MEDICAL MARIJUANA STORIES ABOUND

As Montana legislators prepare to tackle the voter-approved 2004
Medical Marijuana Act, stories about the act's unexpected consequences
continue to hit the newsstands.

In July, Jason Christ, founder of the Montana Caregivers Network --
and the most visible medical marijuana lobbyist in the state -- was
arrested in Missoula after he allegedly got in a dispute with
mechanics at an automotive repair shop and started to smoke marijuana.

Christ on numerous occasions has publicly bragged that he runs a $1.2
million medical marijuana business and helped 80 percent of the
state's 23,000-some marijuana cardholders sign up through use of mass
clinics and "cannabis caravans" that traveled Montana.

On Aug. 26, three of his employees filed a wrongful discharge lawsuit
in Missoula claiming Christ ordered hundreds of card applications to
be falsified, used company funds for personal expenses, drove a
company van while smoking marijuana and created a hostile work
environment.

Christ initially denounced the lawsuit as a conspiracy, and when the
three former workers started a similar business, 406 Alternative Care
Consultants, Christ obtained a temporary restraining order halting the
three from competing against him.

A few days later, Christ filed suit seeking an injunction against
another similar business. Logan Head, of Zoo Mountain Natural Care,
said many of his patients had complained about Christ's organization
and needed an alternative.

Advising Christ to hire an attorney, Missoula County District Court
Judge Dusty Deschamps refused Christ's injunction and lifted the
temporary restraining order against 406 Alternative Care
Consultants.

Another large-scale medical marijuana business in Missoula was in the
news. Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg said a search
warrant was executed at Montana Pain Management on Oct. 14 because
authorities believed the business was illegally selling drugs. The
company's president, Rick Rosio, had characterized the search as a
compliance check.

Montana Pain Manage-ment is one of the largest medical marijuana
providers in the state, with 10 employees and about 300 patients. On
Nov. 1, Delphia Holdings Corp. filed suit against the company,
charging Rosio and board chairman Kraig Michels with illegally
transferring $50,000. Rosio and Michels said everything was done legally.

The Blotter

From the crime blotter comes a report of a man on Antelope Trail, in
Happy Valley, arrested in August with 106 marijuana plants. The man
claimed he was the caregiver for a number of people who told police
they had nothing to do with his operation. In Columbia Falls, two
15-year-old youths were caught in the act stealing marijuana from a
greenhouse at the North Fork Store on Nov. 2.

Caregiver offices in Billings and Bozeman were burglarized over the
summer, and a Hamilton caregiver was sentenced in September to 20
years with 10 suspended for several charges, including selling medical
marijuana to two police informants after they told her they didn't
have state cards.

A registered caregiver in Marion was arrested in September after
Northwest Drug Task Force officers found 84 plants when he was only
entitled to possess 24. In Helena, a 31-year-old man charged with
shooting his wife and nanny on April 15 claimed he was mentally
incapacitated because he ate cookies laced with marijuana.

Meanwhile, towns and cities across Montana continued to look at ways
to regulate the medical marijuana industry. In September, the Billings
City Council voted to extend the city's moratorium on new medical
marijuana businesses but stopped short of a zoning change that would
have banned them inside the city limits.

The Kalispell City Council agreed in August to go ahead with a
business registration system that would help officials keep track of
medical marijuana businesses. Three storefront dispensaries and five
growing operations were grandfathered-in because they began operating
before Kalispell effectively outlawed them by citing federal law.

Libby uses business licenses as a way to keep track of medical
marijuana businesses inside the city limits, but the chief of police
was caught by surprise when he saw a marijuana leaf logo on a
dispensary two blocks from an elementary school.

Libby city councilors had recently approved a business license for
Helping Center of Libby, which has affiliates in Kalispell, Columbia
Falls and Bigfork and plans a clinic in Whitefish.

But they felt the company was "not being truthful" when it entered
"pain clinic" under the "type of business" section, mayor Doug Roll
said. He asked the councilors to take a look at the matter, but the
council has been wary of the city being subject to a lawsuit.

The Bozeman city commissioners in July capped the number of medical
marijuana storefronts to 20 -- at least through August. They had
earlier considered capping them at 32, and by October they were
looking at regulating "compassion clubs" and laboratories that were
testing various cannabis strains.

Lawsuits

While both Butte and Anaconda officials looked at ways to regulate the
new industry in August, lawsuits were filed in Helena and Great Falls
over bans there. A caregiver in Helena said medical marijuana
businesses fall outside the city's authority, and only the state could
regulate them. Three Great Falls men claimed the city's ban prevented
them from getting their legal medication, but the city attorney noted
that the county line wasn't all that far away.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement Oct. 19, 2009, that
the U.S. Justice Department would take a less restrictive position on
medical marijuana may have helped propel the medical marijuana
industry in Montana.

But as voters in Cali-fornia considered a measure this fall that would
legalize pot -- for medical or other purposes -- Holder announced the
Justice Department strongly opposed Proposition 19 because it would
interfere with efforts to target drug traffickers. And White House
drug policy adviser Kevin Sabet said marijuana was a dangerous drug
that caused documented health and social problems.

Proposition 19 failed in California, but one month earlier, Gov.
Schwarzenneger signed a law decriminalizing possession of up to one
ounce of marijuana, and Oakland had already become the first major
U.S. city to authorize industrial-scale marijuana cultivation.

Voters in South Dakota turned down legalized medical marijuana, but
that wasn't the national trend -- city councilors in Washington, D.C.,
qualified medical marijuana for discounts for poor patients, and new
Veterans Affairs Department guidelines allowed medical marijuana to be
prescribed in its hospitals and clinics.