There has been much media coverage lately of the legal challenge to Senate Bill 423, the new Montana Marijuana Act recently enacted with strong bipartisan support of 113 of 150 Montana legislators. A legal action was filed by the highly paid, hired gun of the millionaire marijuana growers to prevent them from losing their very profitable business model on July 1. A variety of claims have been circulated by those wishing to retain the "Wild West" situation developed under the ambiguous language found in the original act, which set up a system for people to access a product that is still illegal under federal law. It is time to debunk those claims.

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The state health department is still receiving applications, but has issued no new medical marijuana cards since May 13, the day before a tough new law took effect, officials said Tuesday.

"We will not issue any cards until June 1, when the next phase of the law triggers in," said Roy Kemp, an official with the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The new applications can't be processed until the new system under the new law is in place, Kemp said.

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This is regarding those trying to say voters are so stupid we don't know what we're voting for, although you have proven we didn't know who we voted in. At least 30,000 cardholders and 5,000 or so caregivers disagree.

I received an email from Max Baucus, bragging on the following: "Also in March, I launched a partnership with Bozeman pharmaceutical company LigoCyte to lay the foundation for a major biotech manufacturing facility in Bozeman. This could open the door to hundreds of good-paying jobs in the Gallatin Valley. The news also sent the signal far and wide that Montana is serious about business."

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This is going to be interesting. For the first time in memory, two separate movements have been launched to block actions by the Legislature. One will attempt to stop sweeping new restrictions in the state's medical marijuana law; the other will try to suspend a law that gives utilities the power to force landowners to sell property - the power of eminent domain.

The two groups involved in these efforts face an uphill battle. To succeed they need to gather a lot of signatures on petitions. If they are successful in getting 5 percent of registered voters' signatures in 34 of 100 legislative districts by Sept. 30, they will force a voter referendum on the issues in the 2012 election. To suspend the laws immediately - the stated intent in both cases - they will need to get 15 percent of voters' to sign in 51 legislative districts.

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HELENA - The state Health Department is still receiving applications, but has issued no new medical marijuana cards since May 13, the day before a tough new law took effect, officials said Tuesday.

"We will not issue any cards until June 1, when the next phase of the law triggers in," said Roy Kemp, an official with the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The new applications can't be processed until the new system under the new law is in place, Kemp said.

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I read with interest the article reporting the Department of Public Health and Human Services' intention to continue issuing medical marijuana cards despite the Legislature's revocation of its authority to do so. As an attorney for over 37 years and a former Montana assistant attorney general, I recommend that Mr. Kemp, who made that decision, as well as the governor (since he has supervisory control over the department) consider ? 45-7-401, MCA, which makes it a criminal offense (official misconduct) for a "public servant" to "knowingly perform an act in an official capacity that the public servant knows is forbidden by law." Recipients of such cards should also consider the fact that the cards may be invalid and provide them no protection, even under Montana law.

Mike McCarter

Helena

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From comparing women to cattle, attacks on teachers and other public-sector employees and defying the will of 270,000 Montana voters on medical marijuana, to bills for hunting big game with spears and silencers, the 2011 Republican-led Montana Legislature would appear to many progressive Montanans to be heading in clearly the wrong direction.

On the 100th anniversary of the day that highlights women's progress, Montana House Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, likened women to cattle and half-built houses. In his closing arguments on House Bill 167, Regier distributed images of cattle, and used the images to make a comparison between the value of a pregnant cow and the value of a pregnant woman. Equating women to cattle, Regier stated, "Ranchers refer to cows as either preg-tested or open. A preg-tested cow is a cow that has been tested by a veterinarian and confirmed to be pregnant. Open cows are not pregnant. Preg-tested cows bring a higher price than open cows."

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Growers Lament Loss of Cannabis Genetics

Last Friday, an immature cannabis plant appeared at Garden Mother Herbs in Missoula like a baby on the doorstep. Katrina Farnum, the business's owner, said she has no clue where it came from. All that identified the five-inch-tall plant was a white label stuck in the soil with the word "Misty" Sharpied on it.

That was enough for Farnum, a medical marijuana caregiver, to know that she'd been entrusted with a special strain of cannabis--one that someone wants to preserve.

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If there is a drug out there that takes away all your chronic pain, has no side effects and you can't overdose from it, then there is a drug that has horrible side effects and doesn't take away the pain and you have to be very careful when taking it because you could overdose on it and die and it is also very addictive: Which one would you want to take?

Oh, that's right. They just changed our law voted by the people and took away our rights for our choice of medication, so now we will not be able to get our medication. The changes they made will keep people from being able to get it.

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RONAN - A short, specially-called Ronan city council meeting last Wednesday saw attending council members unanimously pass an emergency moratorium on medicinal marijuana in the city limits.

The council had previously created and passed on March 8 a six-month emergency zoning ordinance restricting medical marijuana operations to the south side highway commercial area.

