MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROUP SUES OVER CAREGIVER-TO-CAREGIVER TRANSACTIONS

KALISPELL - A Flathead District Court judge on Wednesday heard
arguments in a civil case that aims to clarify whether Montana's
controversial Medical Marijuana Act allows caregiver-to-caregiver
transactions.

A medical marijuana advocacy group filed the lawsuit against the
Flathead County attorney in April, suing on behalf of two men who were
charged with felony drug crimes. The charges relate to a traffic stop
by law enforcement agents that revealed several pounds of pot in their
possession.

The men - one a registered caregiver, the other a card holder - were
driving the pot from Kalispell to Cascade County for delivery to
another caregiver.

According to Timothy Baldwin and Chris Lindsey, attorneys representing
the Montana Medical Marijuana Growers Association, the defendants were
each within their constitutional rights, and the transaction was
inside the scope of the Medical Marijuana Act.

The widespread presumption that such transactions are illegal is
intruding on the rights of medical marijuana caregivers and patients,
the attorneys argued, and it requires a point of legal
clarification.

"The Medical Marijuana Act has gray areas and these arguments fall
within those legal gray areas," Lindsey said, asking Flathead District
Judge Stewart Stadler to rule that the issue is a matter of law.

Deputy Flathead County Attorney Tara Fugina asked Stadler to dismiss
the lawsuit by summary judgment. She argued that caregiver-to-caregiver
transactions are not covered under the state's Medical Marijuana Act
and the transactions are therefore illegal. She said the plaintiffs'
legal arguments are convoluted and fall outside the scope of what is
contemplated by the Montana Medical Marijuana Act.

"This is an attempt to judicially expand the Montana Medical Marijuana
Act," Fugina said. "A tortuous interpretation of the law is not
necessary. It means what it says and it says what it means - nothing
more, nothing less. The court should not be inserting what is not there."

The Flathead County case is not the first time that legal ambiguities
of the state's medical marijuana law have been challenged,
particularly as they relate to caregiver-to-caregiver
transactions.

In April, Missoula District Judge John Larson ruled that the 2004
Medical Marijuana Act, which was passed by voter initiative,
"particularly prohibits a caregiver from providing marijuana to anyone
other than a qualifying patient who has registered that specific caregiver."

That ruling was in response to a separate lawsuit that Lindsey filed
on behalf of caregiver Kevin Kerr.

Lindsey has since appealed Larson's ruling to the Montana Supreme
Court, and Stadler acknowledged that an action by the high court could
influence the outcome of the proceedings.

The Flathead County case relates to caregiver Robin Ruiz and patient
Lief Erickson, who were arrested in a traffic stop Feb. 3 with 3
pounds of marijuana, 300 marijuana capsules and five vials of
suspected THC honey, according to court documents. The men were
subsequently charged with criminal possession with intent to
distribute, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine
of $50,000. They have pleaded not guilty.

Baldwin said medical marijuana providers have an obligation and a duty
to provide for their patients, and that "the duty practically requires
them to deliver, transport, or transfer marijuana and its
paraphernalia to another caregiver."

He said the litigation is intended to clarify the current state law
and show that the widespread practice of transferring medical
marijuana between registered caregivers, either themselves or through
a third party, is legal and should not be prosecuted.

At the end of the 20-minute hearing Wednesday, Stadler said he would
take the issue under consideration.