UNUSUAL ALLIANCES FORM OVER BILL ON MONTANA MEDICAL MARIJUANA INDUSTRY

HELENA - Leading medical marijuana advocates formed an unusual
alliance with law enforcement and local government officials Friday
to support a major proposal to license and regulate the booming
industry in Montana.

In another strange-bedfellows combination, marijuana growers,
caregivers and patients opposing the bill were joined by a group of
people who want to repeal the 2004 Montana ballot initiative that
legalized medical marijuana in the first place.

More than 70 people testified for or against House Bill 68, sponsored
by Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, on behalf of an interim committee,
during a three-hour hearing Friday afternoon before the House Human
Services Committee. The panel took no action on the bill.

HB68 would create a tiered licensing system, require criminal
background checks for people who grow and sell medical marijuana,
require two physicians to sign off before a patient with chronic pain
could be authorized to use medical marijuana, give local governments
the authority to regulate the industry and ban the smoking of medical
marijuana in public.

Doctors would have to have an office in Montana and couldn't have
financial ties to the medical marijuana industry under the bill.
These were among the steps aimed at stopping the "cannabis caravans"
across the state where doctors saw dozens of patients at brief
appointments and sometimes over the Internet before prescribing
medical pot to them.

The regulatory costs for the bill would be paid for by licensing fees
estimated to raise $7.6 million in fiscal 2012.

HB68 is one of two major bills to add more controls over an industry
that some say has spun out of control since fall of 2009. A separate
bill by Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, also would impose a regulatory
system and tax medical marijuana. Other pending bills would repeal
the law now or put it back before voters.

Sands told the panel that the interim committee took up the issue
after numerous stories about medical marijuana hit the media last year.

"No one envisioned we would see the explosion in the medical
marijuana industry," she said, noting more than 27,000 people have
obtained cards allowing them to use medical pot.

She estimated that medical marijuana in Montana may be a $50 million
to $100 million "unregulated cash business."

"It was our commitment to honor the will of the sovereign voters of
the state of Montana," she said. "It was our responsibility to try to
make it work for the people of Montana. This is not a repeal bill."

Mark Long, representing the Montana Narcotics Officers Association,
supported the bill, saying law enforcement officials have no idea how
much marijuana is being produced in the state. But said Montana has
seen a "tremendous increase in criminal activity," with much of it
surrounding the medical marijuana industry, he said.

"This thing has created a fiasco in this state that also is an
embarrassment at the national level," Long said.

Jim Smith, speaking for the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers and
Montana County Attorney associations, said they appreciate the bill
setting a "clear bright line about what's legal and what's not." The
bill also gives local governments regulatory authority.

Tom Daubert, one of the authors of the initiative and head of
Patients & Families United, said he supports the bill, but believes
it has some serious flaws. He urged the committee to continue working on it.

"I believe the opportunity for near-consensus solutions is
extraordinarily good," he said.

Kate Cholewa, representing the Alliance for Cannabis, supported parts
of the bill but opposed the two-doctor requirement for someone with
chronic pain to be authorized to use medical marijuana.

Opponents from the industry argued the regulatory requirements were
oppressive, would put some of them out of business and represented an
overreaction.

"I think it's based on fear, not facts," said Jason Smith, who has a
caregiver business in Billings. "Medication is supposed to be a tax
deduction, not a revenue."

Jeff Swenson was among several people who criticized the bill's
provisions banning felons from obtaining licenses to grow or sell
medical marijuana.

"If all felons are generalized in there, I will lose my job and not
be able to provide for myself," he said.

A number of people, some using crutches and others in wheelchairs,
told the panel that medical marijuana had helped them significantly
after other prescription drugs failed.

Cherrie Brady, the Billings woman who headed the unsuccessful
11th-hour attempt last year for a ballot measure to repeal the
legalization of medical marijuana, said there are too many flaws in
the bill. She called for a legislative repeal of the 2004 measure.

Brady's group obtained nearly 20,000 signatures in seven days last
June, shortly before the deadline, but failed to get enough to
qualify for the ballot.

"The people of Montana are saying we did not get what we voted for,"
she said. "People want out of this."

Controversial Jason Christ of Missoula, founder of the Montana
Caregivers Network, didn't testify against the bill but tried to
oppose it as an informational or neutral witness. Afterward, House
Human Services Chairman David Howard, R-Park City, said he would put
Christ down as an opponent.

Christ has drawn criticism from others in the industry for smoking a
bowl of medicinal pot outside the Capitol.

He faces charges of felony intimidation in Missoula County for an
alleged bomb threat against a cellular phone store.