MARIJUANA LAW CREATES TANGLE OF LEGAL ISSUES

Now that using marijuana as medicine is legal under state law,
legitimate patients don't have to fear arrest anymore. But there's one
catch - buying pot is still illegal in Montana.

And that's just one of the gray areas surrounding Montana's new
medical marijuana law.

The Montana Medical Marijuana Act, approved by 63 percent of voters in
November, allows patients to use marijuana to relieve suffering caused
by diseases like cancer, glaucoma and HIV, or by chronic pain.

Many unanswered questions surround the law as it takes effect
Saturday, and patients and law enforcement officers are waiting to see
what happens.

Montana, and the 10 other states that have legalized medical marijuana
since 1996, are also waiting to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court
decides state medical marijuana laws trump federal laws prohibiting
the drug in the ongoing Ashcroft v. Raich case.

Joining states like Alaska and Maine, Montana will allow patients or
their caregivers to possess up to an ounce of marijuana or up to six
marijuana plants.

But in order to be protected under the law, residents must first
obtain a written recommendation from an oncologist or other medical
doctor saying they have a debilitating medical condition and would
benefit from using marijuana. Then they have to pay $200 to register
with the state, and must pay to reregister every year.

Roy Kemp, who's in charge of creating the registry as the licensing
bureau chief for the Montana Department of Health and Human Services,
said the fee is necessary to cover the expense of putting the new law
into effect.

"There is no intention of pricing people out of this," he
said.

The cost of the registry will be divided among patients and
caregivers, and the fee has the potential to go down in the future if
more people register. So far, his office has received 72
applications.

People who successfully register with the state will get a card they
must carry to avoid being arrested for marijuana possession.

The registration process is cut and dried; it's afterwards that things
aren't so clear.

The law doesn't provide a legal way for patients or caregivers to
actually buy marijuana or the seeds they need to grow plants. It
doesn't specify where they're allowed to smoke marijuana (only where
they're not), and it doesn't address issues surrounding use, such as
drug screening for job applicants.

Sgt. Scott Brodie of the Missoula Police Department's High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area task force said officers will still arrest
people they catch buying marijuana - whether or not they have a card.

He's worried people will take advantage of the new law, and that fake
registration cards will proliferate like fake driver's licenses have,
especially since the cards won't have photo identification on them.

Though officers can call the state and check whether the person is
really registered, Brodie said this will be a waste of time if every
person arrested for marijuana claims to be a patient.

Brodie said officers are unsure whether they should arrest people for
possession and allow them to use registration cards as a defense in
court, or verify the cards on-site and not issue a citation in the
first place.

He also said officers are unsure whether to arrest criminals who steal
patients' marijuana plants or supplies.

It will probably take a couple of years for lawmakers and law
enforcement to work out all the kinks that will come with the new law,
Brodie said.

"(Proponents) didn't take into account these myriad questions," he
said. "I think patients will have to be patient and let all the
pebbles fall through the screen."

Questions like these surrounding the legalization of marijuana for
medicinal purposes aren't unique to Montana, though. Other states that
have legalized the use of medical marijuana face similar questions.

Oregon residents voted down the idea of state-run marijuana
dispensaries in November, despite the fact that thousands of patients
in that state use medical marijuana. And the legality of dispensaries
in California under federal law still isn't determined.

Krissy Oechslin, a spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based
Marijuana Policy Project, said she thinks states will take a closer
look at the supply issue after the Supreme Court makes its decision.

The Marijuana Policy Project financed Montana's Medical Marijuana Act
campaign, and tries to help states develop policies to make medical
marijuana safer to use and more socially acceptable.

Oechslin said the lack of legal medical marijuana supplies has always
been a problem for patients in states that allow its use, and is
hurtful to patients who can't grow their own because of the crippling
effects of disease.

"As a healthy person, I can't keep houseplants alive, let alone a
marijuana plant, which I hear is much more finicky," she said.

She said technicalities like this are moot, though, until the Supreme
Court makes its decision.

"Everyone is sitting on their hands and waiting to see what happens,"
she said.