REPEALING MARIJUANA INITIATIVE WAS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE

Editor's note: The following letter is written in response to the Feb.
13 letter from Larry Price of Superior, who criticized Rep. Gordon
Hendrick's vote to repeal the citizen initiative on medical marijuana.

In response to Larry Price:

I take my oath of office to uphold the Montana and U.S. Constitutions
very seriously and before you accuse me of trampling on them, I ask
you to check your facts.

The Medical Marijuana statute passed into law by the citizen's
initiative process was voted into law as an initiated state statute,
not an initiated constitutional amendment, and is subject to repeal by
the legislature the same as any other law enacted.

My first concern when I was considering my vote on HB 161 was that a
law passed by citizen's initiative was enacted by the will of the
people. However, the messages I personally received, overwhelmingly in
favor of repeal, were from those very citizens who felt they were
duped into voting for this as the only means of pain relief for those
people who had failed all conventional forms of treatment. They were
compassionate, law abiding people who did not envision what this would
turn into--a billion dollar industry that has gotten around the citizen
initiative's original intent and they are embarrassed that they voted
for this in the first place. The will of the people wanted the
legislature to repeal it.

Rep. Gordon Hendrick, Superior