Portland News - – OregonLive.comThe Cannabis Cafe will be the second public place for medical-marijuana patients to get together. On Oct. 1, Steve Geiger opened Highway 420, a small lounge at the back of his pipe shop at 6418 S.E. Foster Road...Oregon continues to fascinate me. Turns out that you can get a card to grow marijuana, you can get a card to use marijuana, but you can not sell marijuana in Oregon.
The pot lounges are the first of their kind in the nation, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the national NORML. California has dispensaries where medical marijuana can be purchased, but only Oregon will have public places where people can socialize and use marijuana.
So how about pharmaceutical companies can be licensed to make medications, people can get prescriptions for medications, but nobody can sell medication? Patients can still chip in to cover the cost of ingredients, just like they can help cover a grower's costs. The pharmeceutical industry would love that.
As for the Cannabis Cafe, it makes me slightly uncomfortable. In order to go there, you have to have a medical-marijuana card. No problem. In fact, very smart idea. But you also have to belong to NORML. So it isn't really so much a cafe as a private club. NORML wants pot legalized, not just medical-marijuana. Isn't it possible that a medical-marijuana patient might not condone recreational use?
Not saying a place like this shouldn't exist. But if a state allows medical marijuana, shouldn't it also allow for a reasonable way for patients to get it?
As medical-marijuana use continues to legitimize states will have to deal with some cold facts. Like if it is a prescribed medication, why can't people get it in a drug store? Since medical studies have shown it to have no ill health effects, why can't anyone buy and use it like aspirin, cough syrup, or laxatives (all of which have higher overdose rates than marijuana)? And why can't a person write off their hand blown three foot glass bong as a medical expense? Those things aren't cheap! My mom shoots her insulin at the dinner table at the restaurant because she has a prescription for it and needs it. Shouldn't medical marijuana users enjoy the same privilege? Or are they expected to stay at home all the time so if they find they need to medicate themselves they don't end up breaking the law? Or will they have to only go to places like the Cannabis Cafe where their healthy friends can't join them for dinner?
Good luck to Portland's new medical-marijuana social scene. Brave new territory at the end of the Oregon Trail.
2 comments:
At least one can grow and use their own if they have an Rx.
I suspect it'll continue to spread piecemeal from state to state until the feds discover the value of taxing America's largest cashcrop. Then you'll see "Federal Guidelines."
In true American fashion, when that happens, they'll not care whether it's medical or not, just that the tax is being paid.
I would venture a gamble that the medical pot user that is opposed to it for recreation does not exist. The medical pot user that is against it and is going to go to a medical pot social event is even a more sure payoff for me.
Post a Comment