Springfield medical marijuana case dismissed
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SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- A recent court case raises this question: Can medical marijuana card holders possess marijuana in public places?
The answer remains unclear after a Lane County judge dismissed the case Thursday. A police captain, a local politician and the Springfield man who filed the suit all say they're frustrated by the continued murkiness of Oregon's medical marijuana law.
"As it stands today, nothing has been resolved as far as we're concerned," said Captain Rich Harrison of the Springfield Police Department.
The judge dismissed the case filed by Paul McClain, who received a ticket for illegally possessing marijuana in February, even though he has a medical marijuana card. Police found the marijuana during a routine search at the Springfield Municipal Court.
McClain said he has mixed emotions about the result.
"I was happy and a little bit peeved actually," McClain said.
McClain said he would have liked to see the case go before a judge. Springfield police agree.
"The law hasn't been changed," Harrison said, "and we will take the same actions tomorrow that we took several weeks ago."
State Senator Floyd Prozanski sent the judge a letter clarifying what the medical marijuana act was intended to do.
"To me the intent was not to prohibit someone to have it on their person or in their belongings in a public place, but to actually use it in the sense of ingesting it," Prozanski said.
Prozanski said he plans to make changes to the the law during the next legislative session that begins in January 2011. That's one action politicians, police and Paul McClain all agree needs to happen.
"It needs to be addressed and it needs to be clear," McClain said.
