Pubdate: Wed, 20 Jul 2011
Source: Great Falls Tribune (MT)
Copyright: 2011 Great Falls Tribune
Contact: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2502
Author: John S. Adams
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/props.htm (Ballot Initiatives)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA SUPPORTERS KICK OFF REPEAL EFFORT

HELENA -- Opponents of the 2011 Legislature's strict new medical 
marijuana law said Tuesday that they are well on their way to 
gathering enough signatures to put the measure before voters in the 
2012 general election.

Representatives from the state's medical marijuana community and the 
once-thriving caregiver industry held a news conference at the 
Secretary of State's Office Tuesday, where they announced the launch 
of Initiative Referendum 124. The campaign seeks to gather enough 
signatures from registered voters to put the controversial Senate 
Bill 423 before voters next year.

In the waning days of the legislative session earlier this year, 
state lawmakers passed a highly restrictive revision of the Montana 
Medical Marijuana Act, which originally was approved by 63 percent of 
voters casting a ballot in 2004. The new bill essentially puts an end 
to the once-thriving medical marijuana caregiver industry by making 
it illegal to sell medical marijuana for profit. Patient advocates 
say that severely restricts patients' ability to get the drug safely 
and legally, and instead forces them to find the drug on the black market.

The law currently is tied up in the courts, where a Helena judge 
temporarily blocked portions of it.

Medical marijuana patient Sarah Baugh, spokeswoman for a group called 
Patients for Reform -- Not Repeal, called SB423 "an affront to the 
voters who approved medical marijuana, and an insult to seriously ill 
patients who need it."

"We can all agree that Montana needs effective regulation, but SB423 
completely repeals what voters did, and replaces it with a new policy 
that won't work at all, especially not for the state's most severely 
ill patients," Baugh said.

She also said medical marijuana advocates support a "consensus" 
reform package that solves some of the problems created by loopholes 
in the existing law, without putting an end to the industry in the state.

"During the session, the Legislature voted (four) times on this 
issue," Sen. Dave Wanzenried, D-Missoula said. "Each time we had a 
vote I asked, 'are you sure this is what the voters want?'"

Wanzenried said the Republican majority said "yes" that question each 
time it was asked, despite the fact that the bill changed 
significantly from vote to vote.

"The Legislature has no business second-guessing the voters," Wanzenried said.

Members of the group said Tuesday that they already have more than 
1,500 volunteers signed up to gather signatures to place the measure 
on the 2012 ballot.

Campaign coordinator Rose Habib said the group has trained more than 
500 signature gatherers, who collected more than 2,000 signatures in 
the first week. The group has have until Sept. 30 to turn in the more 
than 35,000 signatures required to get the measure on the ballot.

"It is the largest gathering of volunteers I have seen in the 20 plus 
years I have been involved in initiatives," said C.B. Pearson, a 
consultant brought on to help the campaign.

Opposition lawmakers, led by Republicans who first tried to do away 
with medical marijuana altogether, argued a very stringent law is 
needed to reign in an industry they said it is creating a runaway 
marijuana culture in Montana. They argued the old law was being 
abused and leading to an easy supply of marijuana to noncardholders.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom