‘It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics dope and all of that stuff .
It is a thousand times better than whiskey. It is an assistant and a friend.’
— LOUIS ARMSTRONG
M
aybe you feel you have the right to
experiment with your own consciousness.
Perhaps you are one to promote the
legalization of all illicit substances. Or it
might be the case that you identify with the
late R&B singer Nate Dogg, who once sang, “Hey ey ey
ey, smoke weed everyday,” based on the fact that you enjoy
(as he did) the recreational use of cannabis.
That’s your own damn business and has nothing to
do with the medicinal purposes of the plant. This article
is not the fl ag-waving counterculture anti-prohibitionist
hotbox you are looking to occupy. Though compelling
arguments exist on behalf of marijuana and Peter Tosh’s
iconic statement “Legalize it,” the year 2011 has brought
to bear a new series of issues for “legal” medicinal usage
of the substance.
A concentrated effort to stamp out marijuana and the
medical marijuana industry under the Obama administration
has been sweeping the country this entire past year. Busts
yielding signifi cant and less than signifi cant hauls of marijuana
are happening up and down the coast at an intensifi ed rate.
But more precisely, the medical marijuana industry and its
proponents are being targeted on a national scale.
The effect of this has made its way from Washington,
D.C., all the way to the West Coast and to Eugene. Sept.
22, Oregon State Police arrested three men and seized 300
plants from two separate residences, in a raid that was part of
an ongoing investigation by the Lane County Interagency
Narcotics Enforcement Team.
UP IN THE CLUB
It’s estimated that legal marijuana is a $10 billion
to $100 billion industry in the U.S. (the exact fi gure is
unknown). Lane County is home to more than 5,000 card-
carrying medical marijuana patients. Curtis Shimmin,
owner of Kannabosm says he sees a demand for services
such as that provided by Kannabosm.
“There is an incredible need for safe access to mari-
juana,” Shimmin says, “We are the only club here that does
what we do.”
For a monthly membership fee of $20, members of
Kannabosm (all of whom must be card-carrying medical
marijuana patients) receive access to their medication. The
club also offers educational seminars on the medicinal
properties of marijuana.
Kannabosm acts as a nexus connecting licensed growers
and medical marijuana patients. Growers bring their harvest
to the club and give permission to Kannbosm for patients to
access it. A reimbursement fee is collected for the grower to
cover the cost of production, though not labor.
Another service provided is a screening of the cannabis
brought to the club, so as to ensure the herb is clean
— meaning not laced with chemicals or polluted with
pesticides.
“The counterculture image of marijuana doesn’t help this
cause at all,” Shimmin says. “The goal is to provide safe
access to medical marijuana, for medical marijuana patients.
That’s the battle, and obviously I’m willing to take the risk.”
That risk is nothing short of federal prosecution.
“In the eyes of the law right now, what we are doing is
illegal, but there is nothing that addresses whether or not
we can do what we are doing,” Shimmin explains. “The
law says you can use medical marijuana if you have a card,
but then where do you get it?”
Shimmin says that without his club’s service, medical
marijuana patients throughout Lane County would have no
alternative but to buy weed on the black market or grow it
themselves. “Ninety-nine percent of our clients are over
the age of 60, and they’re not interested nor do they have
the space or ability to grow for themselves,” he adds. “We
have several stage-four cancer patients that practically
crawl in here to get their meds.”
VAPORIZING THE INDUSTRY
More so than clubs and dispensaries, it appears that
wiping out marijuana grow operations has become a top
priority to the Department of Justice this year. Detectives
from the Spokane Sheriff’s offi ce on Nov. 2 conducted a
raid that turned up approximately 8 pounds of harvested
marijuana, 695 marijuana plants and 500 additional
recently harvested marijuana trimmings.
In Oregon’s northeastern Wallowa County, police and the
Oregon Army National Guard seized and destroyed more
than 91,000 marijuana plants in what is considered the big-
gest outdoor grow operation ever discovered in the state.
Also in Oregon, Nov. 18, near milepost 281, Oregon
State Police stopped a California man headed northbound on
Interstate 5 and seized 4 pounds of weed and 32 pounds of
THC candy. Later that same day, a Salt Lake City man was
pulled over and 2 pounds of marijuana were seized from his
vehicle. Both drivers were arrested and jailed.
Alongside the big busts targeting growers, strategic
blows to the infrastructure of medical marijuana are being
meted out by the feds, particularly in California. One of the
most high-profi le of the aggressive nationwide measures
enacted against the medical marijuana industry was the Oct.
