Medical marijuana dispensaries, doctor restrictions win Montana legislators' backing
HELENA - An interim legislative subcommittee tentatively agreed Thursday on some proposals to restrict Montana's fast-growing medical marijuana industry.
The Medical Marijuana Subcommittee spent the day informally voting on various proposals that will be incorporated in draft legislation to be considered by the Legislature's Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee on Aug. 23-24. The 2011 Legislature ultimately will decide on the issue.
Afterward, the chairwoman, Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, said she believed two of the subcommittee's actions were especially significant - the call for a new dispensary system and restrictions to prevent physicians being financially involved with medical marijuana caregivers or dispensaries.
The committee voted to recommend that Montana become a "dispensary system" through which people with medical marijuana cards could buy marijuana through dispensaries, or stores, that are designated as their caregivers. Legislators voted to use the recently enacted Colorado law as their model.
Colorado, Maine, New Mexico and Rhode Island recently adopted dispensary systems that require all principal officers, board members, managers and employees to undergo background checks and be licensed by the state, according to a report by legislative researcher Sue O'Connell.
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Under the proposal, the state would be allowed to inspect the facilities or any growing operations and examine sales records. The panel tentatively approved having dispensaries regulated by the state Revenue Department as the state agency does with establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.
As of June, nearly 20,000 Montanans had medical marijuana cards, with the number soaring since last fall after the U.S. Justice Department directed law enforcement agents not to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they follow state laws.
Sands said one provider predicted that number could escalate to 50,000 Montanans by the time the Legislature convenes in January. She raised the specter that 100,000 people, more than 10 percent of the Montana population, might qualify for medical marijuana cards if they claim "severe chronic pain," one of the criteria needed to obtain the card.
Rep. Penny Morgan, R-Billings, noted that a staff report showed that 2 percent of Montana's population has medical marijuana cards, compared with 0.13 percent in Alaska, 0.62 percent in Colorado, 0.95 percent in Oregon and 0.03 percent in California.
"Why it is that people in Montana are so disabled that they need this so much?" she asked. "In my opinion, there are a lot of people getting cards who shouldn't have them. This is not normal with the rest of the country."
The subcommittee would still allow for caregivers, to be called providers, who grow or buy marijuana. They would be able to sell it to an as yet undermined number of patients.
Sen. Rick Laible, R-Victor, proposed limiting one caregiver to five patients, but later dropped the idea. The panel voiced support for some sort of a tiered system for caregivers, such as limiting a caregiver to three and fewer patients, from three to five patients and so on, with stiffer regulation the more patients a caregiver saw, but it didn't settle on a number yet.
Laible supported the dispensary system idea, saying: "We won't need as many caregivers except for people who are disabled."
Some caregivers in the audience testified they wouldn't be able to survive financially if they could serve only five patients and would have to get additional jobs.
"If you limit caregivers to five patients, you will have more caregivers, not less," said Valerie Sigler. "This (growing marijuana) is not an easy thing to do. It takes quite an investment. It takes time. It's a full-time job."
Rick Rosio, owner of Montana Pain Management of Missoula, opposed limiting the number of patients for caregivers. He said his business now provides marijuana to 100 patients a day, day in and day out, all across the state.
"To impose a five-patient limit will kill almost every operation in the state," said Chris Lindsay.
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Another key change recommended by the panel would prohibit a doctor from being paid or soliciting pay from caregivers and dispensaries. It also would be illegal for a physician from holding an economic interest in a business if that doctor certifies the "debilitating medical condition" that allows a patient to participate in a medical marijuana program.
Sands said statistics show that many physicians have authorized medical marijuana cards for a small number of patients. However, she said there are a handful of doctors who have approved medical marijuana cards for many, many people.
Imposing these financial restrictions on physicians should stop this practice, she said.
Afterward, Bill Boast, a Kalispell caregiver, said he would probably oppose the bill as written for a number of reasons.
"They don't limit a pharmacy as they have my clients," he said. "Wal-Mart can sell Oxycontin to as many people (with prescriptions) as they want."
Missoulian State Bureau reporter Charles S. Johnson can be reached at (406) 447-4066 or at chuck.johnson@lee.net.
Review of Montana Pain Management by Michael Nevas
* March 15th, 2010 9:12 pm
Montana Pain Management
Occupying their own small building on 3rd Street between Russell and Reserve, Montana Pain Management MPM serves their patients cannabis products from their store every day of the week, from 9 am- 6pm on weekdays and from 10am -3 or 4pm on weekends. At around 11:30am on Monday, March 15 I squeezed my car into their parking lot and walked inside for a gram of their best chronic pain relief.
