Missoula MT. - A last-minute flurry of activity surrounding the case of convicted medical marijuana grower Chris Williams did not halt Williams' scheduled sentencing in U.S. District Court in Missoula on Friday.

On Thursday afternoon, federal Judge Dana Christensen ordered that a sentencing memorandum, dated Monday, from an Ohio State University law professor would not be given the weight of an official memorandum.

Christensen said the memorandum from Douglas Berman, who has raised questions about a plea agreement in the case, was untimely and didn't comply with local rules.

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BUTTE -- The county superintendent of schools heard testimony Friday in the case of a former Butte High student facing felony drug charges who has appealed his expulsion.

Kaedon Caprara, who according to court documents distributed marijuana stolen from a local marijuana dispensary to Butte High students, was treated differently than other students who have broken the district's drug policy, and therefore was wrongfully expelled, his lawyer Shawn Johnson argued before county superintendent of schools Cathy Maloney on Friday.

Johnson said records show 47 drug policy violations in the past five years in the district, but none of those students was expelled.

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HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Lawmakers on Thursday were considering a renewed effort to test drivers suspected of driving under the influence of marijuana -- a measure law enforcement agents said is necessary to deal with an increase in such cases.

Republican Rep. Doc Moore of Missoula said his House Bill 168 provides a legal limit for the amount of THC -- an ingredient of marijuana -- that can be in a person's blood while operating a motor vehicle.

He argued the measure is just aimed at enduring streets are safe, not at the debate over medical marijuana.

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Lori Burnam was never one to seek the limelight.

But the Hamilton woman's advocacy for medical marijuana in Montana propelled her to the forefront of a challenge to the state's new, more restrictive marijuana law.

"She was always quiet and took care of her family," remembers her daughter, September Moore. "She also was one to stand up for what she thought was right."

Burnam, 66, died Thursday at her home following a six-year battle with lung cancer for which she used medical marijuana to ease the pain and stimulate her appetite. She also suffered from glaucoma, emphysema and other ailments.

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HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Lori Burnam, a Hamilton woman with lung cancer who became the face of medical marijuana advocacy in Montana, has died at age 66.

Ms. Burnam died Thursday at her home of what the medical examiner determined was natural causes, said Chris Lindsey, president of an advocacy group that Ms. Burnam testified for in challenging a restrictive marijuana law.

The cancer "had metastasized and was in her bones. The family believes that's what made the difference," Lindsey said.

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Regarding Ben Forsyth's Jan. 5 op-ed: If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees.

If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, it's a failure. The U.S. has double the rate of use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign.

It's time to stop the arrests and instead tax legal marijuana.

- -- Robert Sharpe,

Arlington, Va.

[end]

In the Tribune (Dec. 31) a short-sighted article stated that legalized recreational marijuana is beneficial to our society and government. If we believe the article's street-based rationale, we must ignore the quality research, professional medical experience, and obvious facts that prove cannabis is subtly harmful.

As is obvious in the Tribune article, cannabis users often cannot grasp the depth of many hard-to-identify cannabis harms.

Neurological research has found that some people using brain functions influenced by the drug, often experience a degradation of logic on the subject.

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Had Faced Up To 20 Years In Prison

MISSOULA -- A federal judge spared a former partner in one of Montana's largest medical marijuana businesses jail time on Friday, straying only slightly from a joint sentencing recommendation by defense and prosecuting attorneys.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen sentenced Chris Lindsey to five years' probation with three months of house arrest, reducing the house arrest time from the six months suggested in the plea deal reached by federal prosecutors and Lindsey's attorney, Colin Stephens.

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Paul Schmidt, owner of the former medical marijuana dispensary Sleeping Giant Caregivers in Helena, has been sentenced to one year in prison for growing marijuana and money laundering and ordered to forfeit $750,000 in alleged profits.

In letters to Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell, friends wrote that Schmidt, 57, only became a caregiver after seeing how medical marijuana helped his adult son deal with debilitating, chronic pain and deserved little, if any, prison time.

"When the drug was found to significantly help (his son) find some relief, they discussed cultivating the marijuana themselves to help not only (his son) but others as well," wrote William Sackman, who served with Schmidt in the U.S. Coast Guard. "In all instances when Paul discussed his business with me, he referred to everyone coming into his place of business as patients. This was no idle affectation. He was truly interested in helping others."

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It is a grand irony that on the front page of the Helena Independent Record was an article on Montana medical marijuana caregiver Chris Williams facing years in federal prison for growing and selling the substance.

Meanwhile, on the back page of the sports section, a story ran about how some of the biggest banks in the world laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels and will get off with out anyone going to jail.

Why is it so hard for our government and justice system to understand if marijuana were legalized, controlled and taxed, this country could begin to solve so many of our drug crime problems.

This would put the drug cartels out of business, and put border patrol and drug crime agents into real jobs building roads and bridges. And maybe begin to pay off part of our $16 trillion debt.

