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Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse MAMA on KODL radio in The Dalles
Pair stumps for cannabis reform Transcribed from the Pendleton East Oregonian Howard Woolridge is a retired police officer. Alice Ivany is a former mill worker with a mangled left arm. They share an unusual passion - promoting the legalization of marijuana. Woolridge and Ivany dropped into Pendleton this week to expound on the topic. They represent an Oregon group called Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse (MAMA), that advocates for medical marijuana users and are in the midst of an Eastern Oregon tour that also will take them to Bend, Redmond, Madras and Klamath Falls this week. Woolridge is a lanky Texan who sports a cowboy hat and a T-shirt that says "Cops say legalize pot. Ask me why." In 2003, he rode his pinto horse Misty across America twice, stopping often to chat with people who noticed his shirt. The former detective said, as a police officer in a Michigan township, he'd grown frustrated with how much time he spent searching cars for drugs, rather than dealing with serious public safety threats. The War on Drugs, he insists, is not working. Drugs are still readily available despite prohibition. Instead of prohibiting, prosecuting and imprisoning for marijuana possession, why not tax and regulate and take the financial incentive away from drug cartels and terrorists, Woolridge asked, saying people, not bureaucrats, should decide what goes in their bodies and then face the consequences of their bad decisions. Ivany, who lives at the Oregon coast in Toledo, is concerned how current law affects medical marijuana users. She lost most of her arm in 1977 when her glove got caught in machinery at the plywood mill where she worked. Ivany took painkillers to dull the fiery pain, but couldn't deal with drug side affects such as nausea, stomach cramps. Then, nine years ago, her doctor suggested marijuana. Ivany, who had never used marijuana, was horrified at the idea. "It was a humiliating experience for me to be reduced to using cannabis to control pain," she said. "It was embarrassing - I was terribly afraid." Once she tried marijuana, however, she changed her tune. "It turns the volume down on your pain," she said, "and improves the quality of your life." Taken properly, she said, the drug doesn't interfere with regular living. She feels slightly tired, but not intoxicated. She said medical marijuana is administered in a variety of ways. Some people take it as a tincture placed under their tongues. Others mix it with food, smoke it or apply as a ointment on their skin. Ivany rubs on a light-green glycerin-like substance from a plastic tube. Ivany is the co-chief petitioner of Initiative 28, which would create a regulated system of supplying and dispensing marijuana to registered patients. The original Oregon Medical Marijuana Act didn't include such provisions because federal law didn't allow it. Now, the Obama administration is indicating it will allow states to regulate medical marijuana. Attorney General Eric Holder in February said the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs established legally under state law. The open stance has triggered an increase in applications for the state's medical marijuana program, according to DHS spokeswoman Christine Stone. Ivany couldn't be happier about that development. "It has deflated a lot of fears," Ivany said. She said people are also realizing that marijuana is a legitimate treatment. "It works," Ivany said. "The cat is out of the bag." Oregon now has about 36,000 people in its medical marijuana program, one of the first such programs in the country. Umatilla County has almost 300 medical marijuana users. Getting cannabis isn't always easy, even if one has status as a medical marijuana patient. "You grow it on your own or you depend on someone to give it to you," Ivany said. "You can't buy it, only reimburse for electricity, pots and soil." Current law allows patients or designated growers to cultivate six plants per patient for debilitating conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, seizures, nausea, severe pain, Alzheimer's, HIV/AIDS and persistent muscle spasms. Tour director Jennifer Burbank said she fielded a call from an 84-year-old woman asking how to get marijuana. "We have people come in who have never tried it," she said. "They don't know how to smoke it or use it." Having the drug available at a dispensary would save registered patients the trouble and delay of having to grow their own medicine. Only time will tell if Initiative 28 will reach the November ballot or if, as Woolridge hopes, marijuana will be someday be available in the store along with whiskey, beer and cigarettes. MAMA operates clinics in Portland, The Dalles and Bend.
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