QUIET START FOR MEDICAL-MARIJUANA SITE

Father And Son Open Billings' 1st Operation

Green Cross of Montana has quietly operated out of a red brick
building at 3733 Montana Ave. since April 20. But only in the past
month or two, after a white sign with a green cross popped up in
front of the store, has business taken off.

Welcome to Billings' first medical-marijuana storefront.

And opening a medical-marijuana business on 4/20, the date popularly
associated with marijuana culture? "It just happened to be that day,"
said Doug Medina Jr., who runs Green Cross with his father, Doug Medina Sr.

The long bank of windows facing Montana Avenue has been painted over,
and the front door has a "private" sign on it. Visitors enter into a
large room with a billiards table, a couch and an entertainment
center with a television and a display showing off Doug Sr.'s
billiards medals from the Big Sky State Games. An office area is in
the back. It feels like a clubhouse, though it's not.

Green Cross of Montana doesn't distribute medical marijuana to
patients. Instead, it acts as a clearinghouse of information, the
Medinas said. But people who sign up with the Medinas as patients
receive their marijuana from another business owned by Doug Sr.,
they explain.

Customers at Green Cross can come in and, for $25, the Green Cross
staff will help them get in touch with an understanding doctor and
then handle the state paperwork required to become a legal patient.

At first, business was slow. But word-of-mouth advertising has led to
a handful of people walking in every day, Doug Jr. said.

"We figured Green Cross could help chronic-pain sufferers find
medical solutions," Doug Jr. said. "I don't provide medicine at this
location."

There will likely be more places like this opening in Billings. The
Medinas estimate that there are 44,000 potential medical-marijuana
patients in Eastern Montana. Doug Sr. operates his private marijuana
pharmacy at another location in town -- he doesn't want to say where
- -- and plans to open another soon, possibly downtown.

The use of medical marijuana has been legal in Montana since voters
approved Initiative 148 in November 2004. The law allows people with
chronic pain and other ailments to get a doctor's prescription for
marijuana. With the doctor's signature, the patient applies for a
medical-marijuana card from the state Department of Public Health and
Human Services.

The card allows patients to possess an ounce of marijuana and up to
six marijuana plants. But because many patients don't grow their own
marijuana, they must turn to caregivers, who are also licensed by the
state and can grow and possess marijuana on their patients' behalf.
Both the Medinas are marijuana patients and caregivers, but they
don't offer details on where their marijuana comes from, other than
to say it is grown in Yellowstone County.

Doug Jr. said that many of his patients have never tried marijuana
before. He told of one man who came in to get marijuana for his dying
wife.

"He didn't even know what an eighth of an ounce of weed was," Doug
Jr. said.

Immediately, Doug Sr. leaned in and corrected his son.

"It's medical marijuana. That's the right term," Doug Sr.
said.

The Medinas also work with other medical-marijuana businesses in the
state. They recently chartered a bus for people to travel to a "weed
university" in Bozeman, Doug Jr. said. There, they learned about
state law and were able to meet with doctors.

"I wish we had more help from our local community doctors," Doug Jr.
said.

But the appearance of businesses like Green Cross worries some in law
enforcement.

Billings Deputy Police Chief Tim O'Connell, who worked some major
drug cases as a detective, said the medical-marijuana business is
attractive for those already involved in the marijuana underworld.

"It's the biggest convoluted mess and it's going to get worse before
it gets better," he said. "Most of your caregivers -- not all -- are
going to be from the criminal element. They know how to do this and
it's very lucrative."

In fact, Doug Medina Jr. is a convicted felon with a history of drug
problems, according to court documents. He has felony convictions for
theft, forgery and issuing a bad check. In 2000, Medina Jr. was
arrested for selling methamphetamine, but that charge was dropped.
He also was charged with felony drug possession, but those charges
were dismissed, too. Court documents aren't clear why the charges
were dismissed.

Had Medina Jr. been convicted in the drug cases, he wouldn't be
allowed to sell medical marijuana today. State law prohibits
convicted drug felons from becoming medical-marijuana providers, but
felons with nondrug convictions aren't prohibited, said Roy Kemp,
deputy administrator in the Quality Assurance Bureau at the state
DPHHS.

Medina Jr. was arrested last month for violating his probation. He
admitted to using meth and taking narcotic pain medication prescribed
to someone else. When probation officers searched Medina's apartment
on Nov. 19, they found $500 in cash in his pocket, seven marijuana
plants growing under a light, pipes and a bong and a Cheech and Chong
movie playing on his TV. The officers had to prop open the apartment
door because of the overwhelming smell of marijuana, according to
the report.

"The apartment was disheveled and it was observed that several issues
of High Times magazine was on the living room floor, there were three
loaves of marijuana bread product in the freezer along with a gallon
jug of frozen marijuana tea," probation officer Candice Reinschmidt
wrote in a Nov. 25 report. "It is disheartening to see that the
defendant is the acting administrator of the Green Cross in Montana
(medical marijuana resource center) and is noncompliant with the
law. In essence, the whole of the apartment appeared dedicated to a
pot culture mentality."

There are other medical-marijuana caregivers in Billings, including
some who are working on opening storefronts. Mark Higgins, a Heights
resident who ran for the City Council, recently filed a business
license for a location in the Heights. He is waiting to sign a
lease. Statewide, there are nearly 4,600 medical-marijuana patients
and more than 1,400 caregivers, according to the DPHHS.