Suetaz

Pain Relief with Legal Pot

By Jaymee R. Cuti | The Portland Observer | Oct. 6, 2004

Madeline Martinez smokes Marijuana everyday. She medicates herself with about an ounce of green buds each week, which she grows herself.

She is a 54-year-old grandmother, a retired peace officer from a women's prison in California and a sufferer of chronic pain. Martinez has a degenerative disk and joint disease.

She says of all the drugs prescribed to her, Marijuana keeps her quality of life high, without the nasty stomach irritation brought on by opiates prescribed by her doctor.

Martinez is lucky, she says, because her medicine is protected under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act of 1998, but since joining to program allowing her to grow and possess the drug legally, 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 regulated non-profit dispensaries to sell medical cannabis to qualified patients. The measure would also increase a patient's possession limit to six pounds of Marijuana 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 grower of 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 healthy. One of her greatest fears is growing a crop that gets infested with insects or mold, or does not produce cannabis buds at all.

[Suetaznote: This is all the more reason why there should be Marijuana dispensaries all over for everyone to have the choice of growing their own or buying it somewhere convenient and safe. Not everyone can grow their own or even has a basement or anywhere to grow it. If it were grown in commercial green houses like special plants should be, there wouldn't be any need to worry about insects or mold in the home.]

"I am afraid. If we don't get our medicine, what are we going to do? That's why Measure 33 is so important," she said.

John Sajo, executive director of Voter Power, is advocating for Martinez's cause, and that of 10,000 other Oregonians who are registered under the state's medical Marijuana program. His group along with the political action committee Life With Dignity, is working to pass Measure 33.

"A lot of people think we passed medical Marijuana and it's working fine, but literally thousands of patients in the program are struggling to get their medicine," Sajo said.

Financially self-sustaining dispensaries proposed by Measure 33 would carry Marijuana for medicine in various forms, including baked goods, candies and oils, which are said to be safer than smoke inhalation.

Stormy Ray, a poster child of the original medical Marijuana initiative in 1998, is among those who have purchased arguments against the measure in the Oregon Voter's Pamphlet.

Ray, 48, suffers from multiple sclerosis. She and others worry the measure will make the federal government's war against the medical use of Marijuana even more aggressive.

"There is an ongoing struggle between states that have medical Marijuana laws and the federal government," admits Sojo.

Other opponents of Measure 33 call the initiative a thinly veiled effort toward legalizing Marijuana for all.

But Sajo says it will remain a felony to buy or sell Marijuana under the proposal.

"I personally am a supporter of legalization, and I hope we get to vote for that someday," he said.

The measure is endorsed by Pacific Green Party, the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon and the local Freedom Socialist Party.

"We think it's important that medical Marijuana be more readily available to those who are medicinally in that kind of need," said party organizer Jordana Sardo. "Frankly, we are in favor of decriminalizing or legalizing drugs in general because we feel it's really important that the profit motive be taken out of the whole drug trade."

For Martinez, she says the current state of the law leaves her with few options.

"I'm in support of Measure 33 because when my crop fails, I have no place to go for this medicine. My other option is to be on really strong pain medication and I choose not to. I choose a quality of life that allows me to enjoy my grandchildren, my pets and my family life," she said.


Photo by Mark Washington/The Portland Observer
Madeline Martinez, 54, is allowed to grow and use Marijuana as medicine to treat pain.

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