5(V Participate in Democracy: ^Ote Find voter registration forms online at www.oregonvotes.org or Oregon Dept. o f Motor Vehicles, post offices and libraries . 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 > 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