After the six-person city planning board met on May 10, its recommendation to the city council was "to prohibit such establishments within any zoning classification in the City of Ronan, until such time as a proper regulatory scheme can be studied and a long-term recommendation made by the Planning Board to the City Council."

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I have often wondered why 62 percent of Montana voters voted for legalizing marijuana rather than against. Therefore, I stopped at the courthouse (Room 101) and asked for a sample of the Nov. 2, 2004, official ballot, which contains Initiative 148 about legalizing marijuana.

Whoever wrote the definition of 148, explaining the need for legalizing marijuana carte blanche, must have unknowingly financially helped the growers of the hemp plant and opened up a Pandora's box, especially for the youth of Montana.

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Two petition drives -- one under way and the other planned to start in the next few weeks -- seek to take the unusual step of blocking laws passed by the just-completed Legislature.

The first would undo severe restrictions the lawmakers imposed on the medicinal marijuana business in Montana; the second would negate steps the Legislature took to clear the way for power-line builders to use eminent domain to gain rights of way when negotiations with landowners failed.

Both referendums are ill-advised, and for pretty much the same basic reason: Even though the laws they target fall far short of perfection, revoking them and replacing them with what existed before the 62nd legislative session would be far worse.

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Lawmakers went to Helena to clean up the freewheeling medical marijuana industry, which most agreed had grown too big, too fast, with little oversight. Instead, the legislation they passed is so convoluted it's unclear what, if anything, it fixes.

Some of the new rules took effect over the weekend. And the assumption by the bill's sponsor, Sen. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, is that they would immediately repeal the Department of Public Health and Human Services' authority to issue medical marijuana cards. But that department disagrees.

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Going to your doctor used to be a private matter, but not for long.

What medication you need is not something the government has any business knowing or dictating. Governments don't go to medical school, people who become doctors do. Yet if Senate Bill 423, the medical marijuana reform bill, becomes law, any physician certifying 25 or more patients for the use of medical marijuana triggers an investigation before the state medical board. No probable cause other than recommending a patients' suitability to use medical marijuana under existing law.

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Federal agents Friday afternoon searched Sleeping Giant Caregivers, a provider of medical marijuana, as a federal magistrate authorized the seizure of more than $1.2 million in a bank account.

The only sign of the raid was a white, unmarked truck backed up to the rear entrance of the provider on Nicole Street, just north of Highway 12 east of Interstate 15, as agents removed items and eventually erected barriers to block the view of media.

A search warrant application filed by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in federal court in Butte said agents were looking for controlled substances including marijuana and hashish; packing materials; drug paraphernalia including scales; firearms and ammunition (used in the commission of drug offenses); and records, including the identification and location of customers.

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State Sen. Dave Lewis seems to have acknowledged every other opinion he deems valid to validate his own without stating he has an opinion.

That shows what years of experience can do. What's really wrong though, did you miss the business train you seem to admire or was it the pressure of the House whip?

In what part of your opinion did you forget to mention those who will not be able to acquire the medicine they need and suffer without and in some cases die because of their suffering because of SB423?

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Congratulations, Republican Legislature for passing Senate Bill 423, roping in that damned participatory democracy that broke out here six years ago when the lame-brained progressives voted for that referendum allowing so-called medical marijuana to be the law of Montanaland. This by-the-people for-the-people stuff is poop. I mean, I can imagine an Iraq war vet who'd lost both legs when he stepped on a mine. Not only would Veterans Affairs physicians have to declare the vet disabled, but under SB423, not just one more doctor would also have to examine them but two, before they can be certified to possess pot for their pain. You make them really want it, crawl for it - as it should be. That's how I got to where I am today.

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Dear Gov. Schweitzer,

I have agreed with your position on many issues. I loved your standing for reason with your VETO branding iron. Why have you put that branding iron away?

I am not a user of medical marijuana. But I was proud of Montanans when they voted to approve this natural pain reliever while giving a nod to the free enterprise system and allow a new industry to bud in our state. It provided safe pain relief to many citizens and put hundreds of Montanans to work.

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State Cannabis Association Wants Court to Overturn Sb423

HELENA -- A state district judge in Helena on Friday temporarily ordered the state to not enforce a recently passed ban on all advertising of medical marijuana products, in response to a lawsuit attempting to strike down the entire new law that places new restrictions on Montana's medical-marijuana program.

District Judge James Reynolds scheduled a hearing on the initial request for May 27.

The Montana Cannabis Industry Association and eight individual plaintiffs want the courts to overturn Senate Bill 423, which the 2011 Legislature passed last month and which Gov. Brian Schweitzer let become law Friday without his signature.

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Medical marijuana advocates marched down Bozeman's Main Street on Friday accompanied by draft horses pulling trailers stacked with makeshift coffins.

Protestors painted plywood to look like roughly 300 coffins on the back of two trailers.

That's the number of people who die each year in Montana from prescription drug overdoses, organizers of the rally said.

They argued that if the medical marijuana reform bill approved by the state Legislature becomes law, the number of deaths would increase because patients who use cannabis will instead have to take more dangerous prescription drugs.

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