MONDAY, JANUARY 2, 2012 • THE BULLETIN
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State power rates change in 2012
The Associated Press file photo
Paul Stanford, who has 80 marijuana plants growing at a warehouse in southeast Portland, is the nation’s leading gateway to medical marijuana.
For state’s pot king, love and mistrust • The go-to man for medical marijuana has angered, inspired many in his rise to the top By Nigel Duara The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Paul Stanford had lived a life of error, missteps and regrets, one laden with betrayals and failure. Then, on Nov. 3, 1998, Oregon voters approved the medicinal use of marijuana. And in this way he was saved. Stanford’s business is medical marijuana, and he is the nation’s leading gateway to the drug. In Oregon, Hawaii, Michigan and three other states where it’s legal, he charges a small fee for access to friendly doctors. People walk in as customers and leave, mostly, as patients. It’s an idea that has garnered him thousands of dollars — or, depending on who you believe, millions. His Hemp & Cannabis Foundation has established clinics or traveling practices in 20 cities in six states, with plans to expand. In 13 years, Stanford, 50, has climbed out of a hole of debt and into the warm lap of the nation’s medical marijuana community. Stanford isn’t just a marijuana-license distributor. He’s also a gifted grower whose plants have earned him firstplace awards at medical marijuana competitions in the U.S. With such a green thumb, several patients have designated him as their pot grower, and he’s responsible for 80 plants at a warehouse in southeast Portland. But there is another side to Stanford. Creditors say he has deceived them, the government says he’s a tax dodger; charged with felonies, he has pleaded down to lesser offenses. He has filed for bankruptcy at least twice. For at least three years, he paid off his personal bills with money from the foundation, and when the feds found out, he simply gave up the foundation’s nonprofit status. When cornered, time and again, Stanford wriggles his way out. His most recent legal problem, a state court matter that took him to a rainy corner
of Oregon in the spring, ended with a deal, too: As punishment for avoiding personal income taxes for two years, he paid more than $10,000 and was sentenced to 160 hours of community service. For the moment, he has quieted his creditors and worked out a deal with the IRS. He presses onward; he next plans to expand his business into Nevada. But the questions persist: Is Stanford the beleaguered yet sincere advocate for marijuana that he presents himself to be? Or is he something else?
True believers Stanford’s eyes flit about a cramped storefront in southeast Portland. He’s surrounded by true believers, the men and women of the pro-cannabis movement who have stood by him and his cause for nearly three decades. If he were a politician, this would be his hardcore base. Stanford — his bulky, 6-foot3 frame uncomfortably tucked into a small folding chair — is fronted by a table full of the accoutrements of the medical marijuana trade. There’s no fresh bud, but there’s lots of hemp: hemp oil and hemp lotion and even hemp shampoo. The pro-cannabis rally is the site of the launch of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, Stanford’s 2012 ballot measure intended to legalize, tax and sell marijuana. The room reeks of pot, the goods in the hands of a few people who likely got their first legal toke after walking out of one of Stanford’s clinics. Stanford assures them they will be successful in legalizing marijuana in 2012. It won’t be long, he says, before cannabis is sold, taxed and used freely. “He’s a great man,” said 59-year-old Michael Harris, of Portland, dressed in a tattered brown leather jacket, his stringy white hair in an unruly knot. “He’s doing great things.” Indeed, to some dope enthusiasts, Stanford is something of a savior. It was he who brought
the medical marijuana law from theory to practice, the one who went beyond the idea of asking patients’ personal physician for permission to use marijuana and instead, simply brought marijuana-friendly doctors to them. These are the folks Stanford has inspired in 30 years of marijuana activism. But he’s angered others, among them hopeful venture capitalists left empty-handed, pro-marijuana political donors who feel cheated and fellow medicalmarijuana campaigners who insist Stanford’s motives are impure. Stanford moved to Oregon in the mid-1980s. Here, it’s worth considering how a novice computer science major rose to such a high station among medical marijuana advocates. It began with the boot of a police officer plowing through the lock on his apartment’s front door in 1986. Stanford, joint in hand, was caught growing pot. He served five months’ probation, and forged ahead with plans to legalize marijuana in Oregon. In 1989, Stanford founded a hemp importation business. It was called Tree Free Ecopaper, and it was not successful. Stanford lost a court battle when he broke his probation by traveling out of the country, and served a five-month prison sentence in 1991. Upon his release, he returned to the business, but managed to anger investors, and lose lawsuits from people who accused him of taking money while running up debts he has yet to repay. Stanford explains it now as a simple problem of paying his employees too much and not managing expenses. His former investors disagree. In 1993, Stanford called Rich Okada, a Berkeley grad with some cash to invest. A boat with hemp paper was waiting at a Portland dock, but the shippers refused to let anyone near it without a payment. “He said, ‘Rich, this is a great
opportunity, all we need is some (venture capital) just get to the product off the dock,’” said Okada. Okada agreed. Stanford took the loan and sold the hemp, but Okada never saw a return. A judge ruled that Stanford still owes Okada more than $3,500. It’s one of a series of judgments against Stanford, few of which he has repaid. By 1997, Stanford’s hempimportation company had gone bust. Creditors, and bankruptcy, were closing in. A year later, 600,000 Oregon voters decided marijuana had a medicinal purpose and, for Stanford, everything changed.
