Hindering Patients: What’s With The OMMP?

Apparently there’s another nightmare brewing for OMMP patients. The Oregon Health Authority has been given additional oversight and now wants in our homes to look around. I’m not sure when our right to privacy flew out the window, but apparently that’s what they want to do. Do cannabis patients NOT have HIPAA rights? All the increased fees will no doubt fund this fishing expedition, but since the extra money goes to other programs, I suppose we’ll see more increases to offset this travesty.

No one comes in to check how much Aleve I have. Nor do they come in and check what other doctor prescribed prescriptions I have. But with cannabis, they feel compelled. Because after all, we’re not patients, we’re drug addicts. Not that cannabis is addictive or anything. I don’t sell any of my cannabis, because I need it to stay alive. I might give a clone or two to another patient, but really I do that so they learn to fend for themselves. I’ve even given small cloning tubs to patients so they’d learn how to take their own clones and continue their gardens on their own.

All because we legalized..

But here’s the thing. This is all happening because we legalized cannabis recreationally. Instead of simply implementing that law, they decided to go after the OMMP, as if patients were ever the problem. They put zero rules on growers, ever, and now they want to crack down on everyone. Patients are just trying to heal or stay healthy. I know plenty who never see the plants their grower grows for them, and they’re charged a ridiculous amount for an ounce per month of cannabis that belongs to them and not to the grower. No one’s stupid. We know what they do with it. The Oregon legislature could have dealt with this problem long ago, but they chose not to do so. And how we have this nonsense to deal with.

I grow my own cannabis. I don’t use a grower other than my husband. But I have a basic right to privacy. Measure 91 prohibits affecting OMMP patients, which is being completely disregarded now. As patients, we’ve all sat back and watched this unfold in horror, knowing full well that we will be the last ones thought of in this debacle. This is not the law I voted for. Had I known my life would be turned upside down in the process, I would have voted no. Besides, legalization like this is not true legalization. It’s just further control that treats everyone like criminals. And for what? A plant that heals?

Between the committee tasked with implementing Measure 91 and the Oregon Health Authority, they’ve really screwed the pooch here. All at the patient’s expense.

Get it through your heads, people. We don’t become patients to get high legally. We become patients, not to be harassed, but to heal. Now, leave us alone to do just that.