ABOUT 9 PERCENT OF STATE PAROLEES, PROBATIONERS REGISTERED FOR
MEDICAL MARIJUANA

HELENA - About 9 percent of Montanans on probation and parole,
including those who were previously arrested for drug offenses, carry
registered medical marijuana cards, according to statistics released
last week by the Department of Corrections.

According to Corrections, 778 of the 8,710 probationers and parolees
here have medical marijuana cards.

Overall, 1.25 percent of Montanans - or more than 10,000 people - had
a marijuana card as of March 31, according to the state Department of
Public Health and Human Services.

"It's a ridiculously large amount," said Andrew W. Paul, deputy
Missoula County attorney, who specializes in drug offenses.

By law, medical marijuana is available to people who suffer a
"debilitating medical condition." Nearly 7,000 people with medical
marijuana cards suffer from severe or chronic pain, and another 3,000
list their ailments as severe or chronic pain/muscle spasms.
According to the latest records, 355 card holders in the state have
cancer, HIV or glaucoma.

Justice Department officials are concerned that many users are
skirting the law by falsely reporting they suffer from chronic pain
in order to receive medical pot. They believe - and the numbers seem
to bear out - that the public's image of elderly glaucoma or cancer
patients as the primary users of medical marijuana is far off the mark.

"I'm all for the cancer patient who is wasting away who needs it.
That was how this initiative was sold," Paul said. "To call it
medicine for 80 percent of the people with cards is just a farce."

Paul isn't alone.

"My main concern is the abuse we're seeing," said Mike Menahan, a
state legislator and deputy county attorney in Lewis and Clark
County. "There are people it's beneficial for, but the people we see
the most are scamming the system for their own benefit. I'm afraid it
will ruin it for the people who are legitimate."

The legalization of medical marijuana has changed how law enforcement
officials look at probable cause in order to obtain a search warrant
for illegal growing operations or drug dealers. Paul said if police
officers receive information on an indoor grow operation, they must
first check to see if the person is a caregiver and how many
cardholders the person is supplying. Each grower, or "caregiver," can
have up to six plants for each patient they supply.

Paul said in his experience, many caregivers are going over their
limit by anywhere from a dozen to 100 more plants than they can legally grow.

"Every single search warrant, they've had more than their limit," he said.

Growers who possess more than the legal limit are charged with
manufacture or distribution of dangerous drugs. A person with a
felony drug offense on their record can't be a caregiver, but can
have a prescription card.

Paul said one answer to his concerns is complete transparency. Lists
of caregivers and their patients should be available to law
enforcement officials 24 hours a day.

Currently, officers can call DPHHS during business hours to check,
but after hours, there is no way to access the list. This would also
help those with legitimate prescriptions to ensure they aren't
unjustly thrown in jail if they are found with marijuana and aren't
carrying their card, he said.

In probation and parole's Region 2 - the largest of six regions,
which includes Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, Powell, Granite, Deer
Lodge, Silver Bow, Beaverhead, Madison, Jefferson, Gallatin, Meagher,
Park and Sweet Grass counties - 172 people under parole supervision
have medical marijuana cards.

"It's a big concern for us," Region 2 administrator Monty LeTexier said.

One of the largest issues for probation officers is that there is no
distinguishable line for abuse of marijuana, as there is with
prescription painkillers such as oxycodone.

"How can we tell if they are using at a therapeutic level and who is
abusing it? That makes it very hard for us at a supervisory level,"
said Annette Carter, state probation and parole officer.

Another problem is court-ordered treatment for people with medical
marijuana prescriptions, LeTexier said. Many treatment programs won't
work with people under the influence of any mind-altering medication.
The probationer must then seek a licensed addiction counselor who
will work with people currently using medical marijuana.

Boyd Andrew Community Services, which provides services across the
state and is the primary provider of chemical dependency outpatient
services to residents in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater and Jefferson
counties, will not provide services for people under the influence of
medicinal marijuana.

Mike Rupert, chief executive officer for Boyd Andrew, said its
programs discourage the use of any mind-altering medications, but
medicinal marijuana is the one substance with which it has a zero
tolerance policy.

"People are just realizing how it's being abused," Rupert said. "The
vast majority of these people are scamming the system. It's a joke.
It's got to be 90-something percent are scamming."

Although Montana voters passed the medical marijuana initiative in
November 2004, not many cards were issued for the first couple of
years. In the year after it passed, 176 people were issued cards,
according to a study prepared for the Children, Families, Health, and
Human Services Interim Committee in April.

In June 2008, the number of cardholders reached 1,000.

By December 2009, the number had jumped to 7,339.

DPHHS has issued nearly 5,000 more cards in the first three months of
this year, according to the study - with at total of 12,081 card
holders as of March 31. About 2,800 people are registered to provide
marijuana on behalf of one or more patients.

Mineral County has the highest percentage of cardholders, with nearly
3 percent of the total population. Probation and parole officers
reported that in Mineral, Ravalli and Missoula counties, 213 people
currently under supervision have medical marijuana cards.

The actual number of probationers and parolees who have cards may be
higher, given that some report every six months and may have obtained
a card in the meantime, and sometimes it is only revealed that an
offender has a card after failing a urinalysis.

The Department of Corrections in 2008 proposed banning anyone on
probation from using medical marijuana. That was abandoned when it
was realized the state's medical marijuana law does not allow any
penalty for using medical marijuana, regardless of a person's criminal history.

"The problem is we're really on the cusp of this issue," said Bob
Anez, spokesperson for Corrections. "It has incubated in the
background for quite some time."