and dying people be exploited,” he says.
Iverson adds, "I’m not nervous.... I know
what kind of a war we’re fighting.”
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