MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW WILL BE SCRUTINIZED BY COMMITTEE

Once again, the legislative interim committee with the really long
name is meeting early next week to take up what to do about Montana's
voter-passed medicinal marijuana law.

The outlook is promising.

We're calling attention to the meeting here because of the intense
interest this issue has generated on this page in recent weeks. A
guest column a couple of weeks ago opposing medicinal use of pot
generated more than 1,100 comments, a record for gftrib.com.

By now we don't have to reprise the entire history of this issue, but
we'll summarize:

Voters in 2004 voted by a roughly two-to-one margin to allow use of
marijuana, an illegal drug, for palliative care in certain medical
cases.

Despite passage, nothing much happened in the public eye until the
federal Justice Department indicated it would not go after individuals
in states where such a medicinal-marijuana law had been passed.

The state moved to start certifying patients whose doctors authorized
the drug, and individuals and businesses who wanted to provide the
medicinal herb to those patients.

That opened the floodgates, to the point where more than 20,000
Montanans were in the state's registry of authorized patients by the
end of June.

The number of folks registering dribbled in through mid-2009, when
they began to accelerate. More than 3,200 signed up in June of this
year alone.

Law enforcement, education and health officials -- as well as many
backers of the original initiative -- spoke up in the past half a year
to point out weaknesses in the voter-passed law, and the Legislature's
Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee has
responded with hearings and a subcommittee aimed at remedying those
weaknesses.

In next week's Monday-Tuesday committee meeting -- the panel's last
before the 2011 session -- the recommendations will be aired once again.

Last week the subcommittee endorsed creation of state licensing
requirements for individuals and businesses that grow, manufacture,
sell or transport medical marijuana.

It also OK'd Department of Revenue authority for inspecting and
regulating the industry.

According to a committee news release, other proposed changes
would:

- - Cap at 2 ounces the amount of marijuana that may be dispensed to a
person each month;

- - Require Montana residency in order to use medical marijuana under
the state law;

- - Spell out the standard of care that physicians are expected to meet
in certifying that a patient qualifies for medical marijuana use;

- - Bar financial relationships between physicians and the businesses or
individuals who provide medical marijuana;

- - Ban use of medical marijuana in public; and

- - Repeal a legal defense currently available to people who possess
marijuana without a registry card or in amounts greater than allowed
by law.

As usual, the committee will accept public comment on draft
legislation before taking final action on any proposals.

The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Room 137 of the State
Capitol.