BILL ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA STOPPED IN TIE

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

The House Human Services Committee voted 8-8 on 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 supported the bill. All eight Republicans opposed it.

Montana voters in 2004 passed a law allowing people with certain medical
conditions to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, provided they have a
prescription from their doctor.

The current law states that only physicians may prescribe 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 may already
prescribe all other drugs, including addictive narcotics like Oxycontin.
HB73 would treat marijuana like any other prescription drug.

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 needed more restrictions than other
prescription drugs.

"We're dealing with a narcotic drug here," said 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 voters passed the medical
marijuana initiative.

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