GREAT FALLS BANS MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUSINESSES OUTRIGHT

Emotions ran high Tuesday night as Great Falls city commissioners
voted 3-2 for an outright ban on medical marijuana businesses in the
city.

Commissioners Bob Jones and Bill Bronson were joined by Mayor Michael
Winters in favoring the ban; commissioners Fred Burow and Mary Jolley
opposed the prohibition.

Those who voted for the ban each specifically cited newspaper stories
published in Sunday's Great Falls Tribune for swaying their opinions.
The stories included interviews with two principals at Great Falls'
biggest high schools, who said the state's medical marijuana law is
prompting more students to use the drug. One anecdote focused on a car
driven by a C.M. Russell High School student that was inspected by the
principal of that school; the vehicle smelled of marijuana smoke and
contained a car seat.

Winters said he was leaning toward a moratorium, but changed his mind
after reading the stories and receiving telephone calls from concerned
residents. Jones and Bronson made similar comments.

Burow said the city could have controlled marijuana use by approving
an ordinance allowing the medical marijuana businesses in the city,
but he could not support a ban.

"History has always shown us that prohibition has always done the
exact opposite of what it's supposed to do," Burow said, referring to
the nationwide 1919 alcohol Prohibition, which was reversed in 1933.
"I won't support any prohibition in any way, shape or form."

Jolley said the wording of the ban broadly prohibited anything
contrary to federal, state or local laws. Under that wording,
marijuana is banned because federal drug law prohibits its use or sale.

"We're passing an ordinance that says nothing about marijuana," she
said.

More people at the meeting spoke against medical marijuana businesses,
rather than in favor of them, and claimed people who needed the drug
for legitimate reasons, such as chronically ill people, could still
get it.

Mike Kaszula, whose wife is ill with multiple sclerosis, said after
the meeting that she cannot obtain marijuana under the city's ban. He
told commissioners the couple might move based on the commission's
decision.

During the meeting, his wife said medical marijuana is the only thing
that helps her.

"Nothing makes me feel good except when I smoke (marijuana)," Karen
Kaszula told commissioners through tears.

Timothy Lewis said he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver, and
medical marijuana helps relieve his pain.

"I got hit by a truck," Lewis said. "My pelvis is busted in five
places."

He added that he will continue to use medical marijuana.

"I don't pop pills," he said. "I'm not much of an alcoholic."

He added that he does not use marijuana at work, but he uses it a home
with a few beers in the evening.

Lewis said the premise of the stories in the Sunday Tribune about
marijuana use in schools is nothing new.

"It's been in the schools since I went to school," he said. "Open up
the shops. Let 'em do their thing. It'll take it off the streets."

However, opponents of medical marijuana, including landlords and
property managers dealing with marijuana smoke and marijuana growing
in apartment buildings, urged a ban.

John Lind of Ulm told about a new tenant in a 32-apartment complex in
downtown Great Falls who smoked marijuana and whose boyfriend broke
into her apartment.

"I was very upset with the situation," he said.

Richard Calsetta said his wife has medical problems, but "she would
never use medical marijuana."

Also speaking against marijuana businesses were John Peterson,
principal of Foothills Community Christian School, and Ben Forsyth, a
paint store owner who argued a moratorium - another option on the
table Tuesday - is too difficult to enforce.

Dr. Paul Gorsuch of Great Falls, a neurological surgeon, said he
favored "whatever gives greater clarity to law enforcement," which he
concluded probably was a ban.

"I didn't really understand the distinction" between a ban or
moratorium extension, he said.

During the meeting, marijuana caregiver Pamela Birchard testified that
caregivers are trying to put together a voluntary certification system.

She spoke through tears after the meeting, saying she is worried about
how she could help a client under the ban who is completely bedridden
and may have only a few months to live. Birchard said she apparently
could not make a house call to her client without breaking a city
ordinance against operating a business without a license or permit.

There was no word Tuesday night whether medical marijuana supporters
might challenge the city's action in court.

City Attorney James Santoro said Tuesday that there is an effort for a
ballot initiative to overturn Montana voters' 2004 approval of medical
marijuana.