Medical marijuana. Voters have, in many states, decided that marijuana has a legitimate medical use.
Despite the expression of a majority of the electorate, Oregon’s Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon thinks he has the right to withhold permits to carry concealed weapons for people who use medical marijuana. He says his position is supported by recent Oregon Supreme Court holding.
The Oregon Supreme Court upheld an employer’s right to fire a worker who tests positive for marijuana – even if they have a permit that allows its use. In fact, the court did not say what Gordon alleges. The case dealt with whether an employer had to make a reasonable accommodation for a man who used medical marijuana. The court held an employer didn’t have to make such an accommodation. Gordon is trying to use this case as justification for denying medical marijuana users permits to carry concealed weapons. (In Oregon, the sheriff must issue concealed weapons permits, if the person qualifies. Gordon changed the qualifications with the specific intent to prevent any person who has had a prescription for marijuana filled in the last six months from getting a permit). [reference supra]
Gordon claims he should have, at least, as much discretion in who he issues a permit to carry concealed as an employer has in who he will allow to work for him.[1] The sheriff feels that any person with a medical marijuana permit is disqualified by the federal government from buying a firearm.
His reliance on this decision is entirely specious. It was an employment discrimination case. It had nothing to with any other federal laws.
He admits he doesn’t think medical marijuana users are unsafe, he just doesn’t think they qualify to receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Apparently, the law be damned.
The real reason that Gordon refused the permits is plain in his statement to KATU television:
“The whole medical marijuana issue is a concern to sheriffs across the country who are involved in it mainly because there is so much potential for abuse or for misuse and as a cover for organized criminal activity... You can’t argue that people aren’t misusing that statute in Oregon.”
One wonders why Gordon hasn’t gone after the abusers, misusers and/or organized criminal activity? Perhaps, it is because he would have to work to go after the real criminals? And it is much easier to go after legitimate users, who sign up with the state and keep records.
How does he know that people are “misusing that statute in Oregon” and why isn’t he going after them?
This is typical of law enforcement. They see a boogieman behind every tree. They believe it is their right to supersede the will of the people to “protect” them from non-existent dangers.
And to do anything to preserve their bureaucratic empires. They could care less what is right, wrong and/or legal.
ATF form 4473 must be completed by everyone in the US before they can purchase a firearm. Item 11[e] asks the question: "Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana, any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug or any other controlled substance?"
If you answer, “yes” to question 11[e], then you can’t purchase a firearm. Gordon, apparently, believes that use of medical marijuana would require you to answer ‘yes’ to the question.
Psychoactive drugs, such as opiods and marijuana, carry with them a huge and infamous legacy.
Even if they have never seen it, just about everybody has heard about the movie Reefer Madness. (The film was re-made in 2005 as musical comedy I wonder if it is available on Netflix?).
In the movie Animal House, set in the early sixties, the Dave Jennings character - a professor at the mythical Faber College - asks some students if they want to smoke some pot. Before they smoke, they lock themselves in the bathroom and turn off all the lights. One of the students asks, when the joint is passed to him, if it will make him go schizo. Jennings said it was possible.
What these movies do is reinforce the stereotype that all drug users are marginal citizens. Citizens to be ignored, scorned, pitied and, ultimately, ‘saved’ by being bundled off to the Betty Ford Center or some less pleasant rehab experience. Forget for a moment that the characters portrayed in the movies are just that - characters - there are a very large number of people who can only see marijuana as they are portrayed by Jennings, his students and Spicoli. When, in fact, that is about as far away as one can get from reality.
In Fast Times, Spicoli is ultimately saved by the caring teacher Roy Hand, (played by Ray Walston, who I will always think of as Bill Bixby’s ‘uncle’ on the sitcom My Favorite Martian which ran from 1963 to 1966.)
In Animal House, the drunks and dopers get their comeuppance when they are kicked out of Faber College. In the end, though,the possibility of redemption is raised when the president of the fraternity asks for one more chance.
American cinema always rehabilitates our stoners.
Then there are the bullies who seek to capitalize on all the BS that they believe is true and who believe they are above the law. I believe that Sheriff Gordon is one of those bullies.
He capitalizes on the belief that everyone who smokes pot is a marginal citizen and won’t fight back. So, he is able to construct obstacles to medical marijuana patients exercising all the rights and privileges of any other citizen.
Even Gordon doesn’t believe that pot smokers with firearms are dangerous. He, apparently, just doesn’t like people who are using medical marijuana. Which makes his actions some sort of bizarre attempt at social engineering that produces a society as he thinks it should be.
Then there is the issue of medical marijuana ‘abuse’. This ‘abuse’ is commonly cited by the police as a reason to eliminate, or at least, closely control the use of medical marijuana. This is, especially, true of elected law enforcement officials. Some citizens tend to agree that medical marijuana does not have a legitimate medical use and applaud LEOs for going after these ‘evil’ people. Or, to put it more accurately, to go after these people who are marginal members of society and, therefore, not valued by society.
