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HELENA – Leading medical marijuana advocates formed an unusual alliance with law enforcement and local government officials Friday to support a major proposal to license and regulate the booming industry in Montana.
In another strange-bedfellows combination, marijuana growers, caregivers and patients opposing the bill were joined by a group of people who want to repeal the 2004 Montana ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana in the first place.
More than 70 people testified for or against House Bill 68, sponsored by Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, on behalf of an interim committee, during a three-hour hearing Friday afternoon before the House Human Services Committee. The panel took no action on the bill.
House Bill 68 would create a tiered licensing system, require criminal background checks for people who grow and sell medical marijuana, require two physicians to sign off before a patient with chronic pain could be authorized to use medical marijuana, give local governments the authority to regulate the industry and ban the smoking of medical marijuana in public.
Doctors would have to have an office in Montana and couldn't have financial ties to the medical marijuana industry under the bill. These were among the steps aimed at stopping the "cannabis caravans" at which doctors saw dozens of patients at brief appointments and sometimes over the Internet before prescribing medical marijuana to them.
The regulatory costs for the bill would be paid for by licensing fees estimated to raise $7.6 million in fiscal 2012.
HB68 is one of two major bills to add more control over an industry that some say has spun out of control since fall of 2009. A separate bill by Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, also would impose a regulatory system and tax medical marijuana. Other pending bills would repeal the law now or put it back before voters.
Sands told the panel that the interim committee took up the issue after numerous stories about medical marijuana hit the media last year.
"No one envisioned we would see the explosion in the medical marijuana industry," she said, noting that more than 27,000 people have obtained cards allowing them to use medical pot.
She estimated that medical marijuana in Montana may be a $50 million to $100 million "unregulated cash business."
"It was our commitment to honor the will of the sovereign voters of the state of Montana," she said. "It was our responsibility to try to make it work for the people of Montana. This is not a repeal bill."
Mark Long, representing the Montana Narcotics Officers Association, supported the bill, saying law enforcement officials have no idea how much marijuana is being produced in the state. But Montana has seen a "tremendous increase in criminal activity," with much of it surrounding the medical marijuana industry, he said.
"This thing has created a fiasco in this state that also is an embarrassment at the national level," Long said.
Jim Smith, speaking for the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers and Montana County Attorney associations, said they appreciate the bill setting a "clear bright line about what's legal and what's not." The bill also gives local governments regulatory authority.
Tom Daubert, one of the authors of the initiative and head of Patients & Families United, said he supports the bill, but believes it has some serious flaws. He urged the committee to continue working on it.
"I believe the opportunity for near-consensus solutions is extraordinarily good," he said.
Kate Cholewa, representing the Alliance for Cannabis, supported parts of the bill but opposed the two-doctor requirement for someone with chronic pain to be authorized to use medical marijuana.
Opponents from the industry argued that the regulatory requirements were oppressive, would put some of them out of business and represented an overreaction.
"I think it's based on fear, not facts," said Jason Smith, who has a caregiver business in Billings. "Medication is supposed to be a tax deduction, not a revenue."
Jeff Swenson was among several people who criticized the bill's provisions banning felons from obtaining licenses to grow or sell medical marijuana.
"If all felons are generalized in there, I will lose my job and not be able to provide for myself," he said.
A number of people, some using crutches and others in wheelchairs, told the panel that medical marijuana had helped them significantly after other prescription drugs failed.
Cherrie Brady, the Billings woman who headed the unsuccessful eleventh-hour attempt last year for a ballot measure to repeal the legalization of medical marijuana, said there are too many flaws in the bill. She called for a legislative repeal of the 2004 measure.
Brady's group obtained nearly 20,000 signatures in seven days last June, shortly before the deadline, but failed to get enough to qualify for the ballot.
"The people of Montana are saying we did not get what we voted for," she said. "People want out of this."
Controversial Jason Christ of Missoula, founder of the Montana Caregivers Network, didn't testify against the bill but tried to oppose it as an informational or neutral witness. Afterward, House Human Services Chairman David Howard, R-Park City, said he would put Christ down as an opponent.
Christ has drawn criticism from others in the industry for smoking a bowl of medicinal pot outside the Capitol.
He faces charges of felony intimidation in Missoula County for an alleged bomb threat against a cellular phone store.
