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http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081028/NEWS01/810280392/1009&nav_category=&template=print
Group takes aim at medical marijuana law
By The Associated Press
Published: October 28. 2008 4:00AM PST
ALBANY - Dan Harmon is not celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.

Harmon chairs the Drugfree Workplace Legislative Work Group, which wants the state Legislature to make substantial changes to the law approved by voters in November 1998.

"We are going to push hard this next session," Harmon told members of  the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce last week.

One of the first orders of business, Harmon said, is to reintroduce Senate Bill 465, which would exempt employers from having to accommodate medical marijuana users, no matter when or where they use the drug. The Senate approved the bill in 2007, but it couldn't clear the House.

The work group also wants to delete some of the conditions currently approved for treatment with marijuana, restrict the approval of new conditions, require employer notification when a worker applies for a  medical-marijuana card and stiffen penalties for those who violate the act.

Besides leading the work group, Harmon is the executive vice chairman of a large Portland construction firm and a board member of Associated Oregon Industries, one of the state's most powerful business groups.

In his talk to the Albany chamber, he cited several reasons why employers would want to think twice about hiring medical marijuana users, including concerns about workplace safety, legal liability and the potential loss of federal contracts. He also said Oregon's medical marijuana law is being widely abused, and the law itself "says something about permissiveness in this state, and we've got to stop this permissiveness."

More than 20,000 Oregonians have cards authorizing them to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.