Center supports medical marijuana use

Oregon Daily Emerald ^ | February 14, 2003 | Aaron Shakra

[MrLeRoy]

Nearly four years after the implementation of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, there are still few support services for OMMA patients in Eugene. But the Compassion Center, a nonprofit corporation that opened in Eugene two years ago, is striving to create a "model organization" for the support of medical marijuana users that the rest of the state could follow.

The center offers many services to its members, including classes on cultivation of the plant, confidential consultation and assistance for patients registering with Oregon Health Services. An "introduction" night that provides a basic understanding of the OMMA takes place from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. the first Thursday of every month.

Teaching patients how to grow marijuana is especially important, because while Oregon allows possession and use of the drug for medical marijuana card-holders, it's still a crime to buy the substance.

The clinic, located at 1055 Bertelsen Road in Eugene, opened in December 2000. It is funded by donations, clinic revenue and membership dues. The center is also applying for non-profit status with the IRS, which will allow people to make tax-exempt donations.

Compassion Center President Todd Dalotto, who co-founded the organization, said he's pleased with the progress of the center during the last two years.

"We have people coming from all over the state for our services," said Dalotto, who has been involved with the nutritional and health aspects of marijuana use his entire adult life. "We're creating a model organization that we hope to duplicate in other places."

Dalotto emphasized that one of the center's main goals is to educate the general public about the OMMA, which exempts patients from criminal penalties related to growing and possessing the herb. In order to apply for a medical marijuana card, patients must first be diagnosed with one of nine qualifying ailments, such as HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer's disease and cachexia, a condition of severe malnutrition.

Dalotto also said that he is in support of decriminalizing the drug.

"The American public seems to favor legalization, but it relies on politicians to pass legislation, he said. "There is no reason there should be a law against the plant unless they're using it to hurt someone."

Citing "Question 9," a recent Nevada initiative to legalize the drug, Dalotto said he believes money plays heavily into the politics of marijuana.

"Any voter initiative for legalization always gets outspent by corporate and government initiates," he said.

In spite of support from the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs -- the state's largest police organization -- the measure failed, with 61 percent of voters rejecting it. National drug czar John Walters made two trips to speak against marijuana use before voters went to the ballot.

But the Compassion Center has yet to raise ire from governing authorities in Oregon.

Dalotto said he's received no interference from state officials and minimal intervention from federal officials. Last year, medical marijuana patient Leroy Stubblefield's plants were seized by Drug Enforcement Administration agent Michael Spasaro. Doctor Phillip Leveque, a physician at the Compassion Center for two days each month, also works at a variety of other OMMA centers across the state, including Voter Power in Portland. He has signed medical marijuana applications for more than 4,000 patients and said that the law's "strange" criteria cause confusion.

"The biggest problem is that judges don't understand the law, the district attorney doesn't understand the law and the police don't understand the law," Leveque said.

Medical marijuana user John Walsh, a Compassion Center patient and cannabis activist for many local organizations, said the law's gray areas make it "difficult for there to be enough available when they need it."

A benefit for the Compassion Center and Emerald Empire Hempfest 2003 will be held Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Campbell Club Cooperative.

[jayef]

Is it your business if your neighbor drinks alcohol? Is it your business if your neighbor has a gun? Are the contents of your neighbor's medicine cabinet your business?

I suppose that you feel that God has given you the right to determine which intoxicants I should use? God gives you the right to impinge on my rights because he would want you to save me from the horrors of drug use, right?

What part of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do you not understand? Liberty! Do you know what that means? Why do you drug warriors always think that the documents written by our forfathers were grants of rights? They were anything but. Our forefathers purposefully avoided the enumeration of rights and reluctantly wrote a bill of rights just to be sure that none would be violated.

My rights do not come from Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin, James Madison or anybody else. They come from God. Just as yours do. As far as I know, God doesn't wish for man to impose his will on other men. It's that simple.

[Cultural Jihad]

No one cares anything about will, only actions. It doesn't matter to society what reasons people have for what they do; the only thing that matters to society is the actions people do.

[jayef]

License, eh? Why do I need your indulgence to do anything? That's what I want to know. Do you ask my indulgence before you pop the cork on your favorite bottle of wine? Then you won't mind if I don't ask yours as I light up this nice spliff. Evenin' to ya.

[jayef]

And what actions does society care about?