News Hawk: MedicalNeed 420 MAGAZINE
Source: billingsgazette.com
Author: CHARLES S. JOHNSON
Contact: BillingsGazette.com - Contact Us
Copyright: 2011, The Billings Gazette, Billings, MT
Website:Odd alliances form on medical pot regulatory bill
In another strange-bedfellows combination, marijuana growers, caregivers and patients opposing the bill were joined by a group of people who want to repeal the 2004 Montana ballot initiative that legalized medical marijuana in the first place.
More than 70 people testified for or against House Bill 68, sponsored by Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, on behalf of an interim committee, during a three-hour hearing Friday afternoon before the House Human Services Committee. The panel took no action on the bill.
House Bill 68 would create a tiered licensing system, require criminal background checks for people who grow and sell medical marijuana, require two physicians to sign off before a patient with chronic pain could be authorized to use medical marijuana, give local governments the authority to regulate the industry and ban the smoking of medical marijuana in public.
Doctors would have to have an office in Montana and couldn't have financial ties to the medical marijuana industry under the bill. These were among the steps aimed at stopping the "cannabis caravans" at which doctors saw dozens of patients at brief appointments and sometimes over the Internet before prescribing medical marijuana to them.
The regulatory costs for the bill would be paid for by licensing fees estimated to raise $7.6 million in fiscal 2012.
HB68 is one of two major bills to add more control over an industry that some say has spun out of control since fall of 2009. A separate bill by Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, also would impose a regulatory system and tax medical marijuana. Other pending bills would repeal the law now or put it back before voters.
Sands told the panel that the interim committee took up the issue after numerous stories about medical marijuana hit the media last year.
"No one envisioned we would see the explosion in the medical marijuana industry," she said, noting that more than 27,000 people have obtained cards allowing them to use medical pot.
She estimated that medical marijuana in Montana may be a $50 million to $100 million "unregulated cash business."
"It was our commitment to honor the will of the sovereign voters of the state of Montana," she said. "It was our responsibility to try to make it work for the people of Montana. This is not a repeal bill."
Mark Long, representing the Montana Narcotics Officers Association, supported the bill, saying law enforcement officials have no idea how much marijuana is being produced in the state. But Montana has seen a "tremendous increase in criminal activity," with much of it surrounding the medical marijuana industry, he said.
"This thing has created a fiasco in this state that also is an embarrassment at the national level," Long said.
Jim Smith, speaking for the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers and Montana County Attorney associations, said they appreciate the bill setting a "clear bright line about what's legal and what's not." The bill also gives local governments regulatory authority.
Tom Daubert, one of the authors of the initiative and head of Patients & Families United, said he supports the bill, but believes it has some serious flaws. He urged the committee to continue working on it.
"I believe the opportunity for near-consensus solutions is extraordinarily good," he said.
Kate Cholewa, representing the Alliance for Cannabis, supported parts of the bill but opposed the two-doctor requirement for someone with chronic pain to be authorized to use medical marijuana.
Opponents from the industry argued that the regulatory requirements were oppressive, would put some of them out of business and represented an overreaction.
"I think it's based on fear, not facts," said Jason Smith, who has a caregiver business in Billings. "Medication is supposed to be a tax deduction, not a revenue."
Jeff Swenson was among several people who criticized the bill's provisions banning felons from obtaining licenses to grow or sell medical marijuana.
"If all felons are generalized in there, I will lose my job and not be able to provide for myself," he said.
A number of people, some using crutches and others in wheelchairs, told the panel that medical marijuana had helped them significantly after other prescription drugs failed.
Cherrie Brady, the Billings woman who headed the unsuccessful eleventh-hour attempt last year for a ballot measure to repeal the legalization of medical marijuana, said there are too many flaws in the bill. She called for a legislative repeal of the 2004 measure.
Brady's group obtained nearly 20,000 signatures in seven days last June, shortly before the deadline, but failed to get enough to qualify for the ballot.
"The people of Montana are saying we did not get what we voted for," she said. "People want out of this."
Controversial Jason Christ of Missoula, founder of the Montana Caregivers Network, didn't testify against the bill but tried to oppose it as an informational or neutral witness. Afterward, House Human Services Chairman David Howard, R-Park City, said he would put Christ down as an opponent.
Christ has drawn criticism from others in the industry for smoking a bowl of medicinal pot outside the Capitol.
He faces charges of felony intimidation in Missoula County for an alleged bomb threat against a cellular phone store.
News Hawk: MedicalNeed 420 MAGAZINE
Source: billingsgazette.com
Author: CHARLES S. JOHNSON
Contact: BillingsGazette.com - Contact Us
Copyright: 2011, The Billings Gazette, Billings, MT
Website:Odd alliances form on medical pot regulatory bill
