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Z ^ o rtla n b (Observer
C ity
ot Roses
Established in 1970
Volume XXXIV • Number 39
Th^Revìew
No Progress in
Commuted to Cultural Diversity
cnid fht* ÇliHunptP OAVammant I
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c i v i I i an o fli -
H u s s e in ’s
ouster told an audience that he
wanted more troops to deal with
the rapid descent o f postwar Iraq
into chaos. Bremer, said he ar­
rived in Iraq on May 6, 2003 to
find “horrid” looting and a very
unstable situation - throwing
new fuel onto the presidential
campaign issue o f whether the
United States had sufficiently
planned for the post-war situa­
tion in Iraq.
Rumsfeld Backtracks
on al-Qalda, Iraq links
D e fe n se S e c re ta ry D o n ald
Rumsfeld said in a speech M on­
day that he knew o f no clear link
between the al-Qaida terror net­
work and Saddam Hussein, al­
though he later backed off the
statement and said he was mis­
understood.
Judge Tosses
Same-Sex Marriage Ban
A state judge threw out a Loui­
siana constitutional amendment
banning gay marriage. Judge
William Morvant said the amend -
ment - overwhelmingly approved
by the voters on Sept. 18 - was
flawed as drawn up by the Leg­
islature because it had more than
one purpose: banning not only
gay m arriage but also civil
unions.
-
with Legal Pot
"
by J aymee R. C uti
T he P ortland O bserver
c la '
' raM
after Saddam
Wednesday . October 6. 2004
I Pain Relief
. . .
« .s J
www.portlandohserver.fom
Madeline Martinez smokes marijuana
everyday. She medicates herself with
about an ounce o f green buds each
week, which she grows herself.
She is a 54-year-old grandmother, a
retired peace of­
fic e r
fro m
a
w omen’s prison in
C alifornia and a
sufferer o f chronic
pain. Martinez has
adegenerativedisk
and joint disease.
She says of all
th e d ru g s p re ­
scribed to her, mari­
ju a n a keeps her
quality o f life high,
without the nasty stomach irritation
brought on by opiates prescribed by her
doctor.
M artinez is lucky, she says, because
her medicine is protected under the O r­
egon Medical Marijuana Act of 1998,
but since joining to program allowing
her to grow and possess the drug le­
gally. she says her fight is not over.
On Nov. 2, voters will face Measure
33, a new medical marijuana initiative,
which would create licensed and regu­
lated non-profit dispensaries to sell medi­
cal cannabis to qualified patients. The
measure would also increase a patient’s
possession limit to six pounds o f mari­
juana per year, and up to one pound at a
given time.
“The biggest problem is keeping the
garden growing,” she said. "Once you
get the card that says you qualify as a
patient, you’re on your own.”
Martinez said she could kill ferns in her
garden just by looking at them before she
became an expert growerof her marijuana,
nearing the legal limit with five flowering
plants and eight in a vegetative stage.
She has converted her basement into
a grow space, using strong, expensive
lighting and special soil to keep her crop
continued
on page A6
Madeline Martinez. 54, is allowed to grow and use marijuana as medicine to treat pain.
P hoto by M ark W ashington /T hb P ortland O bserver
Voter Registration Push
in High Gear
America Coming Together
campaign volunteer Wawere
Gatimu (right) helps Bill and
Shell Rogers register to vote
ahead o f Oregon's Tuesday, Oct.
12 voter registration deadline.
The couple just moved to north­
east Portland from Oklahoma.
The organization ACT is hoping
a high voter turnout could make
the difference fo r Sen. John
Kerry and other Democrats in
the Nov. 2 election.
States Would
Ban Abortion
Thirty states are poised to make
abortion illegal w ithin a year if
the Suprem e C ourt reversed its
1973 ru lin g e s ta b lish in g a
w om an ’ s legal right to an abor­
tion, an advocacy ¿ ro u p said.
M ark W ashington /
T he P ortland O bserver
photo by
St. Helens Blows Smoke
Volcano sits on weak area of Earth’s crust
Mt. St. Helens lies along a particularly weak area o f the Earth s crust, causing it to
be the most active volcano in the Northwest over the centuries.
I
(A P) — M ount St. H elens lies along a
particularly weak area o f the Earth’s crust,
causing it to be the m ost active volcano
in the N orthw est over the centuries.
Since Friday, the m ountain has expe-
rienced a series o f steam em issions, send-
ing plum es o f steam and ash thousands
o f feet above the rim o f the crater.
S cientists say these events are break-
ing up the plug that is blocking m agm a,
As the sm aller eruptions occur, the plug
gets w eaker, increasing the chance o f a
larger eruption.
Mt. St. H elens sits near the St. H elens
seism ic zone, w here the crust is pulled
apart a little bit, according to Jon M ajor,
a U.S. G eological Survey researcher in
V ancouver.
“T hat lets m agm a push up and ex-
I
plains w hy it’s so active and others are not
so activ e,” he said,
For exam ple. M ount A dam s lies only
about 50 m iles east o f M ount St. H elens
but has not erupted in thousands o f years,
M ajor said.
M ount Jefferson, w hich lies betw een
M ount H ood and the T hree S isters in the
O regon stretch o f the C ascades, appears
to have been dorm ant since the last Ice
Age despite relatively recent eruptions on
neighboring peaks, he said.
| n the rest o f the C ascade R ange, which
stretches from Canada to N orthern Califor-
nia, tw o o f the tallest peaks — Mount
R ainier in W ashington state and M ount
Shasta in C alifornia — both have erupted
continued
on page A2