MAN LINKED TO MEDICAL POT ARRESTED

A Billings man who started a medical-marijuana storefront was
arrested Friday by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Chief Deputy Rod Ostermiller said [redacted] was arrested on a state
warrant for probation violation. He was booked into the county jail
early Friday evening, where he remained in custody as of 9 p.m.

Deputies with a U.S. Marshals task force developed information that
[redacted] and went there on Friday afternoon to arrest him.

When they knocked on the front door and nobody answered, deputies
backed off from the house and continued watching it from a short
distance away, Ostermiller said.

At about 4 p.m., [redacted] came outside and a short foot chase ensued.

Ostermiller said deputies chased [redacted] through several yards in
the neighborhood before catching him. They also allegedly found what
appeared to drug paraphernalia in the home.

[redacted] launched the medical-marijuana business, [redacted], with
his father. The business, on the [redacted], doesn't distribute
medical marijuana to patients but acts as a center of information.

It wasn't immediately clear if [redacted] was still involved in the
business at the time of his arrest Friday.

According to the Montana Department of Corrections, [redacted] is on
probation for one felony count each of forgery and issuing a bad
check, both from 1998 convictions.

He was also sentenced in 2003 for violating his probation and
arrested again in November 2009 for probation violation when he
admitted to using methamphetamine and taking pain medication
prescribed to someone else.

In December, Roy Kemp, deputy administrator for the Quality Assurance
Bureau at the state Department of Health and Human Services, said
state law doesn't allow convicted drug felons to become
medical-marijuana providers but that felons with nondrug convictions can.