Page A5
August 22. 2007
Marijuana Advocates Defend Oregon Law
continued
effects o f marijuana.
At least one grandm otherly type
by the name of "B etty” attended
the meeting, but she declined to
give her last name, saying that she
feared com m unity ostrasization.
Most o f the attendees were middle-
aged and white.
M artinez, whose ancestry is a
m ix o f M ex ican , N av a jo and
A pache, fears the stereotyping o f
O regon’s nearly 15,000 medical-
m arijuana beneficiaries and ac­
tively seeks to diversify the m em ­
bership. She points out the relative
hom ogeny o f Oregon at large, say­
ing, “O ur program has becom e di­
verse, because diversity draw s di­
versity, and having a brown person
at the helm really draws people in."
O ne o f the program ’s many A f­
from Front
the plants require.
In what Martinez called "the high­
light o f these peoples' month," sev­
eral hundred cardholders lined up
around the block for pieces of rare
species o f hemp noted for special
effects. They also gathered around
a table with a large sign saying, “ It’s
NOR ML to write to your elected
officials," which encouraged letters
against the initiative petition filed by
associates o f Kevin Mannix, the
Republican lawmaker who lost a race
for governor in 2002.
M annix calls his proposed re­
peal a "crime-fighting” measure that
would still allow for synthetic m ari­
juana to be used as m edicine, but
M artinez sees the Oregon M edical
M arijuana Act as a huge success.
“The beauty o f the O M M A is
that it's se lf-su p p o rtin g ,” says
M artinez, citing the over $900,000
in revenue that the program 's fees
generated for state hum an-resource
departm ents. “If the M annix bill
passed, taxpayers w ould have to
pay for the artificial drugs m ade by
big pharm a.”
G oing back to the same argu­
m ents that passed the act in the first
place. Martinez tells the heart-warm­
ing story o f a glaucom a-plagued
elderly w oman who found her only
com fort in the pressure-reducing
The beauty o f the OMMA is that it’s
self-supporting. If the Mannix bill
passed, taxpayers would have to pay for
the artificial drugs made by big pharma.
- Madeline Martinez, executive director of Oregon NORML
rican Americans, Linda M ason, has
quickly advanced in the organiza­
tion. She contends that the most
im portant thing she brings to the
group is her first-hand experience
with the lack o f discrim ination pro­
tection forcardholding em ployees.
"1 had some dirty urine and got
fired from my jo b even though I had
a card, so I becam e an activist ever
since,” M ason says. “The days of
sitting back and not doing any­
thing are over.”
A pow erful pair o f advocates,
they agree that they have a good
chance o f protecting and refining
the m edical-m arijuana law.
"W e write letters and tell our
cardholders w hat’s going on and
w ho to contact," M artinez says.
"W e found when we started we
can ’t really affect that much change
in a year, but we have the m om en­
tum o f six years behind us.”
Two of the most powerful medical-marijuana activists in the
country, Oregon NORML directors Madeline Martinez and Linda
Mason, prepare meeting tables for patients with state-approved
medical-marijuana cards.
photos by R aymond R endeeman /T he P ortland O bserver
TriMet is hiring
300 bus operators.
Learn about a great job opportunity at
these neighborhood events:
Saturday, August 25 • 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Beaverton Creek Park & Ride,
SW 153rd Dr between Millikan and Jenkins,
Beaverton
For more, visit trimet.org/jobs or
call 503-962-7640.
T R I© M E T
See where it takes you.
More than 200 medicai-marijuana cardholders lined up around the block on Hawthorne Boulevard
for the opportunity to sample free cuttings and to organize politically to protect the law.
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