BAN WON'T SNUFF MEDICAL MARIJUANA TRANSACTIONS IN GREAT FALLS, SIDES
SAY

Marijuana businesses are banned in the Great Falls city limits,
effective July 1, following a vote by the City Commission Tuesday
night.

But that doesn't mean medical marijuana transactions will disappear
in the city limits, according to people on both sides of the debate.

"We're seeing more patients than we have ever seen in Great Falls,"
said Jason Christ, executive director of the Missoula-based Montana
Caregivers Network. "It makes them go back underground."

Ben Forsyth, a Great Falls paint-store owner who has criticized the
state medical marijuana law, acknowledged this week that legitimate
medical marijuana caregivers and patients may struggle under the
ban.

"I think the honest, ethical caregivers are going to suffer," Forsyth
said. "We've punished those people in a way."

He also predicted that unethical marijuana caregivers will continue
to sell the drug in the city, despite the ban.

"They'll find ways to do it unobserved," Forsyth said. He added that
it's difficult for police to get evidence to crack down on marijuana
businesses without a state license or certificate that operate in the
city.

The previous moratorium on medical marijuana businesses was hard to
enforce and a ban may be, too, Forsyth added.

"If the law can't be enforced, I'm not sure the law is useful," he
said.

He said the solution is for the 2011 Legislature to make access to
medical marijuana statewide "much, much tighter."

"I think we can reduce the problem considerably," Forsyth
said.

His comments came before police raided and arrested two men near his
paint store Thursday for allegedly selling marijuana from the Last
Chance Healing shop without state approval.

Great Falls City Attorney James Santoro said the ban begins in July,
and city officials expect people to follow it. He added that law
enforcement will be a presence.

Tom Daubert, founder and director of Helena-based Parents and
Families United, said Great Falls' ban will mean "at a minimum,
temporary confusion, uncertainty and great fear, I would think, among
patients and caregivers."

He said some patients and caregivers who have operated legally under
state law for years now face the taint of violating a misdemeanor
city ordinance.

"I think it's very short-sighted and initiates a whole host of new
problems," Daubert said this week.

Daubert added that he is optimistic that the 2011 Legislature may be
able to successfully reform the state medical marijuana program.

"I think there's a great deal of consensus," said Daubert, who has
testified before an interim legislative health committee on the subject.

The fact Great Falls' ban doesn't begin until July 1 does not mean
commercial marijuana operations were allowed before then, Santoro and
city Planning Director Michael Haynes said. No business licenses or
safety inspection certificates have been issued to any medical
marijuana business in Great Falls.

Haynes said Great Falls sits in a better position than cities that
already approved licenses for marijuana businesses. Billings approved
82 marijuana business licenses before approving a six-month
moratorium May 11. The town of Cascade south of Great Falls has one
marijuana business, but may move to revoke that permit at its June 9
meeting, when a final vote on a medical marijuana moratorium is scheduled.

Great Falls commissioners Tuesday voted 3-2 to ban marijuana
businesses in the city, rather than extend a moratorium through Feb.
2. Mayor Michael Winters and Commissioners Bob Jones and Bill Bronson
said they were concerned about the effects of the state medical
marijuana program on the community's young people.

Commissioners Mary Jolley and Fred Burow opposed the ban. Burow
compared the city's action to the prohibition of alcohol, a
nationwide experiment that began 90 years ago and was later repealed.

The Great Falls ordinance bans all "land uses that are in violation
of federal, state or local law."

Jolley said the ordinance does not specifically mention marijuana and
was very broad.

This spring's anti-medical marijuana backlash has some medical
marijuana advocates on their heels.

Part of the problem could be that marijuana has been illegal for so
long that people are not used to the idea that it's legal for medical
reasons under a 2004 state law.

"It's a quantum shift in our thinking," Christ said. "We have to take
time to work it out."

Cascade County has 1,388 medical marijuana patients registered with
the state, and 237 licensed marijuana caregivers.

Statewide, 25 percent of patient cardholders are in the 21- to
30-year-old age group, leading critics to suggest that young people
are obtaining the cards too easily. People in their 30s, 40s and 50s
each make up between 20 and 23 percent of cardholders statewide.

People in their 60s make up less than 7 percent of cardholders, and
those age 71 and older number less than 150 -- a miniscule amount.

Christ at first disputed state statistics that people in their 20s
were the greatest users of medical marijuana. He said his
organization sees mostly people in their 30s or older.

Daubert acknowledged a strong backlash against marijuana in Montana
communities this spring.

He said Montanans were upset by traveling medical marijuana caravans
organized by Christ and others "that run people through by the
hundreds in a single day" to get their patient cards. Another problem
is marijuana dispensaries that openly advertise their wares and seek
new clients, which Daubert said the law prohibits.

"I don't blame people for being upset," he said.

Great Falls City Manager Greg Doyon called medical marijuana "a
pretty difficult issue."

"People can still access it and grow it," Doyon said. "As I
understand it, if you're a patient you can access your own."

Even so, caregivers seeking to sell marijuana to patients in the city
limits will run afoul of the city's power to regulate businesses.

After Tuesday's meeting, caregiver Pam Birchard worried aloud that if
she paid a house call to a bedridden patient in Great Falls it would
violate the city's ban on medical marijuana transactions in the city.
She does not think such a patient would be able to meet her outside
of the city limits.

Christ said some caregivers have told him they will continue to
provide marijuana to patients in Great Falls, despite the ban.

Daubert, a grower and caregiver in Helena, said his business office
is located outside Helena, which has had a consistent ban on medical
marijuana to comply with federal law. He said Lewis and Clark County
did not require him to obtain a business license to operate.

Cascade County does not require those, either.

"In the county, we don't issue business licenses," said Susan Conell,
Cascade County's interim planning director. She added she was not
aware of any state legal impediment to a certified caregiver and
patient conducting business in the county, as long it was outside
the Great Falls city limits.

"That would be under the radar," Conell said.

However, law enforcement could step in if the parties did not hold
state medical marijuana cards.

Cascade County officials previously said medical marijuana businesses
could locate their shops in heavy industrial zones in the county.

Conell said Joshua Schultz is seeking to establish a medical
marijuana business north of Black Eagle in a heavy industrial zone,
if he can obtain a lease from Mike Gregoire. Among others
requirements, the structure would need approval by a state building
inspector and the county Health Department for its septic system.

"It's being processed," Conell said.

[sidebar]

Quick look at medical marijuana in Great Falls and Cascade
County

Legal or illegal?

An approved medical marijuana patient growing his or her own marijuana
- -- legal under state law

A medical marijuana caregiver selling marijuana to an approved patient
- -- allowed under state law but illegal under a Great Falls ordinance
that takes effect July 1; legal outside Great Falls city limits in
Cascade County

Operating a medical marijuana shop-- illegal within Great Falls city
limits; legal outside Great Falls limits in heavy industrial zones of
Cascade County if county and state approvals are given and heavy
industrial land is available

Business licenses -- not being issued by the city of Great Falls for
medical marijuana businesses; Cascade County does not offer business
licenses, but requires a location conformance permit, akin to a city
building permit, to erect a building or facility in the county.

Sources: Great Falls and Cascade County officials