Nancy Marks

[street address redacted]

Townsend

[end]

In Exchange For Him Waiving Right To Appeal

In a highly unusual move, federal prosecutors have agreed to drop six of eight marijuana convictions for Christopher Williams in exchange for his agreeing to waive his right to appeal.

In addition, the government has agreed to ask U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen to dismiss the $1,728,000 criminal forfeiture awarded to the government by a jury earlier this year.

The agreement was outlined under a settlement filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court. In the document, signed by Williams, U.S. Assistant Attorney Joe Thaggard, and federal public defender Michael Donahoe, they note that this agreement "constitutes the final and best offer to resolve this matter."

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With our state's continued debate on medical marijuana use, and now with Colorado and Washington legalizing recreational marijuana use, it got me to think. As a society, are we ignoring the dangers we are exposing the majority to? I guessed the majority of the people who voted to legalize medical marijuana in the state of Montana, assumed people in need would have the prescription filled in the same procedure all current legal drugs are given. The greater concern I have is the new trend of legalizing recreational marijuana. With drug use (including marijuana) as the sixth leading cause of traffic fatalities, let's see how as a society we have done with another legalized drug, alcohol. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drunk driving represented 40 percent of total traffic deaths in 2006. Not good.

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Montana Marijuana Advocates Look to Colorado, Washington

HELENA A district judge on Thursday temporarily continued to stop the state from enforcing certain restrictions in a 2011 state law aimed at medical marijuana providers.

After a two-hour hearing, District Judge James Reynolds of Helena extended his temporary restraining order at the request of James Goetz, the Bozeman attorney representing the Montana Cannabis Industry Association and others.

His order continues to block two 2011 restrictions from being enforced one limiting medical marijuana providers to three patients apiece and the other forbidding providers from being paid by patient for pot.

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I'm an old woman with chronic pain. I have a prescription from my physician for medical marijuana. However, I have been unable to find a pharmacy in town that will fill it. They're all spooked! My physician tells me there are medical marijuana providers out there. I even talked to one. He's out of the business because of the latest initiative passed by a majority of voters in the recent election. I have no hope that the 2013 conservative GOP majority Legislature will do anything to change the situation.

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Medical marijuana grower Chris Williams is seeking a new trial after being convicted in a federal drug and weapons case that carries the potential for a prison sentence of up to 92 years. He's appealing, but his supporters aren't waiting for the justice system.

They've taken his cause to the Internet, in the form of online petitions filed with the White House, with www.SignOn.org, and with www.Care2.com . Together, they've gathered close to 40,000 signatures nationwide.

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I would like to go on record as strongly disagreeing with Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman's advice to local residents to vote "yes" on I-124, the 2012 ballot measure addressing the Montana Medical Marijuana program because, in Hoffman's words, "This legislation translates to safer communities, a true benefit to all."

Hoffman's logic is lacking in many ways. If, in fact, there have been fewer thefts, burglaries, serious assaults and homicides (have there been any homicides ever?) involving the marijuana "industry" in Ravalli County in the past 15 months since parts of Senate Bill 423 have been enacted, it's only because there isn't much of an industry left! Specifically, we have put all the legitimate providers out of business leaving the market wide open to the Mexican cartels, the black market and gangs.

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As Montanans, although our intentions were good, we were fooled by marijuana advocates who got free rein and basically legalized marijuana in Montana.

Fortunately, the Legislature came to our rescue and placed tight restrictions on the use of marijuana.

Let's not be fooled again and go back to the dangerous place that marijuana advocates led us to before, where you could get a marijuana card over the Internet, where unscrupulous doctors held caravans across the state encouraging healthy people to get cards as long as they could pay for it, where felony and misdemeanor probationers easily got cards, where dispensaries opened next to schools, where people drove from other states to get their "weed," when there were 31,000 card holders instead of the current 3,000.

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SB-423, the Montana Legislature's attempt to prohibit medical marijuana, has had a devastating effect on patients.

Greg was a finish carpenter until he developed a seizure disorder that made it dangerous for him to handle a saw. His doctors tried to find the right medication, but nothing worked. When I met him, he was in his late 50s, working as a swamper in a bar, seizing regularly, and drinking heavily.

He got his "green card," found the cannabis strains that worked for him, and was seizure-free for three years. Greg had also been trying to get sober -- dry spells as long as three weeks. Studies show that alcohol consumption among males drops significantly when medical cannabis is available to them.

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There is much confusion about Initiative Referendum 124.

In an effort to clarify, Youth Connections would like to offer this statement: In 2004, the people of Montana passed an initiative to allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Our elected legislators and state and local experts determined this original law was insufficient in regulating the use of marijuana as medicine as evidenced by criminal activity connected to dispensary operations, requirement of little to no medical oversight by a physician, and increased availability of the drug leading to recreational use by youth.

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Cancer has been trying to kill me for a while now, which is why I hope Montanans will vote "no" on this year's medical marijuana ballot issue.

Let me explain. I was diagnosed with lung cancer six years ago. The treatments I went through were horrendous, the pain I experience is excruciating, and the various modern medications I am given cause hideous nightmares. Let me tell you, cancer is a cruel way for a person's life to come to an end.

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