VOTERS FAVOR NEW MARIJUANA LAW, 44% TO 31% HELENA - Montana voters support the more restrictive medical marijuana law and strongly back a ballot issue requiring girls under age 16 to get parental consent before having an abortion, a new Gazette State Poll shows. They also favor another ballot issue that would deny state services to "illegal aliens." Mason Dixon Polling & Research Inc. took the poll Monday through Wednesday for the Gazette State Bureau, interviewing 625 registered voters who said they were likely to vote in November. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points, although the margin rises with subgroups like gender. [continues 671 words]
HELENA - Montana voters support the more restrictive medical marijuana law and strongly back a ballot issue requiring girls under age 16 to get parental consent before having an abortion, a new Lee Newspapers poll shows. They also favor another ballot issue that would deny state services to "illegal aliens." Mason Dixon Polling & Research Inc. took the poll Monday through Wednesday for Lee Newspapers, interviewing 625 registered voters who said they were likely to vote in November. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, although the margin rises with subgroups like gender. [continues 669 words]
HAMILTON - Two Ravalli County Libertarian candidates recently arrested on drug charges are on the front lines of protecting life, liberty and property, according to Ravalli County's Libertarian Party chair. David Merrick said he remains fully supportive of Rob McCoy and Karen Fisher. "I still fully support these two candidates," Merrick said this week. "They haven't harmed anyone." Both McCoy and Fisher are Libertarian candidates for state legislative seats this year. Both were charged with felony drug counts last week after the Ravalli County Sheriff's Office allegedly found more than twice the legal amount of marijuana allowed a medical marijuana provider at McCoy's home. [continues 371 words]
Thanks to the petition efforts of last year, Montana voters will have the opportunity this November to accept or deny Senate Bill 423, the new medical marijuana law. However, in talking to people recently I have found that many of us are not really aware of what this law entails. While this law is being presented as the tighter regulation that medical marijuana does in fact need, the actual effect will be to eliminate the entire industry overnight. Among other questionable aspects of the new law, SB 423 would make it illegal for any medical marijuana caregiver to charge money for their service and product. [continues 82 words]
Montana voters will decide on Nov. 6 whether to keep the Legislature's medical marijuana law that effectively repealed the 2004 voter-enacted law. Between now and Election Day, additional restrictions from Senate Bill 423 may take effect. Last week, the Montana Supreme Court overturned a District Court judge's ruling that certain provisions of SB423 violated rights guaranteed by the Montana Constitution. Helena District Judge Jim Reynolds issued a preliminary injunction last year, finding that the new law's restrictions on medical marijuana providers and users amounted to unconstitutional infringement on citizens' rights to privacy, to health care and to seek employment (as medical marijuana providers). [continues 523 words]
HELENA -- There is no fundamental right for patients to use any drug, particularly one like medical marijuana that's illegal under federal law, the Montana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, in reversing a lower court decision. In a victory for the state, the Supreme Court's 6-1 decision reversed a District Court's temporary injunction that blocked enforcement of part of a 2011 state law that sought to restrict access to medical marijuana. "In pursuing one's health, an individual has a fundamental right to obtain and reject medical treatment," Justice Michael Wheat wrote for the majority. "But, this right does not extend to give a patient a fundamental right to use any drug, regardless of its legality." [continues 706 words]
(AP) - A November ballot initiative asks voters to reject the Legislature's restrictive law and return to the original law enacted by voters in 2004. HELENA The Montana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that restrictions on medical marijuana sales do not violate the constitutional rights of registered users or providers, overturning a lower judge's decision to block part of lawmakers' restrictive rewrite of state regulations. The justices ruled that the portion of the 2011 state law that limits the number of patients per provider to three and prohibits those providers from making a profit does not violate the Montana Constitution's right to privacy or to pursue employment and health. [continues 346 words]
Tom Daubert, who led the push for the voter-approved law legalizing medical marijuana in Montana, was sentenced Thursday to five years' probation in a federal drug case. "I'm feeling relieved and grateful for the judge's mercy and leniency," Daubert said. " ... I'm very glad he recognized the uniqueness of my particular case." Daubert was among several people charged after federal agents raided medical marijuana businesses, including the Helena-based Montana Cannabis, around the state last year. Daubert had ended his interest in Montana Cannabis before the raids, something U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen noted in imposing probation. [continues 556 words]
HELENA -- The number of medical-marijuana cardholders registered with the state rose slightly in August, new statistics from the state registry showed. As of last Friday, 8,849 Montanans had medical-marijuana cards, an increase of five people from the previous month, according to the registry kept by the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. The July total of 8,844 medical-marijuana cardholders was the first time since May 2011 that the number of cardholders had increased. The number of Montana medical-marijuana cardholders, formerly called "patients," peaked at 31,522 in May 2011. [continues 536 words]
