PANEL KILLS EFFORT TO EXPAND MEDICAL-POT LAW

HELENA - A bill to let physician's assistants and nurse practitioners
certify patients to use medicinal marijuana stalled in committee on a
party-line tie vote Monday.

The House Human Services Committee voted 8-8 on whether to approve House
Bill 73 by Rep. Julie French, D-Scobey. The vote means the bill cannot
advance; unless the vote changes, HB73 is likely dead.

All eight Democrats on the panel supported the bill. All eight Republicans
opposed it.

Montana voters in 2004 passed a law allowing people with a "debilitating
medical condition" to use marijuana, if a physician certifies that the
benefits of the use outweighs any negative health risks.

Current law says only physicians may certify patients to use medical
marijuana. In that respect, French told members of the House Human
Services Committee, Montana treats marijuana differently from all other
drugs.

Nurse practitioners and physician's assistants already may prescribe all
other drugs, including addictive narcotics like oxycodone. HB73 would
treat marijuana like any other prescription drug, she said.

French and other lawmakers said the bill would benefit chronically ill
people in rural areas where there are few, if any, doctors.

"I think it's important for our rural areas," said Rep. Diane Sands,
D-Missoula. "They have just as much right to things that are legal and
medical as people who live in Missoula."

However, lawmakers who opposed the bill said they worried medical
marijuana was being abused and that it needs more restrictions than other
prescription drugs.

"We're dealing with a narcotic drug here," said Rep. Michael More,
R-Gallatin Gateway.

Tom Daubert, founder and director of Patients and Families United, a group
that supports medical marijuana in Montana, said he was "deeply
disappointed" by the vote, especially because all eight of the lawmakers
who voted against HB73 represent areas where a majority of voters passed
the medical marijuana initiative in 2004.

It passed by a 62 percent margin, winning in all but a handful of counties.

"The electorate was saying they want patients in need to have access to
this medicine," he said.