Pompo

Medical Marijuana Ignorance: Lobbyist Dan Harmon's Advisor Wins First Prize
11/13/08|Salem-News| by Dr. Phillip Leveque Salem-News.com

Whoever was Dan Harmon’s advisor, he did not know or understand anything about the State Medical Marijuana Program and especially the victims requiring the medicine. The State of Oregon says IT IS MEDICINE. 12 other states have similar laws.

I will attempt to clarify the mistakes of Dan Harmon and his advisor:

1. Every other medicine they can think of is more dangerous than Cannabis, morphine-like pain killers ARE VERY DANGEROUS.

2. Alcohol and other dangerous brain depressants are rarely tested for --- why not?

3. High School students know all about drugs and DARE is a failure.

4. Treatment options for drug abuse are an excellent idea for Morphine, Meth and Alcohol. Legal Medical Cannabis users really don’t need it, problems are RARE.

5. Amending the OMMA to stop abuse won’t work. These medical patients, card holders, are NOT the abusers. They can’t afford to waste money.

6. OMMP cards are given only to those patients who have specified medical conditions by the state --- no exceptions. Any new conditions must be approved by a very strict committee.

7. Most patients or care givers can grow only one crop per year and most use about one ounce per month. It would be cruel and immoral to deny those patients to use the only medicine giving good relief. There is no reasonable plant size. It requires a plant of 6 to 8 feet tall to produce a reasonable amount of usable medicine. One large grow area is better and safer than many with a few plants.

8. Violations of OMMA are already fined or jailed --- if there is space.

9. Most patients have been using Cannabis for medical purposes many years. They just want to get cards and be legal. Two hundred NEW patients are applying EVERY week. Are these supposed to be felons?


Photo courtesy of Salem-News
Attorney Dan Harmon

10. Of 8000 physicians in Oregon only 3000 have the “courage” to sign an application. About 2000 have signed only one or two. Cannabis Doctors are one-time specialists in the strictest sense of the word.

11. Almost all patients are Chronic. These are NOT for short term acute conditions. Supervision is not essential for these long-term users.

12. If a Cannabis patient says he can perform his job it must be true. Federal regulations control this employer/employee interface.

13. There is NO specific dosage, no two batches of Cannabis are alike. Frequency of use and method of consumption are highly variable the doctor CANNOT advise on this, the patient knows.

14. Marinol is known to cause severe anxiety reactions and severe paranoia. If patients have the choice they will NOT USE Marinol. Besides one pill costs about 20 dollars.

15. It is illegal for the OMMA office to tell anybody anything about patients and cards.

Vicki

Exactly. Being a person who has also used opiates, I can attest to that. I would much rather use the safer choice, cannabis.

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Buzzby

The article is obviously a response to something Dan Harmon (a lawyer) published. Does anyone know where to find it? I can't find it in the Salem-News archives.

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LowRider

this is all i could find. he wants a drug free state by the looks of it.

Dan Harmon | NORML's Daily Audio Stash

Pompo

Sent a quick email to Salem -News and got this response

Edit : By the looks of this, the Doc might have started with this article and dug into it a little deeper and found the story that LowRider linked to I'll email the Doc and see what he says

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Vicki

Copied from that article:

One of the first orders of business, Harmon said, is to reintroduce Senate Bill 465, which would exempt employers from having to accommodate medical marijuana users, no matter when or where they use the drug. The Senate approved the bill in 2007, but it couldn’t clear the House.

What a jackass. While he's at it, why don't you do the same for alcohol.

And this:

In his talk to the Albany chamber, he cited several reasons why employers would want to think twice about hiring medical marijuana users, including concerns about workplace safety, legal liability and the potential loss of federal contracts.

This guy really is a dick. I'd be willing to bet good money that he goes home every night and has his evening cocktails. I can't believe he wants to punish medical marijuana users like this.

Vicki

Quoted from that article:

She said it’s unfair to lump people who use marijuana for medical reasons in with those who abuse the drug to get high.

Employers could readily accommodate medical users, she argued, if they tested workers for impairment rather than for metabolic traces of pot, which can stay in the urine for weeks after use.

Thank you!

Pompo

Exchanged another email with Tim. He apologized for not looking at this closer and said he'd check with the Doc and let me know.

Buzzby

I say it's unfair to lump people who use marijuana responsibly to get high with those who abuse the drug to get high. The choices are not simply "medical" or "drug abuse". The majority of marijuana users use it responsibly for recreational purposes.

Majorguns420

Not sure I would say "abuse the drug to get high", cause wtf does that mean anyway? If you can't die from it how can you abuse it? And how can you tell the difference? If I smoke 8 joints a day is that abuse? To some FORSURE, but to others that might be a NORMAL day, and still to others a light day.

There are people out there, that are lazy socialist/communists that think everything should be handed to them that happen to smoke weed, and people pick out these "Pot Heads" to catigorize pot smokers. Personally I take offence to being put in this stero type, because I'm nothing like that!