Archive for the ‘Medical Marijuana’ category

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Newsletter: Medical Marijuana Repeal Hearing Friday Mar 11

March 6th, 2011

Next Friday, the 11th, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony on HB 161, the callous effort to erase medical marijuana from the law books of Montana. Montana NORML and a statewide coalition of cannabis reform organizations are doing everything we can to get as many people to the hearing as we can. Now is the time to put aside the hectic tasks of your regular daily schedule and SHOW UP.

We are asking professional growers/caregivers to consider Friday the 11th a “holiday”: gather 20 patients and get thee to Helena. If you’re already in Helena, you have no excuse not to be there:

WHEN: March 11, 2011, 8:00am
WHAT: Senate hearing on medical marijuana repeal
WHO: You, in your Sunday best, polite and respectful.
WHY: Because your health, or your livelihood, or your principled philosophy, depends on keeping cannabis legal.

Don’t have a ride? No problem. Our friends at MRL are coordinating FREE buses from all over. Check out this page on Facebook for info on buses. Make a call, find a ride, make it happen. (For Billings, call James at 670-0143).

It’s important to show up because every person who shows up represents a hundred other people who didn’t bother. Be a leader!

It’s important to show up because while the repeal bill passed the Montana House easily, more “sober” minds rule the Senate, and when they see a massive outpouring of support for medical marijuana represented in our amassed crowd, they should acknowledge the political reality that legal cannabis is here to stay, and reject repeal in favor of thoughtful regulation.

Can’t make it? Is it just impossible? Then here are some other ways you can contact the committee and let them know that repeal of medical marijuana would be a disaster, politically, logistically, all around.

In a rush? Okay, here’s a quick and easy e-mail form. Let them know to “fix it, don’t nix it”. Just be sure to add your personal story so it doesn’t seem like too much of a form letter.

By the way – we could use your help in the form of donations. And, later this spring we’d like to recruit some additional board members.  Want to help lead Montana NORML? Email me.

Finally — we have a had a longstanding policy of sending a “goody pack” to any Montana resident who gets a pro-cannabis letter to the editor published.  We hope you’ll all consider writing one in the next 10 days. The time is right, and there’s a goody pack with your name on it! Just send us a link to your published letter.

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Posted in Medical Marijuana, Montana Legislature, Newsletter

Next Steps Towards Medical Marijuana Repeal in Montana

March 2nd, 2011

Last month, HB 161, which would erase medical marijuana from the Montana law books, passed the Montana House of Representatives.

The next step is to pass the Senate. The first piece of that process will be on March 11th, 2011, when the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the bill. If it passes, it’ll next go to the full Senate, and then, the Governor. Ideally, we can persuade the committee to kill the bill next week.

You can let it be know how you feel about repeal by using one of the email messages here (before March 11th, 2011).

Alternately, here’s info on what to say, and how.

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Posted in Medical Marijuana, Montana Legislature

Friday’s marijuana hearings: regulations, court orders, and psychosis

February 9th, 2011

On Friday, February 11th, 2011 three four cannabis bills will be considered by legislative committees.

8AM, Senate Judiciary, room 303: SB 154 sets up a regulatory infrastructure for growers.  Growers’ employees must all be designated growers for one or more patients, and nobody can grow commercially without a premises license. Growers can be corporations, or people.  Growers would pay a 10% fee on gross sales. The “growers” would control nearly all aspects of the industry, from horticulture through processing through dispensing and edibles; there are no separate licenses for other types of businesses. Some say this will result in a consolidation into a few large operators and a squelching of innovation.  We’re hearing mixed opinions about this bill from the cannabis community.

3PM, House Human Services, room 152: HB 429 would destroy, rather than repeal, the medical marijuana program in Montana. It would eliminate the recommendation and registration system. instead, physicians would sign a legal affidavit certifying that a patient had tried everything else and now must try medical marijuana. The petition would be presented to a district court judge, who would decide whether the patient should be exempt from criminal prosecution. There would be no cannabis businesses allowed. Here’s an article about the bill.

