PATIENT, PHYSICIANS TESTIFY TO HALT MONTANA MEDICAL MARIJUANA REFORM LAW

HELENA - A former cancer patient and the husband of an elderly woman
with serious health problems told a district judge Monday they worry
whether they can still obtain medical marijuana if a new law takes
effect July 1 and bans commercial growing operations

They, some physicians and others testified during the first day of a
hearing in a lawsuit filed by the Montanan Cannabis Industry
Association and others asking District Judge James Reynolds to issue
an injunction to prevent the new law from taking effect. The medical
marijuana group contends the law is unconstitutional, while the state
attorney general's office said it passes legal muster.

"If this law's enacted, I'm a dead man," said Pointe Hatfield of
Gardiner, 60, a former river guide who has had cancer in his head,
neck and throat. "I tried to grow it. I can't grow it. It died on me."

Hatfield said he has a caregiver in Livingston who sells him his
monthly 1-ounce supply of medical pot for $200. Maintaining the
current commercial market is vital, he said.

"It's the same as going to a drug store to get an aspirin," he
said.

Charlie Hamp, 79, is concerned about still obtaining a $40-a-month
medical marijuana tincture for his wife, Shirley, 78, who had her
esophagus removed and replaced with the lining of her stomach and has
lost weight.

Asked if he wants to grow medical marijuana and make tinctures, Hamp
said, "Absolutely not." He added, "I have no expertise in gardening of
any kind."

Like Hatfield, the Hamps now pay to buy legal medical marijuana
products from caregivers who grow it and can make tinctures, salves
and other products.

The new law, passed by the 2011 Legislature, halts all commercial
medical pot-growing operations in 12 days.

It replaces them with a grow-it-yourself system or requires medical
marijuana cardholders to find a provider - the new term for caregiver
- - to grow it for them, but for free. Providers will be limited to
growing medical pot for three patients each, while no such limit
currently exists. Patients now pay their caregivers for medical
marijuana products.

In one of its most contentious issues, the 2011 Legislature approved
the new law to reel in a medical marijuana system that many people
believed has careened out of control in recent years.

Montana now has more than 31,500 medical pot cardholders - or more
than seven times the 4,000 cardholders in September 2009.

The numbers skyrocketed after the U.S. Justice Department issued a
memo in October 2009 saying the federal government wouldn't prosecute
any seriously ill people who were complying with their states' medical
pot laws.

Then a Missoula caregiver set up a series of "cannabis caravans" that
traveled across the state to sign up thousands of cardholders. People
at times saw out-of-state doctors in person or over the Internet for a
few minutes before getting their cards.

Earlier this year, federal agencies raided a number of Montana medical
marijuana growers and seized medical marijuana plants and products and
cash.

"The key issue here is the virtual denial of access to medical
marijuana," said Bozeman attorney James Goetz, representing the
Cannabis Industry Association.

He said the law denies Montanans their fundamental right in the state
Constitution to pursue good health. Goetz said the new law allows
"excessive government interference in the lives of Montanans" and
empowers the state to conduct warrantless searches of patients and
providers.

"Our proof will show that marijuana, while not completely harmless, is
remarkably safe," Goetz said.

But Assistant Attorney General James Molloy, representing the state,
said the new law does not prevent people like Hamp's wife from
obtaining a medical marijuana product. Hamp can grow it for his wife,
hire a consultant to show them how to do it or find a provider to grow
it for them.

The initiative passed by Montana voters in 2004 envisioned a law in
which people with certain conditions could grow their own pot for
medicinal purposes, he said.

The question, Molloy said, is whether the state must allow a
commercial marijuana industry to exist.

"The commercial activity they wish to engage in is illegal under the
laws of the United States of America," he said.

Reynolds asked the state attorneys if they are willing to concede that
any parts of the new law are invalid and medical marijuana trade
association lawyers to identify what parts of the law are illegal.

Goetz called as witnesses three Montana physicians, a Harvard medical
professor emeritus and a social worker, in addition to Hatfield and
Hamp.

Dr. Jack Hensold, a Bozeman cancer specialist, estimated he recommends
medical marijuana to two or three patients a month. One was Hatfield,
who now is cancer-free but has continued difficulty with nausea and
his appetite, which medical marijuana has helped, the doctor said.

The oncologist said he worries about the restrictions in the new law
because "the availability of the drug would be limited."

Dr. Lester Grinspoon, a professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School
who has written extensively about marijuana, testified by video that
medical marijuana should be as widely available as aspirin.

"Eventually, marijuana is going to be recognized as a wonder drug,
just like penicillin was in 1941," said Grinspoon, who serves on the
national board of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws.

The hearing resumes Tuesday with the Cannabis Industry Association
calling several final witnesses, before the state puts on its case.