Good evening Montana!
Well, another week of lurid headlines and calls to restrict or repeal medical marijuana in Montana, and almost nobody concluding as we do: the solution to the medical marijuana conundrum is to make cannabis legal for all adults.
Even though we have truth, justice, and liberty on our side (seriously, think about it), the medical marijuana law will almost certainly be substantially restricted in next year’s legislature, and legal cannabis for all adults is probably still a few years away for us in Montana.
What we can do right now is try to affect the media’s depiction of marijuana through letters to the editor and local events, and engage directly with elected (and soon-to-be-elected) public officials.
To that end, I’m volunteering my evenings this week and next to work on several projects for Montana NORML:
- A carefully-worded letter to the editor to help people understand that the violent crimes we’ve heard about are not a marijuana problem, but a prohibition problem.
- A voters’ guide for cannabis advocates in Montana. (more news soon.)
- An essay/blog post about the business aspects of medical marijuana.
Will you join me in taking action next week to help make cannabis legal in Montana? It would be a cool (and potentially impactful) if a whole lot of us all took an action within a few days of each other. If you’re stumped on what to do, email me back and let me know where you’re located and I’ll give you a suggestion.
So, here’s the news:
Montana Marijuana News
- Billings: Growing acceptance of marijuana ends up putting teens into rehab center – a rather twisted headline if you ask me.
- Flathead: Tribes say all marijuana is illegal.
- Great Falls: City likely to extend medical marijuana moratorium
- Anaconda: Anaconda mulls temporary halt to pot shops, caregivers
- Belgrade: Manhattan to ponder pot rules
- Helena: Legislator plans bill to regain control of medical marijuana — he basically wants to centralize the entire garden into one uber-government-grow-op.
- Billings: City Council approves medical marijuana moratorium
- Billings: Firebombs target 2 medical-marijuana businesses – this made national news too. Completely insane.
- Missoula: We’re told that Judge Louden ruled recently that 20 days after a mmj application has been sent to the state, a patient is “legal” to possess and grow cannabis. However, this only applies to patient applicants in Missoula, and could be found invalid because the state law seems to require possession of the card itself. So don’t rely on this ruling.
National News:
- Feds asked to clarify medical marijuana policy.
- Obama Drug Policy calls for drugged driving charges for unimpaired marijuana users
- Governor Gary Johnson on The Colbert Report saying that marijuana prohibition is absolutely insane. (hilarious and dead-on)
- Obama Administration ‘Firmly Opposed’ to Pot Legalization: Here’s Why
Enjoy the links, these are good ‘uns. And, if you get a letter to the editor published, or get quoted positively on the topic of making marijuana legal for all adults, email the details to norml@montananorml.org and we may just send you a goody-pack.
Onwards.