3PM, House Human Services, room 152: Also to be considered at this committee hearing is HB 389, which would require that all marijuana must be affixed with a warning label that reads: “Warning: in some individuals, marijuana may trigger acute psychosis or symptoms of schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.” Failure by a caregiver to affix such a label would result in a fine of $500 per violation. I assume that means that selling 10 unlabelled brownies would result in a fine of $5000.

3PM, Senate Health Committee, room 317: HB 19 would clarify that the Montana Clean Indoor Act includes the smoking of marijuana for medical use.

How can you have a voice?

You can contact legislators using any of the methods here, or visit the easy action alerts page here.

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Posted in Medical Marijuana, Montana Legislature

An Afternoon In Missoula with Eric Holder – Feb 9, 2011

February 6th, 2011

Eric Holder is the Attorney General of the United States. He’s also the author of the “Holder Memo”, relevant to marijuana activists, which reads in part:

The prosecution of significant traffickers of illegal drugs, including marijuana, and the disruption of illegal drug manufacturing and trafficking networks continues to be a core priority in the Department’s efforts against narcotics and dangerous drugs, and the Department’s investigative and prosecutorial resources should be directed towards these objectives. As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana. For example, prosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources.

The full memo is worth reading carefully.

Attorney General Holder will be in Missoula this week, at an event which is free and open to the public:

An important thing to realize in the confluence of state and federal laws regarding marijuana is that, if you are prosecuted in federal court, your compliance with any state medical marijuana laws is not just legally irrelevant, you are actually prohibited from mentioning it! So, for pro-cannabis activists, the most important message for Mr. Holder is probably:

Since the federal government’s policy regarding medical marijuana law enforcement is currently to intervene only when an individual is acting in violation of state law, please allow those cases to be prosecuted in state courts. There, compassionate access for patients can at least be discussed in court and considered by the jury when determining the guilt or innocence of the accused.

For more information about the event, and to suggest topics for the Q&A,  call Carla Caballero-Jackson, the law school’s director of external relations, at 406-243-6254 or e-mail carla.caballero-jackson@umontana.edu. Media representatives should call Cary Shimek at 406-243-5914 (office) or 406-240-9582 (cell) or e-mail cary.shimek@umontana.edu.



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Posted in Events, Medical Marijuana

January 2011 Montana Medical Marijuana Statistics

February 6th, 2011

Patient counts in Montana’s medical marijuana program surged by over 1000 cardholders in a month from December 2010 through January 2011, from 27,292 to 28,362. The number of registered growers grew as well, from 4,807 to 4,843 persons authorized to farm cannabis. The number of doctors with currently enrolled patients shrank by two.

Other highlights:

  • 15.1% of patients reside in Missoula County, 13% in Gallatin County, 12% in Flathead County, and 11% in Yellowstone County.
  • 115 patients do not reside in Montana.
  • 74% of patients cite “Severe or Chronic Pain” as one of their ailments.
  • 3% cite cancer, HIV (AIDS), or glaucoma.
  • 0.18% (51) of patients are under the age of 18. That’s declined from 55 two months ago.
  • Half of all patients are adults age 40 or less.
  • There are 35 “big” caregivers with more than 100 patients. In theory, each may be growing more than 600 plants — that’s a lot of big gardens.
  • Half of all caregivers have exactly one patient; 90% have 10 or less patients.
  • About third of the 357 participating doctors have signed for exactly one patient. 9% have signed for more than 100 patients.

So, again, the program continues to grow.  Compare to just two months ago.

Then, there were 28 big growers. Seven new small businesses have reached the 100-patient mark in that time. These are legal small businesses which benefit their local economies by hiring employees, paying payroll and workers’ compensation taxes, spending money on rent and utilities, buying advertising, engaging the services of accountants and lawyers, and so on. And money spent in a local economy is “recycled”, as the funds paid out to employees and service providers results in a widening network of families buying groceries, paying for housing, and so on.

