IN MONTANA, A BID TO END MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA

HELENA, Mont. - The Montana House of Representatives voted Thursday
to repeal the state's six-year-old medical marijuana law.

The 63-to-37 vote, largely along party lines in the
Republican-controlled chamber, pushed Montana to the front lines of a
national debate about social policy, economics and health as medical
marijuana use has surged in the 15 states and the District of
Columbia that allow its use.

"We were duped," said the House speaker, Mike Milburn, a Republican
and sponsor of the repeal bill, who said he thought that the
arguments about medical use had been a pretext for encouraging
recreational use and creating a path to full legalization. He said he
feared gang drug wars in Montana's cities and debilitation of its youth.

"This bill says, Shut down everything - it's gone way too far," Mr.
Milburn told the chamber before the vote.

The State Senate, also controlled by the Republicans, will also
consider the measure, and House members will have an opportunity to
vote on it again as early as Friday before sending it there. If
passed by the Senate it would face an uncertain fate on the desk of
Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat.

Mr. Schweitzer has said he believes the laws need to be tightened,
but he has not taken a position on repeal. His spokeswoman, Sarah
Elliott, said in an e-mail, "The business has gotten out ahead of the
regulatory environment, and we need to build some boundaries."

But in the voices of the lawmakers on Thursday, the weight and
passion of the issue were evident.

"We tried prohibition," said Representative Diane Sands, a Democrat.
"Marijuana has been in our community for years; it is not going
away," she added. "We have to deal with that fact."

Other states and cities are also wrestling with the question of what
medical marijuana is, or should be. New Mexico's new Republican
governor, Susana Martinez, expressed interest in repeal this year.
Colorado is formulating some of the most detailed rules in the nation
for growing and selling. Lawmakers in New Jersey have jousted with
the governor over regulation.

And although party line positions have defined the issue in Montana,
with Republicans mostly lined up in favor of restriction or repeal,
there is widespread agreement among legislators and residents that
medical marijuana has become something very different than it was
originally envisioned to be.

Sixty-two percent of voters approved the use of medical marijuana in
a statewide referendum in 2004. But the real explosion of growth came
only in the last year, after the federal Department of Justice said
in late 2009 that medical marijuana would not be a law enforcement priority.

Since then, the numbers of patients have quadrupled to more than
27,000 - in a state of only about 975,000 people - and millions of
dollars have been invested in businesses that grow or supply the product.

Here in Helena, at least 16 other bills in addition to the repeal
measure have been filed or drafted since the legislative session
began last month, calling for everything from a marijuana tax to
another voter referendum.

"I've lobbied every session since '81, and I've never seen an issue
as fluid as this," said Tom Daubert, an advocate for medical
marijuana and an author of the 2004 ballot measure. "It changes by
the minute, by the hour, by the day."

But in a huge, mostly rural state where a libertarian,
keep-government-off-my-back spirit runs deep, the debate is also
different in temper and geography than in other states. Marijuana,
many people here say, has intensified suspicions between the two
Montanas that are zipped together by the Rocky Mountains -
conservative ranching and agriculture country to the east, liberal
college towns and tourist communities to the west.

The change in the pattern and scale of medical marijuana use across
Montana has coincided with a seismic change in politics here, where
Republicans surged from a 50-50 tie in the House before last
November's election to a 68-to-32 majority now. Republicans have a
28-to-22 majority in the Senate.

Several House members who spoke against repeal said the Legislature,
by declining in past years to take up bills that would have regulated
or controlled medical marijuana when its use was not so widespread,
had only itself to blame.

"We had many years to regulate something that 62 percent of Montanans
wanted, and we chose to do nothing," said Representative Pat Noonan,
a Democrat. "Don't vote against the citizens."