One wonders where the people who disagree with the use of medical marijuana where when the initiatives legalizing its use were being voted on. But, I digress...
The behavior of the bullies, along with the longstanding social taboos and ignorance associated with the use of medical marijuana, produces a situation ripe for exploitation for the opponents of the use of marijuana for legitimate therapeutic purposes.
It is interesting to note that this irrational opposition to medical marijuana produces some degree of cognitive dissonance in some people.
In Montana, (where the lower house has voted to re-criminalize any use of marijuana in an attempt to pander to their perceived base), one of the ways considered to control the use of medical marijuana was to prohibit its use by persons on probation or parole. Another idea was to require patients who use it for pain relief get prescriptions from two doctors before their use permits would issue.
Let’s, as my high school english teacher always said, compare and contrast the use of medical marijuana for pain control with the use of narcotic analgesics[2] for pain control. In this instance, I will use the narcotic analgesic hydrocodone/APAP[3] commonly referred to as Vicodin or Lor-Tab.
The social taboo against using hydrocodone is low to non-existent, (despite the DEA’s attempt at demonizing the all pain medications). Hydrocodone, when used inappropriately is physically addicting. Patients may develop what is referred to as tachyplaxis, (although this is very seldom the case), requiring increased doses of hydrocodone to treat the same condition.
The State of Montana is not considering making a patient get a permit before a patient can legally use hydrocodone for pain relief. It does not require a patient to get two doctor’s prescriptions before they can use hydrocodone. The State of Montana does not restrict the use of hydrocodone by people on probation or parole.
Marijuana in comparison has a huge taboo associated with it. Despite which, when it is abused it does not lead to addicition.[4] There are no instances of tachyphylaxis recorded in the literature, (that I could find, it may be out there). Even so, the state feels compelled by some deeper motivation to restrict the use of marijuana for arbitrary and senseless reasons.
In Pennsylvania out of 4,000 ‘evaluations’ for driving under the influence of drugs other than alcohol, it was estimated that up to 35% of people driving under the influence had hydrocodone or oxycodone in their system. None of the drivers had used marijuana before they were ‘evaluated’. The report didn’t even mention marijuana.
It is difficult to determine[4] how many violent crimes – assaults – are due to hydrocodone or marijuana use. Most results in the web search I did combine arrests for assaults and illegal drugs. In most cases, the drugs that were seized had nothing to do with the assault.
There is quite a bit of sensationalism when a legal marijuana dispensary is raided. For example, this story. The headline is “Medical Marijuana Assault Suspects in Court". However, when you read the article, it mentions nothing about either legal or illegal marijuana.
We stand at a crossroads. On one side, the people who want to use a medicine that isn’t addictive, doesn’t lead to criminal behavior and, potentially, causes greatly reduced levels of impairment compared to ethanol alcohol.
On the other side we have Gordon and his contemporaries. They seem to be desperate to hold on to the way ‘things were.’ They feel threatened because no one listens to them when they ‘cry wolf’. They are upset because they have been marginalized, however little that marginalization is. So, they invent ways to get people to believe their cries of ‘wolf’.
The question is, what will prevail? Compassion? Or criminality? For the sake of the suffering, I hope that it will be compassion.
Update: The Oregon Supreme Court ruled against Sheriff Gordon. He can no longer deny people who use medical marijuana permits to carry concealed weapons.
[1] This is among the most nonsensical thing I have ever heard. The people applying for permits are not asking to go to work for Gordon. All they want is to exercise their second amendment rights - which are not dependent on them not using an entirely legal drug with a wide range of therapeutic uses. He, apparently, doesn’t understand that court precedent on one issue cannot be transferred to another, totally unrelated instance.
[2] “Narcotic analgesics” are widely and appropriately used for pain control. Despite which, the DEA, (discussion of the harsh reality behind DEA prosecution of what they claim is an inappropriate prescription of narcotic analgesics by medical doctors) continues to seek to prosecute physicians for the legitimate use of narcotic analgesics.
[3] ‘APAP’ is an abbreviation for acetaminophen. A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug commonly called ‘Tylenol’.
[4] When you search the web for information about ‘marijuana addiction’ the results are overwhelming from people/organizations that want to sell you something. Usually rehabilitation services. I do not believe statements from an organization that will make money off saying you are addicted is a legitimate source for information.
In today’s society, there is a growing tendency to describe obsessive-compulsive behavior as an ‘addiction.’ Obsessive Compulsive behavior is not, in my opinion, the same thing as addiction. Addiction requires that a person experience physiological changes due to their drug of choice, with physical withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking the drug.
[4] I graduated from Paramedic training in 1978. During my entire career, I never treated a patient purely for the effects of marijuana. I never encountered a driver under the influence of marijuana. I never responded to a call for domestic abuse where marijuana had been used by the assailant. During the five years I worked in the emergency department of a Level III trauma center, I never treated anyone for a complaint about negative consequences from marijuana use. I realize this is anecdotal.