At 28,000 patients, almost one third of all Montana’s cannabis consumers are probably cardholders. After all, some substantial proportion of patients were probably using marijuana for years before registering. They’ve reasonably desired to “become legal”, preferring the stigma of being ill to the stigma of being criminals, which I can sure understand.

Depending on which bills pass in Helena over the next couple months, some or all of these patients and caregivers will likely have to shut down. If you want to keep track of what’s happening, I encourage you to sign up at http://montanadrugpolicy.org to receive action alerts.

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Posted in Medical Marijuana, Montana

Action Alert: Stop the “we don’t trust doctors” bill

January 28th, 2011

The Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing testimony on a terrible medical cannabis bill on Monday, Jan 31.  They need to hear from you ASAP.

The bill being heard is called SB 170, and it represents an attempt to slam the door in the faces of patients suffering from chronic pain who are interested in legally using cannabis for pain relief.

Rather than the current system, in which a physician must certify in writing that the patient suffers from severe or chronic pain, SB 170 would require that:

  • The pain must be severe, and chronic, and intractable, and persistent, all the time.
  • The patient must have attempted all other “standard” pain relief treatments (addictive narcotics, etc)  for a “reasonable” amount of time first, and found them to be ineffective.
  • After the patient’s doctor certifies the above in writing, the patient’s application and doctor’s supporting documentation then goes to a review board of pain specialists appointed by the state, who can approve or deny the patient’s application. The patient’s doctor would have to pay a special fee to the review board for processing the patient’s application.

It’s absurd to require all other treatments be attempted first. No other medical treatment is handled this way, and for good reason — we trust doctors to use their professional judgment, in collaboration with and response to patients’ experiences.

It’s doubly absurd to create such onerous restrictions for cannabis as medicine — a non-toxic herbal remedy that has been used for thousands of years without a fatal overdose.

So this bill is a slap in the face to both pain patients and their doctors. If you know any doctors, please forward this message to them.

What you can do:

Please spread the word.

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Posted in Medical Marijuana, Montana Legislature

Montana NORML Newsletter – Good News on HB 33 and Other Local News

January 25th, 2011

Friends,

Earlier this morning in the House Judiciary Committee, HB 33, the any-amount-of-cannabis-metabolites-is-DUI bill, was tabled. This means it’s likely dead. Republicans and Democrats alike saw it as an overreaching of authority and science to charge people with DUI just because of some traces of chemicals in their urine.

Relish that news, as there may not be a lot more good news out of this legislative session. We’ll see.

Also, there’s a hearing tomorrow about SB 193:
http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2011/billhtml/SB0193.htm

This bill is interesting is that it attempts to “tighten up” the medical marijuana program with subtle tweaks, rather than dramatic re-invention.

Some if these tweaks include:

  • raises patient app fee to $150
  • requires  patients and caregivers to sign statement not to divert
  • two physicians required for minors
  • caregiver registration fee of $200
  • caregivers must be residents and submit fingerprints
  • caregivers may not have criminal records that include crimes of violence or felony drugs (unless more than 10 years ago)
  • automatic card revocation for diversion
  • increase to 2.5 oz possession limit
  • plants must be grown in enclosed locked facility
  • 2.5 oz every 14 days max sold per patient
  • caregiver must maintain records of those sales, available to cops on request
  • no public smoking allowed

Have an opinion on these matters? Here’s next steps for action:

In other news, the state bill to prohibit cities and counties from passing law designed to establish law enforcement priorities was proposed by Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg in response to Missoula County’s Initiative #2, which recommended that law enforcement treat adult marijuana crimes as their lowest possible priority:  http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_4a730082-2847-11e0-8f9c-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story

Curiouser and curiouser.

