Medical misery

Portland State is a diverse campus with a diverse student body and faculty that have a multitude of needs. This includes the need some students have for medical marijuana—but PSU is a state institution, and school becomes increasingly difficult when you cannot use your medication.

College is difficult enough without having to worry about your health, but worse is the case for some PSU students who need to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. However, being a state entity means there is nothing the university can do for students until Oregon legalizes the public use of medical marijuana.

The law in Oregon states that with proper registration, one can have up to 24 ounces of medical marijuana, but they can only smoke it within the confines of their own home.

However, if you live in university housing, you signed a contract that does not allow residents to smoke medical marijuana. This is due to the ventilation within university housing, which is all interconnected and marijuana smoke could impair other residents, according to Scott Gallagher, director of communications.

As far as the faculty and staff go, if they have been prescribed medical marijuana then they are out of luck too, because a bill in 2009 that would have legalized workplace use of medical marijuana did not pass.

Good job Oregon—really, kudos.

Frankly Oregon, we need to get it together. People in our workplaces and universities have serious ailments that need attention. Thankfully, they have medical marijuana. But the restrictions on it are ridiculous.

So what can we do for our fellow Oregonians? In an ideal world, we would just legalize marijuana in general. But of course that would be too radical of a move. We must take baby steps.

First step: Legalize medical marijuana in the work place! Businesses can have a designated area for those who need to smoke their medical marijuana in the work place.

Universities should do the same thing. It could be similar to our smoking shelters on campus. We just need medical marijuana smoking shelters so that those students and faculty who need to smoke it are able to.

The important thing is to legalize smoking medical marijuana in certain public places. Medical marijuana has benefited people with muscular conditions, nausea and cancer. Why should these people suffer more than they have to?

Perhaps on their state registration for medical marijuana, users ought to state the times that they have to smoke and how often they smoke in order to help with whatever condition ails them. That way, people can try and plan around their specified smoking times—but if they have to, they should be able smoke up in designated areas.

Bottom line, we need to become more accommodating to those in need. Portland State cannot accomplish this until Oregon does. Those who need medical marijuana suffer from serious conditions and we need to take action. Get it in gear and help those Oregonians who need it.