CAREGIVERS SOLD MARIJUANA TO UNDERCOVER AGENTS, EACH OTHER, AFFIDAVIT SAYS

Big Sky Patient Care in Four Corners sold "pounds" of marijuana to a
Helena-based medical marijuana provider, according to a federal
affidavit, leading some to speculate that large sales of marijuana
between businesses factored into the 26 drug raids carried out Monday.

The document also describes a Miles City provider selling undercover
agents a sniper rifle and marijuana and another provider hiring
workers from Missouri to produce hashish.

The affidavit, which was inadvertently unsealed, sheds more light into
at least one of the investigations that culminated with 26 search
warrants being executed at medical marijuana businesses across the
state. The document, which has been resealed, was originally obtained
by the Billings Gazette and has since been widely distributed on the
Internet.

The unsealed affidavit detailed the investigation of Richard Flor, and
later Montana Cannabis, that began in 2007. Montana Cannabis, in which
Flor was a partner, grew marijuana in Helena and Miles City and
distributed it in Helena, Miles City and Billings. The affidavit said
undercover agents bought marijuana from Flor twice and bought a sniper
rifle from him, though it was not clear whether Flor considered the
agent a patient.

Big Sky Patient Care became involved with Montana Cannabis when one of
Montana Cannabis' grow sites in Helena was vandalized, causing an
estimated $50,000 worth of damage, according to the affidavit.

With plants damaged, co-owners Thomas Daubert and Christopher Williams
arranged to buy marijuana from Big Sky Patient Care for $2,700 a
pound. One informant said they witnessed checks being written for the
marijuana.

Montana Cannabis bought marijuana from the Four Corners business "for
approximately five or six months in 2010, until the Montana Cannabis
marijuana grow site could produce enough marijuana to sustain the
business' marijuana distribution requirements for Helena, Billings and
Miles City," the affidavit states.

That may have violated the state's medical marijuana law, prompting
the investigations and Monday's raids.

"Current law limits the right of a caregiver to distribute medical
marijuana ... only to specified card-carrying patients," Mike Batista,
administrator of the state's Department of Criminal Investigations,
wrote in a letter to a legislative panel in 2010. "Caregivers have
advocated for allowing a caregiver to buy marijuana plants from other
caregivers in order to maintain a sufficient supply of marijuana. Law
enforcement ... is concerned that this contributes to the risk of
diversion of (medical marijuana) for illegal purposes."

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office states that drug
traffickers, not sick individuals who use marijuana as allowed under
state law, were the target of the investigation.

The fact that the affidavit details the large sales of marijuana
between Big Sky Patient Care and Montana Cannabis - both of which were
raided Monday - suggests to some that caregiver-to-caregiver sales
played a part in the statewide searches.

"What I think has happened is that law enforcement via the (state)
attorney general has decided that caregiver-to-caregiver (sales)
violates the act," said Chris Lindsey, a medical marijuana attorney
and board member of the Montana Medical Growers Association. "It does
appear that caregiver-to-caregiver is part of the issue here."

Lindsey said sales between businesses was a gray area that advocates
hoped would be cleared up in the Legislature this year. He maintained
that caregivers must be allowed to sell to each other in order to
start new operations.

Lindsey said sales between businesses was a gray area that advocates
hoped would be cleared up in the Legislature this year.

"I think it is a reflection of frustration with
caregiver-to-caregiver sales," said Chuck Watson, another attorney.

The Associated Press also reported Wednesday that a civil warrant was
executed at First Security Bank in Belgrade Monday. The warrant
authorized seizure of nearly $1.7 million in an account in the name
of the Montana Cannabis Ministry and $103,413 in another account
belonging to MCM owners Randy and Stephanie Leibenguth. That business
was also raided on Monday.