[Cultural Jihad]

Why do I need your indulgence to do anything?

Exactly. That is what the drug legalization crowd needs to realize.

[jayef]

Come again?

[philman_36]

No one cares anything about will, only actions. It doesn't matter to society what reasons people have for what they do; the only thing that matters to society is the actions people do.
That is funny in light of this...
You know what? This society doesn't deserve that responsibility. This society can't handle that responsibility. This society is intolerant of others, thin-skinned to perceived slights, and hope to retire early by winning the "Tort Court Lotto". This society can't be trusted with marijuana or any other illegal drug. That's why I'm in no hurry to follow your lead.
You don't deserve responsibility CJ. You can't handle responsibility CJ. You're intolerant of others CJ.
You're your society.
Do you find robertpaulsen's views troublesome or do you share his beliefs?
He won't answer that question so I guess he stands by that belief even when it applies to himself.
Society, society, society.

[Cultural Jihad]

The drug-legalization crowd is enraptured with their own infantilism: "O, Daddy Government, please may I have your permission to consume these chemicals for fun? Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh?" Henry David Thoreau's they are not.

[Cultural Jihad]

"Waaahhh! I want, and therefore give me! Waaaahhh!"

[philman_36]

"Waaahhh! I want, and therefore give me! Waaaahhh!"
So that is your society?

[Cultural Jihad]

Society leads an ideologue to civilization

[philman_36]

Society leads an ideologue to civilization
Society (a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests) leads (to guide on a way especially by going in advance) an ideologue (an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology) to civilization (refinement of thought, manners, or taste).
Have I got the right definitions?
How does society lead an ideologue to civilization?

[tpaine]

My rights do not come from Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Ben Franklin, James Madison or anybody else. They come from God. Just as yours do.
As far as I know, God doesn't wish for man to impose his will on other men. It's that simple.
41 -jayef-

No one cares anything about will, only actions.
It doesn't matter to society what reasons people have for what they do; the only thing that matters to society is the actions people do.
42 -cj-

How weird. Here we see our jihadic cultist admit that he doesn't ~care~ that his god commands man to use their will to do good, - to fight evil.
He claims that only what other men, [society] see in the "actions people do", - matters.

Odd view for a 'Christian'. More akin to the views of our enemies, the taliban, imo.
Can you enighten us on this dichotomy of yours Jihad?

[tpaine]

Can you enighten us on this dichotomy of yours Jihad?

---

CRICKETS????

---

Appparently our enlightened one is far to buzy on other threads to grace us with his presence.
- Or, - He simply is incapable of an answer.

[philman_36]

Hello! Earth to CJ...come in CJ.
Have I got the right definitions?
How does society lead an ideologue to civilization?

[jayef]

I really can't make any sense of this line of reasoning. My original post was in response to an earlier post stating that libertarians seek only license. Go back and review the thread and see if you can get back on track.

[Cultural Jihad]

What is legalization but seeking license?

[jayef]

So now we've come full circle. This was the original claim that I refuted. You want some too? Silly question. Again, do you ask for license to consume the intoxicants of your choosing?

[toothless]

"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of
temperance. It is a species of intemperance within
itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in
that it attempts to control a man's appetite by
legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are
not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the
very principles upon which our government was
founded."
Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), U.S. President.
Speech, 18 Dec. 1840, to Illinois House of
Representatives

"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been
lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For
nothing is more destructive of respect for the
government and the law of the land than passing laws
which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that
the dangerous increase of crime in this country is
closely connected with this."
Albert Einstein, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.",
1921

"There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that
authorizes the federal government to wage war against
the citizens of the United States, no matter how
well-meaning the intent. The Bill of Rights means just
as much today, as it did on the day it was written.
And its protections are just as valid and just as
important to freedom today, as they were to our
Founders two hundred years ago. The danger of the drug
war is that it erodes away those rights. Once the
fourth amendment is meaningless, it's just that much
easier to erode away the first and then the second,
etc. Soon we'll have no rights at all. " Jim Robinson,
5/9/01 155

"I am so tired of all the arguments for and against
legalizing. It should be legal because this is
America. People that claim anything else should never
be allowed to claim they value freedom and liberty
without being laughed at in the face."

59 posted on 02/14/2003 2:29 PM EST by ks2papa (I Love
Freedom More Than You)

[Cultural Jihad]

posted by ks2papa

Do you have a link to that post by a non-member?