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Posted in Elections, Initiative #2, Medical Marijuana, Montana, Newsletter, Prohibition

Why Cannabis Should Be Taxed

January 16th, 2011

Whether (and how) to tax marijuana has been the subject of great debate among reformers for more than a decade. Here’s my personal take on why marijuana consumers should enthusiastically ask to be taxed. A few prefatory notes:

  1. If you believe that all taxes are simply government theft, then you can stop reading now if you like.
  2. The Montana NORML vision for how to regulate marijuana involves licensed (and taxed) commercial growers, licensed commercial retailers, and the ability for adults to cultivate small personal gardens, without any license or tax or regulation, similar to how we allow adults to brew their own beer at home.
  3. I’m contemplating taxation in a fully legal market, rather than the current medical marijuana market, but I think the same principles apply (despite predictable cries of “never tax my medicine”).

So, why tax marijuana?

Taxes fund public infrastructure that benefits the community: schools, roads, emergency services, court systems, snow plows, and so forth. We can debate the merits and fairness of taxing this or that at various levels, but living in modern civil society requires everyone capable of doing so to contribute something to the common good. I don’t “love taxes”, but I gladly accept and acknowledge my obligation to pay my fair share so I can enjoy the benefits of living in a relatively orderly, relatively just society. And when there are policies with which I disagree (such as cannabis prohibition), I am happy that there exists publicly funded mechanisms for changing them: the ballot box and the legislature.

When marijuana (medical or not) is regulated, there is some public expense, large or small depending on how detailed and vigorous the regulations are, and the number of entities being regulated and their locations.  As of January 2011, medical marijuana regulation is very lightweight, and I’m told that the costs of the program are currently being met by the modest patient registration fee.

Depending on which regulation bills pass in the coming months (perhaps HB68 or SB154 or something else we can’t yet predict), there will be real public costs associated with inspections, background checks, rulemaking, so forth. People participating in and benefiting from the legal, regulated industry should not expect those expenses to be paid by people who have no interest in the industry. They should gladly pay a fair tax (or fee, or assessment) to at least cover the costs of the program.

Besides a basic civic responsibility reason to support and willingly pay a cannabis tax, there is also a strategic political angle.

First, once legal cannabis is responsible for funding a portion of our shared public infrastructures, it becomes an integral part of those infrastructures.  Once marijuana is knitted into the the fiscal fabric of government, that same government is more likely to support and defend the legal cannabis industry in perpetuity.

Second, most adults do not consume marijuana regularly (though almost half will admit to having tried it). By enthusiastically endorsing a cannabis tax to help fund public infrastructures, cannabis consumers can attract the attention and support of the majority who may not have cared otherwise.

I can’t tell you how many Montana newspaper online comment threads I’ve seen that have included cries of “legalize it and tax the hell out of it!” — I don’t propose we “tax the hell out of it”; we should start small and adjust the tax from time to time to collect public funds and minimize black market “bootlegging”. (More on that topic when I write about “How to tax cannabis” in a future post.)

Finally, it seems to me that paying a fair cannabis tax is a small price to pay compared to being persecuted as criminals.

Supporting a marijuana tax demonstrates cannabis consumers’ willingness to pay their fair share, integrates cannabis in government finance, attracts otherwise disinterested supporters,  and is an important part of the migration of the cannabis industry out of the shadows and into the light of legitimate commerce.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Posted in Medical Marijuana, Montana Legislature, Tax & Regulate

Montana NORML Newsletter – Missoula Fundraiser, Legislature and the News

January 6th, 2011

Friends,

First, a heads up:  I’m headed out of town for a week. While I am gone, you might receive email updates from our friend and Montana NORML board member Cynthia Wolken. She’ll let you know if anything happens in the legislature that needs your immediate attention.

The legislature convened on Monday and marijuana-related bills are swirling like smoke in a hookah.  By our friend Kate‘s last count, there are now 24 separate bills (click for a summary).

