Last week, sponsors of a new component to Oregon’s  medical marijuana submitted a collection of over 110,000 signatures supporting an initiative  that would authorize dispensaries and producers to distribute marijuana to qualified patients.  The current law only authorizes qualified patients to grow their own medicine or to designate growers. 

The sponsors believe that they have sufficient signatures to motivate the initiative.  When the original statute was enacted provisions for dispensaries was not added for fear of the consequences of a federal prosecution.  Since then, the Obama administration has indicated that it will not aggressively prosecute medical marijuana grower or users sanctioned under state medical marijuana laws.

This new the initiative will authorized quality control standards that will result in labels that identify the strength and active ingredients of the substance and a certification that will establish that the product is  contaminate free.  This information will allow doctors to advise patients about appropriate dosages. 

It is expected that the new legislation will raise between ten and forty million dollars in the first year from revenues generated from licensing and taxing provisions.