MEDICAL MARIJUANA MEETING AIMS TO DISPEL RUMORS, EDUCATE

Medical marijuana patients, caregivers and supporters from around the
state spent Sunday in Helena asking questions and listening to panel
discussions about the medicinal plant that's generated significant
interest since voter approval in 2004.

They'll continue today for the second day of the Montana Medical
Growers Association annual meeting and symposium at the Red Lion
Colonial Hotel. The event is free and open to the public and runs from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"We are serious about this as an industry; we need to be serious about
participation as individuals," said Executive Director Jim Gingery.
"We want the black market to go away because we want to be able to
grow it in Montana."

Sessions were held throughout the first day on the medical and
scientific benefits, legal considerations and delivery methods. Topics
today will include agriculture, business operations and
communications.

At the end of Gingery's opening comments, he set out to dispel rumors
about medical marijuana.

There are rumors that caregivers are treating hundreds of patients,
but the facts are that only 2 percent have over 41 patients; 24
percent have four to 40 patients; and 73 percent have three patients
or fewer, a slide Gingery presented to the crowd read. There's a rumor
that school-aged children are getting medical cards at record number,
but the fact is there are 44 card holders 18 or younger in Montana.

Education is key, said Tayln Lang, chapter director of MMGA
Missoula.

"I'd never want to go into combat without the proper gear and knowing
what I'm up against," Lang said. "This will help people get what they
need in our industry and outside our industry."

Lang added that professionals at the symposium with extensive
credentials would help educate attendees. Professionals like Chris
Christensen, a physician from Victor who prescribes marijuana to
patients when necessary, or Noel Palmer, who has his doctorate in
chemistry and works as a scientist for Montana Botanical Analysis.

The group invited Irvin Rosenfeld, a federal cannabis patient and
Florida stockbroker, to be the event's keynote speaker.

When he was 10, Rosenfeld was diagnosed with a serious, rare bone
disorder that causes tumors to form on long bones. After undergoing
multiple surgeries and taking a laundry list of prescribed pain
medications for years, he reluctantly tried marijuana in college and
soon realized the relief it gave him.

"If a doctor could give me diazepam, Valium, quaaludes . they should
be able to prescribe me medical marijuana," he said.

It was a long battle - 10 years - but the federal government now
monthly provides him a tin of 300 federally grown and rolled marijuana
cigarettes.

Rosenfeld said he came to the event to tell his story and offer his
support and knowledge to help continue to improve on what was started
here six years ago.

Attending the symposium was Helena resident Holly Hacker, who is
disabled, but does what she can to give back to the community by
volunteering with the Last Chance Community Pow Wow and the Holter
Museum.

She's also a medical marijuana patent due to the degenerative disc and
joint disease she suffers from; however she became disabled from a
severe allergy developed, she believes, from her previous place of
employment.

"It's been an ugly roller coaster to get my health stabilized," she
said.

Hacker is cheerful and friendly, but under her clothes are sores and
lesions that take months, sometimes years, to heal. The steroids help
with the insatiable urge to frantically itch her skin; but she uses
marijuana to treat the chronic pain that the disc disease causes in
her lower back.

She said there is an incredible group of people in Montana who support
the patients using the product, the caregivers providing it and the
doctors comfortable prescribing it. These people, she said, want the
law to succeed.

"We, like any new business, have growing pains," Hacker said. "Many of
the problems will self-correct."

Christensen, who has been practicing family medicine for 35 years,
said it's a precarious time for caregivers and patients and
particularly doctors.

"I got into this because I was forced to take responsibility of
helping my patients with chronic pain," he said. "The statement that
chronic pain is overstated is nothing more than a reflection of the
fact that we are still in denial."

Christensen said some doctors also simply believe there are more risks
than benefits.

"There is a part of the population that doesn't believe there's any
medical benefit," he said. "These doctors are convinced that marijuana
is more detrimental than beneficial."

Christensen disagrees and has patients who drive hours from all
corners of the state to receive his care.

Palmer said there is scientific proof that marijuana works but added
that there is still a lot to learn.

Valerie Hellermann, of Helena, is convinced that marijuana helped with
her son's ADD.

"After years of struggling with ADD and terrible drugs, he suddenly
had a semester of getting A's," she said.

It was because he was smoking marijuana, Hellermann said, adding that
her son is now senior in college studying astrobiology.

"He kept saying mom, 'I am able to focus (after smoking marijuana),'"
she said. "We should explore the use for ADD and ADHD because kids
come down and crash from Ritalin horribly."

Lang said that people have all kinds of stories about how medical
marijuana has helped them, but he recognizes that not all people agree
with its use.

"The single largest factor if you are for or against it is whether you
know somebody that's a user," he said.

Lang added that the symposium is important to provide education so
minds and hearts can be changed when needed.