Open Letter Concerning Oregon Medical Marijuana Program
author: bhildy
 e-mail: bhildy62@yahoo.com
Open Letter About the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP)
To: Oregon Senate Public Health Committee and Oregon State Senators
Re: Informational Meeting
June 21, 2006
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Dear Senators,
In light of the Informational Meeting scheduled today, I want to take this opportunity to express to all of you some of my thoughts and experiences, since the passage of SB 1085 into Oregon law on January 1st, 2006. Please be aware that the members of the Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana do not represent me or my interests as a registered patient and gardener.
Every time I speak with you, I have to struggle with the symptoms of PTSD, agoraphobia, and numerous physical ailments. I often manage to overcome these disabilities simply because I stubbornly refuse to be reduced to collateral damage in your war. While you win or lose legislative battles, I speak out for my life and the quality of the lives of my husband and children. Please don't forget those of us who stand to lose much more than any other "stakeholder" in this debate.
In many ways, I believe Oregon's leaders have taken steps to more effectively prioritize our scarce resources, giving us the distinction of being the one state that incarcerates less non-violent offenders than violent offenders in the entire nation. It seems to me that Oregon is a political petri dish of sorts, where citizens often exhibit atypical courage and the conviction to utilize inventive new approaches, in order to attempt to make our streets safer and healthier places for ourselves and our children.
However, the OMMP is a glaring example of misprioritization in Oregon, starting with the creation of a system which forces patients to pay for the right to register like convicted sex offenders, just to take the medicine our doctors' recommend without fear of arrest. Furthermore, it singles out only those sick and dying Oregonians who rely on the medicine that even former DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young termed, "safer than many foods we commonly consume."
Additionally, the system often fails at what it purports to do. An issue I recently brought to the attention of Department of Human Services (DHS) Director Goldberg and Governor Kulongoski, is that the OMMP wrongfully sent to me another patient's confidential records as well as the address of the patient's grow site. Although Program Manager Pamela Salsbury has written to assure me that this kind of breach has never before occurred and will not occur again, I remain concerned. With the plethora of news stories across the country about data and records being lost and stolen, it seems almost inevitable that errors will again take place.
Prior to this breach, DHS had repeatedly assured patients that our information would be safe with them. I have personally been dismissed, chided and chastised by people sitting on the advisory committee for even suggesting that the issue of confidentiality was one worthy of more intense scrutiny. Apparently, this concern was and is legitimate, in light of the HIPAA violation that has since taken place.
Therefore, please do not allow today's discussion to become one of platitudes and pats on the back for the legislative maneuvers, which resulted in the passage of SB 1085. It's been deeply disturbing to watch as patients' interests were swept aside by the voices of the squeaky wheels in industry, law enforcement, organized crime, and professional activism. All of these "stakeholder" interests were well-represented and remain so. However, the citizens for whom the OMMA was originally crafted - largely sick and dying, but unaffiliated individuals - seem to me to have been lost in this political game.
When I inquired at an OMMP meeting about the priorities of this program, I was dismissed by Grant Higginson, who said that the program's only job is to provide the registration cards. I felt that the OMMP, with that statement, effectively closed their doors to most of the issues which effect registered patients' health and safety. If it's not the job of the health department, whose job is it then to prioritize the health and safety of our citizens and communities?
As I indicated in previous testimony, I will abide by the law and learn to live with whatever you legislators will allow me to have, but this only indicates my commitment to remain a law abiding citizen. This in no way reflects my ability to achieve optimum health while doing so, and as my doctor and family are well aware - I've suffered greatly in order to abide by the laws of our state already.
My weight has continually fluctuated, in direct proportion to my ability (and lack thereof) to be self-reliant in my gardening. As I'm still a novice gardener with limited resources and supplies, every mistake I make or pest that invades my garden means that my supply of the medicine that literally keeps me from wasting away, is reduced.
When several problems occur at once, I go without medicine, rather than violate the law or turn to sources that I believe could either support corrupt enterprises or take medicine away from patients in more critical situations than my own. I suppose I'm no worse off than all of the seniors who have had to cut their pills in half, trade drugs with friends, or drive to Canada to meet their medical needs, but that hardly describes a working system.
I'm not a master criminal or a master gardener, and it seems ironic to me that the new law provides lucrative opportunities for both criminal law enforcement budgets and criminals wishing to exploit the law for their own gain. What should have been an effort to discourage corruption instead encourages corruption by cannabis profiteers and drug war profiteers alike. How did a law designed to protect the seriously ill from arrest and jail turn into a political quagmire with "stakeholders?" That's just not right.
Finally, I ask this question of our lawmakers in the senate - is the health and safety of our communities your top priority? Being processed through the "justice" system can be challenging at times for healthy people. With the potential now for felony charges as well as medical penalties to be leveled against seriously ill Oregonians, the stakes could be quite high if we make mistakes.
To the best of my knowledge, there has been but one single event billed as educational at DHS for OMMP patients, since the first of the year. This included promotional material from a special interest group presented in full, brief summaries of the new law including damaging misinformation, and no time to answer all of the patients' questions. I beg of you to find a way to educate patients in Oregon about how we can be healthier, law abiding citizens under the new law and the new rules!
It is my most sincere hope that you will all carefully consider my words. Being agoraphobic, I don't get out much, so I don't feel right speaking for the thousands of patients I'll probably never know. However, I get the sense from those I have met and with whom I've spoken, that I'm not alone in my views and experiences.
In closing, I'd like to leave you with the wise and wonderful words of Marian Wright Edelman. "It's time for greatness -- not for greed. It's a time for idealism -- not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action."
Sincerely,
Erin Hildebrandt, Co-founder
Building-BLOCK
P.O. Box 541
Lafayette, OR 97127
(503)841-9975
E-mail:  erinhildebrandt@yahoo.com
Website:  http://www.Building-BLOCK.org
*** Please feel free to distribute this among Oregon patients, caregivers, gardeners, and all those who love them! ***
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homepage: http://www.Building-BLOCK.org
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Thanks. I'm genuinely curious.