AGAIN: REVISE THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW, DON'T REPEAL IT

Not since hunting pheasants in the fall have we felt the way we feel
as we try to write about the 62nd Montana Legislature's handling of
medicinal marijuana law -- it's shooting at a moving target.

However, on the assumption that final resolution was not going to be
reached Thursday, we thought we'd take one more shot at it.

Conflicting, or at least mutually exclusive, bills stayed alive in the
Legislature this week -- and one of them is on the verge of being sent
to the governor.

That bill is the simplest alternative: flat repeal of the
voter-approved law that made medicinal use of marijuana permissible in
Montana.

But it's also the wrong alternative.

If that bill, proposed by House Speaker Mike Milburn, R-Cascade, gets
final Senate approval today, we would encourage the governor to put
his "veto" branding iron to work on it.

And if that happens, it will leave the state right where it was when
the session began.

That's where the alternative Senate bill imposing a number of tight
restrictions on the budding medical cannabis industry fits in. That
bill also passed Thursday and was transmitted to the House, where
Milburn said it would get a fair hearing.

At center of the controversy is a law approved by a sizable majority
of Montanans in 2004.

Since then, as the new industry grew and morphed into different forms
in different communities, it became apparent that the words of the
legalization initiative were insufficient to control the law's
application, and that's where this Legislature entered the picture.

It started out with a number of bills, but only a few remained in play
this week: the repealer that's headed to passage; the Senate's backup
regulatory measure; and a backup to the backup, to resubmit the issue
to the voters.

Our view, as we've said before, is that the medicinal use of cannabis
is valuable and effective enough -- and popular enough with voters --
that it would be a mistake to throw it out.

In fact, the business has progressed to the point that repealing the
law would not only stress upward of 30,000 patients who've qualified
to use the drug, but also wipe out scores -- perhaps hundreds -- of jobs
across the state.

It can't be denied that some backers of the initiative and the new
line of business viewed it as a foot in the door for legalizing
cannabis for general use. Further, it appears that some of the
providers overstepped in their zeal to recruit business, bringing some
public backlash onto themselves.

But we continue to believe that the best option is managing -- and
taxing -- the marijuana business just like we manage other businesses.

Regulating the business shouldn't be that difficult, and Sen. Jeff
Essman's SB423 would do it -- and then some.

We think it goes too far in some particulars, including prohibiting
advertising or otherwise promoting the business, but that bill, too,
would be a foot in the door -- of doing it right.

We suspect that, even if Essman's bill is the one that eventually
prevails, regulation of the medicinal marijuana business in Montana
will continue to be a moving target.

It may take a couple of tries for lawmakers to hit it, but that's why
they come back to Helena every two years.