7 announcement by four California U.S. attorneys declaring
a crackdown that involved a multitude of enforcements
against medical marijuana producers, distributors and the
landlords leasing property to dispensaries.
If the aggressive crackdown carries over into Oregon,
including threats such as the prosecution of newspapers
and other media outlets that run advertisements for medical
marijuana — things could get even sticky-ickier.
There is a saying that goes “what happens in California
happens in Oregon a year later,” and if there is any truth
to this colloquialism, it’s reasonable to assume Oregon is
next in line on the fed’s medical marijuana hit list. Federal
attention to Oregon’s medical marijuana issue actually
came a bit earlier than Cali’s, though the assault has yet to
be as focused.
Former U.S. district attorney for Oregon Dwight Holton
sent a letter June 3 this year to all of Oregon’s medical
marijuana clubs urging them to “cease any distribution of
marijuana in violation of federal law.” The letter, which
Kannabosm owner Curtis Shimmin received just four
weeks after opening his doors, stated that the Department
of Justice, along with district attorneys throughout Oregon,
will “enforce federal law vigorously against individuals and
organizations that participate in unlawful manufacture” or
“distribution of marijuana.”
Holton’s warning, though it doesn’t approach the
severity of the measures being taken in California, is yet
another sign of the Obama administration’s nationwide
blitz on the medical marijuana industry.
HIGHER FORMS OF HEALTH CARE
Though the current national push to curtail or quash
the medical marijuana industry made growers jumpy
about speaking to a reporter, a look into the caretaker’s
role in the process allows for yet another side of the story
to be heard.
Amber Younce, a nurse who works with advanced HIV
patients at Our House of Portland, a center that provides
health care, housing and other services for low-income
people living with advanced HIV/AIDS, has encountered a
signifi cant number of medical marijuana patients.
Medical marijuana “has been incredibly important
to AIDS patients trying to keep weight on and stay
nourished,” Younce says. “Other appetite stimulants don’t
work as well.”
Younce also sees medical marijuana used to counteract
negative side effects of other medications taken by her
patients. Well aware of the disconnect between state
and federal law concerning medical marijuana, Younce
addresses the recent government push. “It’s unfortunate
there needs to be some new crackdown,” she says. “It’d be
great if the feds and the state could actually negotiate with
each other, instead of putting law-abiding citizens at risk of
criminal charges.”
A negotiation of this sort would seem to be in the best
interest of the feds, the states, law enforcement and the
citizens, but the Obama administration has yet to address
the issue head on. In fact, that the raids on growers and
dispensaries have increased under Obama’s presidency
(particularly in California) appears to signal an opposite
trend. If you are a medical marijuana patient, it sure looks
like Obama is coming for your ganja. It’s harvest season,
but right now the only thing the DOJ wants you to smoke
is your Thanksgiving turkey.
The Obama administration did seek to clarify the
controversial “Odgen Memo,” written in 2009 by Deputy
U.S. Attorney General David Odgen, which originally
stated that the federal government wouldn’t mess with
businesses operating in compliance with state laws
regarding medical marijuana. And the new memo gives a
nod to patients such as those Younce takes care of, stating
that government resources will not be used to prosecute
cancer patients or other terminally ill individuals who
use marijuana in accordance with state law. Anyone else
involved in the business of selling, growing or dispensing
marijuana however, is operating in violation of the
Controlled Substance Act.
Meaning, if you are a terminally ill medical marijuana
patient, you can spark it up and burn one down, but good
luck in the not-so-distant future grabbing your greenery
from anywhere other than your friendly neighborhood
dealer.
Is marijuana a hell of a drug? Apparently. Are people
abusing both the substance as well as the ability to get their
hands on a card? Yes. But as Younce, who administers a
smorgasbord of prescription drugs in her line of work,
points out: “I’m not sure why we care that people are
abusing it. People abuse every prescription drug there is.”
It remains unclear exactly why this push from the
federal government is occurring now, at a time when
Obama’s ratings aren’t so hot. Some activists speculate
the aggressive measures against the medical marijuana
industry are the result of pressure from law enforcement.
Though Oregon has yet to see the same level of smack
down on medical marijuana as its neighbor to the south,
there is no reason to believe that the state will avoid the
same federal green-sweep increase within its borders. One
thing is for certain: For now, weed and trouble still go
together like bongs and water.
ew
‘I never understood that line. The point was to inhale. That was the point.’
— BARACK OBAMA, WHEN ASKED, “UNLIKE OTHER PRESIDENTS, DID YOU INHALE?”
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EUGENE WEEKLY NOVEMBER 23, 2011 13