C.O. medical pot dispensaries pleased by law change

President Obama signed a $1,1 trillion spending bill this week that legalizes medical marijuana. In Oregon, medical marijuana has been legal for 16 years, but the fight between the states and Washington, D.C. has been an ongoing battle.

“People who have been using cannabis or self-medicating with cannabis for decades have a lot of guilt, shame and stigma,” the owner of Bloom Well in Bend, Jeremy Kwit, said Wednesday.

But now we are burning that bridge, once and for all.

“When there is a shift at the federal level, it makes a lot more clients feel at ease,” Kwit said.

Dispensaries such as Bloom Well also will feel more relaxed.

“I’ll definitely sleep better tonight,” Kwit said.

The risk of a federal raid was always a concern for places such as Bloom Well, one of 12 dispensaries in the city of Bend.

“We have shifted away from a black market supply system into a regulated supply environment, so we can have a storefront,” Kwit said.

But before you go get your pot, you need to get your green card approved.

That’s where the clinic MAMA, or Mother’s Against Misuse and Abuse, comes in.

“Well, it really doesn’t affect us at all. The federal government really has never had any issue with the clinical end of what we are doing,” said Tristan Reisfar, the manager of MAMA.

What will change the stigma of cannabis, in Reisfar’s opinion, is how marijuana is labeled.

Pot is a ‘Schedule 1′ drug, meaning it’s grouped with substances defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse.

“Right now, medical marijuana is considered to be the same as heroin and LSD and those kind of drugs as well,” Reisfar said.

Which means, “Legally, from a federal perspective, doctors can’t prescribe it,” Reisfar argued.

For now, the stigma with medical marijuana will fade in the eyes of the federal government, leaving dispensaries at ease.

“I feel a lot better, knowing that their funding has been removed and they really aren’t going to go after proprietors like myself that really and truly are in a clear compliance with our state laws,” Kwit said.