Months after Medford police arrested Lori Duckworth for allegedly selling marijuana, a law is passed that her attorney says could have saved the years she might face behind bars.
“Today is a huge day for people on the war against drugs,” says Rosas.
Justin Rosas is Duckworth’s attorney, he says even though his client is still in trouble, she’s celebrating for others today.
“This is something they’ve hoped to champion for some time.”
Governor Kitzhaber signed a bill Wednesday legalizing medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon, something medical marijuana advocates say will bring safe access for patients.
“Before if a patient procured their medical marijuana card the only way they could get medicine was if they grew it themselves or is they had a surrogate grow it for them,” says Rogers.
Alex rogers of Ashland Health Alternative says now people with medical licensees will have a legitimate place to go and with the state regulating sales, Rogers says the economy could benefit too.
“Whatever money is profited on this it will just be taxed accordingly by the state and fed government.”
And reduce the illegal sale of the drug…
“Iits set up for people to sell on the black market now we have something that will push the tide away from that.”
The Oregon Health Authority has until March of next year to put together a set of rules, including a registry with all legal pot dispensaries on it.
Justin Rosas says this is a positive move and hopefully help his client.
It’ll be interesting to see how it affects the state prosecution.”
Not everyone is for the new law. We reached out to local law enforcement and the jackson county district attorney today, no one was available for comment.
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