Pubdate: Sun, 19 Aug 2012
Source: Dickinson Press, The (ND)
Copyright: 2012 The Dickinson Press
Contact:  http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2592
Author: Katherine Grandstrand

AS ISSUE STRIKES ND, A LOOK AT MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN MONTANA

As Secretary of State Al Jaeger reviews a medical marijuana ballot
initiative, a Montana state legislator recommends sending it through
the state assembly.

In 2004, Montana passed a medical marijuana initiative through a
general election which was hard to regulate, said Montana State Sen.
Donald Steinbeisser, R-Sidney.

"The problem we had in Montana, before the last session, over half of
the people that were using medical marijuana cards were 20- to
30-year-olds," he said. "You know dog-gone well there's something
wrong with that."

There are those who have a genuine need for medicinal marijuana,
Steinbeisser said. But registered patients spiked at more than 30,000
in June 2011 in a state with a population of 989,415 at the 2010
census, according to the Montana Department of Public Health. That's 3
percent of the population.

"A couple, three years ago it just exploded. Everybody was getting
cards," said Tim Barkley, Fallon County, Mont. sheriff. "One of the
things that Montana failed to do is they kind of passed this law on
the spur of the moment."

In the last legislative session, Montana lawmakers tried to reign in
some of the abuse of the legalized medical marijuana, Steinbeisser
said. A complete repeal was vetoed by the governor, and the current
reforms passed, but Montana's Supreme Court pulled part of it.

The reforms did help, he said. As of July there were 8,844 patients
registered in Montana.

A registered card holder may have four mature plants, 12 seedlings,
and 1 ounce of usable marijuana, according to Montana law. A provider
may grow and prepare marijuana for others, and is allowed to have the
same amounts for each registered card holder for whom they are growing.

Before the reforms, which were aided by a state-wide federal raid,
Fallon County saw a lot of users and several providers, Barkley said.
As of July there were four registered patients and no providers there.

Nearby Dawson County, which hosts Glendive, Mont. as its county seat,
had 51 patients and two providers, according to the Montana DPH.
Wibaux County, which borders North Dakota along Interstate 94, had
three patients and no providers.

"I don't know if I know of anyone in our community or anyone
personally that got a medical marijuana card for medical reasons,"
Barkley said of that initial rush to obtain cards. "Most of the people
that I saw get the cards were heavy users of marijuana for a lot of
years. aE& I guess it was legal for them, then. But I didn't know of
any of them having cancer issues."

How North Dakota law enforcement handles the potential legalization of
medical marijuana all depends on the wording of the initiative, Golden
Valley County Sheriff Scott Steele said. Beach, that county's seat, is
12 miles from Wibaux and three from the Montana border.

"Not having a crystal ball and not being able to predict how the law
would read and how the laws would differ from what Montana has, I
certainly see some issues that could make it more of an issue because
of the fact that our law will not read the same as Montana's," he
said, adding reciprocity or lack thereof between the states could be a
major law enforcement problem.

North Dakota health officer Terry Dwelle said the federal Food and
Drug Administration hasn't approved marijuana as a medicine and
there's increased heart attack risk for someone who smokes it, and the
smoke has cancer-causing elements.

Rep. Steve Zaiser, D-Fargo, chairman of the North Dakota medical
marijuana campaign, said there's plenty of medical literature about
marijuana benefits for chemotherapy patients and people who suffer
from lymphoma.

He said users don't have to smoke much marijuana to get pain relief,
and it shouldn't be compared to cigarettes.

In Montana, officials and citizens were a bit hasty in legalizing
medicinal marijuana and could have done more research into
pharmaceutical options, Barkley said.

"We didn't do a very good job here in Montana as law enforcement
getting the word out to the people," he said. "I think the reason it
passed here is good people thought 'well, you know, people that are
dying and need some relief and can use marijuana to get it.' And I
think that's true at some point."

The proposed North Dakota initiative still needs approval from Jaeger
before it can end up on the November ballot. From there the people of
North Dakota will decide if they want to legalize medicinal marijuana.
If passed it would take effect 30 days later.

The Legislature should be the final deciding entity in any
legalization efforts, Steinbeisser said.

"I think that if you're going to pass any medical marijuana
legislation you need to do it through the legislature and not through
initiative," he said. "Because initiatives are very good but they can
be very dangerous, at least in Montana law."

The Associated Press Contributed to this story.
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MAP posted-by: Matt