Federal prosecutors continue to ask judges to ban any mention of Montana's Medical Marijuana Act in trials against medical marijuana businessmen. In the latest case, U.S. Assistant Attorney Joe Thaggard argued that Montana's law legalizing growing and distributing marijuana for medical purposes is irrelevant in the case against Chris Williams, Chris Lindsey and four others. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen hasn't ruled on the case in Helena federal court, but U.S. District Judge Don Molloy made a similar ruling in Missoula on June 15. In that case, Molloy dismissed a civil lawsuit brought by 14 individuals and businesses that were among the two dozen medical marijuana businesses raided by federal agents and local law enforcement in March 2011. [continues 411 words]
HELENA - Richard Flor, a former Miles City medical marijuana caregiver sentenced in April to five years in federal prison on charges that he illegally maintained drug-related premises, died in federal custody Wednesday. Flor, along with his wife, Sherry, and their son, Justin, ran a medical marijuana caregiver business out of their home and from a Billings dispensary. Richard Flor was also a co-owner of Montana Cannabis, one of the state's largest medical marijuana operations and a target in the March 2011 raids by federal agents on marijuana providers across Montana. [continues 109 words]
Montana politicians are misleading the public, including the citizens of North Dakota. On Aug. 19, the Dickinson Press published a report about the Montana medical marijuana program as it relates to the upcoming ballot issue in North Dakota, quoting Montana State Sen. Donald Steinbeisser, R-Sidney, as saying, "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 doggone well there's something wrong with that." [continues 175 words]
Missoula city and county law enforcement officers knew Colton Peterson was suicidal when they pressured him to name drug dealers in 2010, according to a federal lawsuit filed by Peterson's parents. In fact, William and Juliena Darling repeatedly spoke to police and a sheriff's detective about their son's suicidal tendencies, and even confiscated his handgun, the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula contends. But police pushed the 21-year-old Missoula man hard, telling him at 1:30 p.m. on July 27, 2010, that if he didn't come up with more names, "we'll put you so far away no one will ever find you," the complaint contends. [continues 454 words]
While it is just a story from a town in Texas, it is a story that deserves wide attention because it involves outrageous overreach by a federal law enforcement agency. The story concerns Craig Patty, the owner of a small trucking company who found out that the Drug Enforcement Agency was secretly paying one of his drivers to use one of his trucks to transport large quantities of marijuana as part of a string operation - all without Patty's knowledge. And he found out about it only after the truck was ambushed and shot up by gangsters aiming to hijack the truck and its valuable load. His driver died after being shot eight times. [continues 464 words]
HELENA - For the first time in more than a year, the number of registered medical marijuana cardholders in Montana increased last month, although slightly. As of July 31, Montana had 8,844 registered medical marijuana cardholders, according to the Medical Marijuana Program in the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. That's 163 more than the 8,681 registered at the end of June. It's the first monthly increase in medical marijuana cardholder numbers since May 2011, when the monthly totals rose to 31,522 from 30,609. [continues 706 words]
HELENA - For the first time in more than a year, the number of registered medical marijuana cardholders in Montana increased last month, although slightly. As of July 31, Montana had 8,844 registered medical marijuana cardholders, according to the Medical Marijuana Program in the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. That's 163 more than the 8, 681 registered at the end of June. It's the first monthly increase in medical marijuana cardholder numbers since May 2011, when the monthly totals rose to 31,522 from 30,609. [continues 623 words]
Montana's courts shouldn't spend any more time on state medical marijuana laws, a Montana Supreme Court justice says -- again. Justice James C. Nelson's comments were included in a Supreme Court decision issued last week in a case appealing Deer Lodge's approval of a medical marijuana business in 2010. Deer Lodge was within its rights to approve Zoo Mountain Natural Care's business license in 2010, six of the justices concurred, Nelson among them. He added his comments in a separate concurrence. [continues 371 words]
The first time District Judge Ingrid Gustafson saw Katy Irmen, the expectant mother was homeless, jobless, addicted to drugs and convicted of felony drug possession. Last week, Irmen appeared again in Gustafson's courtroom, as she has almost every Thursday for more than a year. But now the slender, 25-year-old mom is clean and sober. She is caring for her 1-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. They have safe housing in Interfaith Hospitality Network's transitional apartments. Irmen arranged reliable day care for her children while she works full time. Neat, poised and self-assured, Irmen's appearance gives no hint of the struggles she waged over the past 14 months. [continues 619 words]
The Montana Supreme Court Tuesday turned to the lyrics of Bob Dylan in denying the appeal of a Havre man who mentioned counter-culture comedians Cheech and Chong in his appeal of a conviction for growing and intending to distribute marijuana. Shawn M. Stoner was charged with the felonies after authorities found five marijuana plants, additional marijuana, a digital scale and other paraphernalia in his residence. Some time after being charged, Stoner sought and received a card from the state authorizing him as a medical marijuana caregiver for one particular patient, and another certifying him as a patient under the state's medical marijuana law in place at the time. [continues 238 words]
Inside Montana
