FILLING POTHOLES IN THE LAW

At least something isn't ambiguous about Montana's medical marijuana
law.

Flathead County District Judge Stewart Stadler recently ruled that the
law clearly limits caregivers to providing marijuana to "qualified
patients" in a case involving caregivers providing marijuana to one
another. A Missoula judge issued a similar ruling earlier this year.

The plaintiffs in the case tried to argue that the law is ambiguous,
but Stadler found that "no such ambiguity exists; rather, the clear
and unambiguous language of the Act permits caregivers to provide
marijuana only to qualifying patients who have named the applicant as
caregiver."

It's revealing that the case involved two Flathead Valley men who face
criminal charges after they were allegedly caught transporting three
pounds of marijuana to Great Falls in February. Even though one was a
licensed caregiver and the other a card-carrying patient, by all
appearances they were involved in trafficking medical marijuana for
profit.

And that is one of the biggest flaws in the law: It created a
multimillion-dollar industry that far exceeded the intended
restrictions of the law. Prosecutors maintain that three pounds
exceeds limits on how much caregivers and patients can possess.

But there's nothing unusual about this. There have been cases across
the state where limitations have been exceeded to a point where it
basically amounted to widespread drug dealing.

That was probably one of the main concerns for Montana legislators who
passed legislation with provisions that were essentially aimed at
taking the money out of the industry. However, a Lewis and Clark
County judge has ruled that the new restrictions on compensation and
how many patients a caregiver can have are unconstitutional.

We will see.

If that ruling holds up, it would appear the state wouldn't even have
the authority to restrict large grow operations. That would certainly
not have been the intent of the Legislature, nor even of the citizens
who voted to approve use of medical marijuana in the original initiative.

Maybe the revised legislation is not perfect, but it is far better
than allowing would-be criminals to exploit a humanitarian law for
selfish profit.