Stepping on toes Business is now booming for Stanford. In Oregon, 99 percent of applicants get weed, and more applicants go through Stanford than anyone else. At $160 per visit— less for low-income patients — the company grossed $4.2 million in 2009 and $4.9 million in 2010, he said. Getting to where he is now required Stanford to step on some toes and edge out some competitors. This is where he is distinguished from others in the medical marijuana game. He regards it as a business. Other medical marijuana providers are competitors. Marijuana cards are his supply, and he is operating in a nearly free market system. But the people behind the medical marijuana movement don’t see it as a business. It’s medicine, they say, and Stanford is abusing the product. Sandee Burbank, executive director of the pro-medical marijuana group Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse and one of the original supporters of the medical marijuana law, says Stanford’s business defies the medicinal intent of the law and is concerned less with getting sick people their medicine than getting people who want weed their drug. “This guy’s been operating (as a commercial enterprise) for two or three decades,” said
Burbank. “I do know from patients that have come to us, they were delighted to have the extra information we gave them, which they obviously had not learned at (Stanford’s foundation).” Stanford dismisses Burbank as a scorned competitor who couldn’t keep up —Stanford’s organization grew quickly, a startup business in a field of untapped resources, while Burbank’s patient-focused practice has remained more akin to a clinic. The IRS has no fewer than three judgments against Stanford, the largest of which was for $200,751 on Feb. 23, 2009. Stanford refused to comment on the judgment other than to say that he’s on a payment plan. The state of Oregon, meanwhile, has filed more than $33,000 in tax liens against him, which Stanford said he’s close to paying back. That does not mean he is repentant. In fact, he blames what he says is a campaign against him that originates in the state’s highest offices. Let him riff, and he’ll explain: The governor thinks he’s a threat to force the legalization of marijuana in the state. Aided by the Oregon attorney general and the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, the state is trying to put him out of business and in prison. None of this can be substantiated, of course. But the persecution narrative plays well with the medical marijuana crowd and gives his celebrity a veneer of martyrdom. Stanford thinks the measure of celebrity he enjoys in the Portland area is a major reason behind his prosecution. He’s been featured weekly on a marijuana-friendly cable access show since 1996, he’s got his famous pothead friends and he’s a go-to quote for newspapers writing about medical marijuana. Stanford says medicinal use isn’t his only interest in marijuana and hemp cultivation. He also thinks hemp seed oil can power our cars and hemp paper can save whole forests.
LINCOLN COUNTY
Official says he was arrested for driving ‘while being old’ By Lori Tobias The Oregonian
NEWPORT — Last month, when Lincoln County Commissioner Terry Thompson was arrested on suspicion of DUII, he did what many drunken drivers do: he pleaded innocent. He was so adamant that he even drove himself to the hospital to pay for his own blood tests after he was released from jail. Now, a little more than one month later, Linn County special prosecutor Jason Carlile has dropped the charges. Turns out the state crime lab came back with same results Thompson’s been claiming — no alcohol, no controlled substances
and no common pharmaceuticals present in Thompson’s system. Nonetheless, Thompson says he’s out at least $1,500 in legal fees, and is stuck with the DUII arrest, if not the conviction, on his record, according to The Oregonian. “My only crime was driving at night while being old,” said Thompson, who is 66. “No one wants drunk drivers on the road, but I want to make sure the people who are not drunk are not thrown in jail.” The arrest happened as Thompson, a lifelong fisherman, was driving home at about 12:20 a.m. on Nov. 26
from a bar on the Bayfront where he likes to go to watch the fishing boats. Newport Chief of Police Mark Miranda said Officer Daniel Miller pulled Thompson over because he failed to use his turn signal and then crossed the center line. Thompson blew a .00 when given the Intoxilyzer (commonly referred to as a Breathalyzer), but failed the field sobriety test, “a good indication there may be drugs on board,” Miranda said days after the arrest. But Thompson believes many people, particularly senior citizens, would fail the field tests he is said to have failed.
“I’ve never had any balance,” said Thompson. “I always stand with my feet wide on the ocean and all of the sudden I was asked to stand like a gymnast.” Now that the charges have been dropped, Thompson — a former state representative who is contemplating another campaign — can breathe easier, right? Not at all, he says. “When you are in politics, the average citizen doesn’t know the difference from arrested and convicted,” Thompson said. “It hurts me if I run again because I’m vulnerable to a negative campaign that is only half truth.”
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PORTLAND — Portland Electric and PacifiCorp customers are seeing their power rates change as of New Year’s Day. Portland Electric rates are going down slightly and PacifiCorp rates are going up. PacifiCorp says its rate increase — which amounts to about 4.4 percent overall — is mostly due to higher coal costs. Another factor was an increase in demand. PacifiCorp originally asked for a larger increase. The rate decrease for Portland Electric residential customers is just under 1 percent. Non-residential customers will see their rates go down about 2 percent. The company says the reduction is due to lower construction costs and some cheaper power purchases.
Salem bomb squad makes disposal SALEM — A Salem bomb squad has disposed of a potential explosive substance found in a foreclosed home by a cleaning crew. The Statesmen Journal reports that bottles with powder and fuses were discovered Saturday in an unoccupied manufactured home in northeast Salem. Police Lt. Jim Anglemier says the bomb squad determined that the substance was potentially explosive, but further tests are needed to positively identify it. Because of the small amounts of the substance, Anglemier says the neighborhood was in no danger.
2 killed in crash near Salem SALEM — Oregon State Police say two people were killed, including a child, in a New Year’s Day crash outside of Salem. The Oregonian reports the crash happened shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday when a van carrying nine people and another vehicle with two occupants collided on state Highway 99E north of Salem. A child in the van and the driver of the other vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene. As many as eight others were taken to Salem Hospital for treatment. — From wire reports
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