The most important factors that I look for in a cannabis dispensary are Price, Product, Staff, and Storefront.
Price: 4 ½ Stars: Although the cannabis was $10 per gram, the cookie I bought cost $8, which is not exorbitant, however that is at least $2 more than what a cannabis cookie should cost anyways. MPM’s ability to take credit cards and provide $35 eights should earn them 5 stars, however their expensive little cookies drag them down to 4 ½ stars.
Product: 4 Stars: The AK-47 that I rolled into a joint went down very smoothly and provided a decent duration of effect (as well as a killer smell and taste), and although it tasted a bit too “herbish”, the cookie did a commendable job of relaxing my muscles. If MPM managed to increase their selection of A grade cannabis and baked goods, that would push them over the edge to 5 stars, but for now I must leave them dangling at 4 ½ stars .
Storefront: 4 Stars: Despite the highly visibility of their location, patients are given a large degree of privacy when conferring with caretakers in private offices or taking a comfortable seat in their large waiting room. The cannabis showing room is actually a converted kitchen with a computer that’s broken down both times I’ve visited in the past month, and when tiny parking lot is factored in, MPM is left with a slightly cramped 4 stars.
Staff: 4 Stars: The moment I walked in the door I was greeted with a smile by Libby, their receptionist, before a smiling young man named Logan showed me into the smaller room in back to choose my medicine. While very helpful and polite during our interactions, he did not describe the cannabis he was showing me, and he did not display the encyclopedic knowledge of their own marijuana that I've come to expect from dispensary staff; they could get 5 stars if their staff knew a bit more about the strains they are selling and engaged more thoroughly with their customers, however 4 stars still gives them a highly respectable showing.
Out of 20 available stars, MPM earned 16 ½ ; I may visit this establishment again and I would certainly recommend this dispensary to a friend.
August 17th, 2010 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
A majority of Californians continue to voice their support for Prop. 19 — which would eliminate penalties for the private possession and use of marijuana by adults, and allow local governments to regulate retail cannabis production and sales.
According to the most recent Survey USA poll (conducted August 9-11), 50 percent of likely voters in California say they are certain to vote ‘yes’ on Proposition 19 versus 40 percent who say that they will vote ‘no.’ These totals are the same as reported by Survey USA one month ago, and indicate that voters’ support is holding steady despite increased attacks and propaganda from our opponents. (NORML Outreach Coordinator Russ Belville has just posted an excellent rebuttal to many of our opponents’ more outrageous claims here.)
According to the latest polling data, voters age 35 to 49 are most likely to back Prop. 19, and African Americans and self-reported Democrats are more likely to support the measure as compared to other groups. (To read why self-proclaimed ‘conservative’ voters ought to vote yes on Prop. 19, please see my recent op/ed in the Orange County Register here.) On Friday, leaders from the Latino Voters League held a press conference in Los Angeles announcing their support for Prop. 19, joining the state NAACP which had previously announced their ‘unconditional support’ for the measure in June.
Predictably, many members of law enforcement continue to speak out against the measure. Yet, as you can see in my recent rebuttal to three Bay area police chiefs, their rhetoric rings hollow. In fact, even those in the media who oppose Prop. 19 are beginning to question the rhetoric and tactics of LEOs.
Fortunately, editors at several prominent California papers are giving ample editorial space to getting out the facts regarding Prop. 19. Recently, I’ve had op/eds published in the San Jose Mercury News (“Critics of Prop. 19 on marijuana rely on fear, not facts“), The Los Angeles Times (“Feinstein’s misguided opposition to marijuana legalization“), and The Ventura County Star (“Media’s coverage of report spurs reefer madness“) setting the record straight.
Bottom line: The status quo in California for non-medical patients is an abysmal failure. California lawmakers criminalized the possession and use of marijuana in 1913 yet right now in California, the federal government reports that one out of 10 people annually use marijuana and together consume about 1.2 million pounds of it. Self-evidently, cannabis is here to stay. Let’s address this reality and end the practice of arresting 70,000+ Californians each year for minor marijuana possession and/or cultivation charges, and lets stop ceding control of the commercial marijuana market to unregulated, untaxed criminal enterprises and put it in the hands of licensed businesses. Proposition 19 is a first, significant step in this direction.
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