Marijuana Blog

In 1998 voters in Oregon legalized medical marijuana, and one of the provisions of the law is that you don’t have to live in Oregon to get a medical marijuana card in that state, as long as you have the recommendation of an Oregon doctor.

As you can imagine, this draws patients from the only state that borders Oregon and doesn’t have medicinal cannabis – Idaho. But when those who get medical marijuana from Oregon come back into Idaho, they become a criminal as Idaho doesn’t recognize medical marijuana cards from other states.

To many of us, this doesn’t seem like it should be a big deal to Idaho law enforcement, just some people with baggies of plant matter.

Idaho State Trooper David Kosmecki is known in the state for making more DUI arrests than any other trooper. And he would rather be pulling over drunk drivers than people who got cannabis in Oregon because, as he says, drunks kill people.

“I’d take a drunk over a pound of dope any day of the week,” Klitch said.

According to records, only 196 people in Idaho have medical marijuana cards from Oregon, and most of those people got their card from the 45th Parallel marijuana cooperative in Ontario, Oregon, about 5 miles from the Idaho border. Bill Esbensen is one of the founders of the cooperative.

“We have oncologists all over the state of Idaho and other states sending patients to our clinic,” Esbensen said. “They’re afraid to speak out in their state, but they’re willing to send them over here.”

Doctors “afraid” to speak out on matters of medicine? Matters they are legally considered experts in? Is that what passes for health care in the majority of the U.S.?

And all because of the lies and propaganda spread about an amazing plant.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com

While some states want to test food stamp recipients for marijuana and kick them off the rolls if they test positive, the state of Oregon actually lets medical marijuana patients deduct their medicine from their income when determining eligibility for food stamps.

In Oregon, seniors and those who qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance to deduct medical costs such as prescription drugs when submitting income information to see if they are eligible for food stamps.

"Medical marijuana gets treated just like any other prescription drug," said Gene Evans, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Human Services.

Included in “medical marijuana costs” are the fees for obtaining a state-issued medical marijuana card, expenses incurred while growing marijuana and the costs of purchasing it from another grower.

But of course the federal government does not condone such practices.

"No state may deduct the cost of any substance considered illegal under federal law, including medical marijuana," the U.S. Department of Agriculture wrote in response to the Oregonian. "Although there may be state or local laws that permit the cultivation, prescription, and sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes, such activity is not permitted under federal law."

Medical marijuana growers in Oregon can also get reduced fees if they can prove they are on foodstamps.

It seems Maine and New Mexico both have similar language in their medical cannabis laws when it comes to the deduction of medical marijuana expenses.

This is still a very new concept of course, but someday marijuana will be treated like any other medication across the country. After all, why should you get to deduct Percocet or Valium expenses and not marijuana if you are a legal patient in your state?

It’s time to stop discrimination of medical marijuana patients.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com