Whatever happens, rest assured that our medical marijuana program (if it still exists) will be a lot different in a few months. For now, though, it just keeps growing and growing.

Two events this month that warrant your attention:

On Saturday, January 8th in Missoula, join Irvin Rosenfeld at Zoo Mountain Natural Care for a fundraiser and book-signing. Mr. Rosenfeld has received 300 joints a month from the federal government for the past 25+ years and is a remarkable advocate for legal access to cannabis. Here’s the Facebook event page.

Then, the big one:

On Saturday, January 15th in Missoula, please plan on attending a fundraiser to benefit Citizens for Responsible Crime Policy, Montana’s only 501c3 public education group devoted to raising awareness about marijuana policies. This event is co-sponsored by many cannabis-focused organizations, including Montana NORML. Facebook users, click here to read about the cannabis coalition that’s formed over the past few months.

Event Details (check the Facebook event page or the Montana NORML Blog for full details):

When: Saturday, January 15th, 5PM-11:30PM
Where: Holiday Inn Parkside, Missoula, 200 S. Pattee St
What: Silent Auction, Fancy Dinner, and live music from House of Quist, The Dodgy Mountain Men, and more.
Admission: $5, or $75 with sit-down dinner (proper attire required)

Full details are here. Don’t miss this.

And here’s an idea for caregiver businesses. If you love what you do and want to help preserve the law, how about sponsoring some of your patients to join us? Buy their tickets and bring them to the event!  :)

And now, the news…

Montana Marijuana News

Last but not least:

If you have money to donate this week, send it to:

Citizens for Responsible Crime Policy
PO Box 7146
Missoula MT 59807

and/or click the yellow donate button on our website.

If you have time, register at http://montanadrugpolicy.org

If you have neither (really?), just forward this message to a friend.

Onwards.

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Posted in Events, Medical Marijuana, Missoula, Montana, Newsletter

Montana Medical Marijuana Stats – Dec 2010

January 4th, 2011

According to the latest stats (PDF), the medical marijuana registry in Montana continues to grow by leaps and bounds, as expected. There are now 27,292 registered patients in the program, or about 2.7% of the state’s population, a slightly higher percentage than Colorado.

All you cardholders, you’d better be registered to vote, and ready to act to help preserve the program in Montana during this legislative session. How? Sign up at http://montanadrugpolicy.org and http://mtnorml.org/subscribe if you haven’t already, please.

Other items of interest in the new statistics include:

Missoula County is the first to surpass 4000 registered patients (4,131), or around 4% of the population. Gallatin County is not far behind with 3,642 patients, also about 4%. Flathead is right there too, with 3,431 patients  (about 3.9% of the population).

73% of patients now report “chronic pain”, compared to 72% a month ago.

33 growers now have more than 100 patients, up from 28 a month ago.

Compared to a month ago, just one more physician  has joined the ranks of the 32 doctors who have signed more than 100 recommendations. It’s interesting that the number of doctors and caregivers with more than 100 patients is nearly equal.

About half of all caregivres have exactly one patient, same as a month ago.

The number of patients under 18 years of age grew from 55 to 58 — still just 0.2% of registered patients.

One registered patient died since last report, making a total of 48.

There are no growers in Carter, Garfield, Powder River, or Treasure Counties, despite a total of 30 resident patients. Might be an opportunity there. ;)

103 patients don’t live in Montana. Expect that loophole to be closed soon.

The average age of a registered patient is 41. There are 67 patients over 80 years of age.  It would be great to interview them.

Of course all these statistics become meaningless if medical marijuana is repealed in Montana. That’s a real possibility, with several bills (like HB 161) proposing repeal. If it passes, as of July 1st, 2010, “patients” will be no different from criminal marijuana users once again. And “caregivers”? You’ll become criminal drug dealers, overnight.

Sign up at http://mtnorml.org/subscribe and http://montanadrugpolicy.org to get alerts about what you can do in the coming weeks.

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Posted in Medical Marijuana, Montana