LIBBY PLANS MEETING ON POT BUSINESS

The Libby City Council plans to hold a public meeting with
representatives of medical marijuana dispensary, Helping Center of
Libby, later this month to determine whether to revoke its city
business license.

"I make a motion that we send this organization a letter saying that
we want at the next available date to have a discussion about
suspending their license," councilmember Bill Bischoff said at the meeting.

The motion passed unanimously with Peggy Williams absent.

The council must either amend its business license ordinance or not
allow medical marijuana dispensaries within the city in order to
align with the law, members of the council agreed.

Federally-unrecognized, but state-sanctioned medical marijuana
businesses are not

eligible, under current city ordinance, for a business license
because they do not adhere to all local, state and federal laws. The
council granted the Helping Center a license before it opened its
doors last month because it had listed its trade simply as a "pain clinic."

"Pain clinic is very generic and could be many, many things," Mayor
Doug Roll said at the meeting to Rhonda McDowell-Rowen, co-director
and general manager of the four Helping Center dispensaries in the
region. "It could be acupuncture; it could be massage clinic. Had you
put 'medical marijuana dispensary,' it probably would have caught
some folks' eye."

Roll informed the council that in order to withdraw a business
license, it must, according to city ordinance, have a public hearing
with the business owner.

"You can't just revoke it and say sayonara," he said. "You have to
allow them a chance to speak about how they feel about the issue."

The council plans to meet with Helping Center representatives on
Monday, Nov. 29 at 6 p.m. in council chambers to discuss the matter.

Roll appeared in favor of holding off on making a decision, as all
businesses will have to renew their licenses in the new year, a mere
six weeks away. He also mentioned that city attorney Heather
McDougall's contract will be up at the end of the year and that it
would be prudent to wait on a decision until a new attorney is in
place. In addition, he said, the state legislature may come out next
year with new regulations.

"We're talking about an issue that in six months time may change
completely," he said. "Who knows what the legislature is going to do."

McDowell-Rowen pointed out that the dispensary in Libby is a smooth
operation -- no one but patients are allowed in the medicine room,
marijuana is not grown on site and the medication is locked in a safe
during after-hours.

Members of the council and the mayor said they didn't question its legitimacy.

"There's no argument about it being a legitimate business," Roll
said. "aE& We just have the little quirk in our business license that
was put in the 1930s when they had prohibition. State law alcohol was
legal, but federal law it was no longer legal. That's where that came
from and a lot of cities never took it out."

Members of the council did not appear committed to closing down the
dispensary, but did have questions as to its current location.

"Now that we have our new growth policy in place we do have the
ability to zone," councilmember Vicky Lawrence said. "Personally, I
do not like the fact that you have a business like that across from a
day-care center and two blocks away from our elementary school."

Lawrence added that the interim committee that has been meeting in
the state legislature about the issue has been tasked with addressing
concerns of residents not opposed to medical marijuana but who wish
for zoning restrictions.

Bischoff said he believed the council had to take some action so that
aspects of the dispensary, such as its location, wouldn't be grandfathered in.

"The longer we wait and allow them to operate -- and we all
understand you're a legitimate business. I think the location is the
biggest thing -- they may get grandfathered through the legislative
act because we don't know what that bill is going to be. If we don't
take any action, we're saying that it's OK to operate," he said.