States like Montana that have passed laws legalizing medical marijuana have seen a decrease in traffic fatalities and a reduction in beer sales, a new study has found.

A report authored by a D. Mark Anderson, a Montana State University economics professor, and Daniel Rees, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, discovered a 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities in states that passed laws legalizing medical marijuana. The study points to marijuana as a substitute drug for alcohol.

So far, 16 states have passed laws legalizing medical marijuana. Surveys show that residents in these states are reporting consuming less alcohol and retailers are reporting a 5 percent reduction in alcohol sales.

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The Ravalli County Attorney's Office is pressing charges against the owners of a Stevensville marijuana operation that was raided in July.

Deputy County Attorney Ryan Weldon has filed four felony charges against the partners who ran Banana Belt Caregivers just east of the Stevensville Wye. The partners are being summoned to justice court to answer the charges on Jan. 13.

Thomas Fenton Patterson, Kelly Robin Goosey, Tony Stuart Smith and Edward Leonard Smartt are all charged with drug production, distribution, possession with intent to distribute, and possession of property subject to forfeiture based upon evidence seized in a July 20 raid conducted by Ravalli County sheriff's deputies.

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One of two men suing for clarification of Montana law on caregiver-to-caregiver medical marijuana transfers was sentenced Thursday in Flathead District Court.

Lief Erickson, 48, Kalispell, was given a four-year suspended sentence as part of a plea agreement on a charge of criminal possession of drugs with intent to distribute.

District Judge David Ortley ruled that Erickson is allowed to possess and use medical marijuana under the rules set forth in state law.

Erickson and fellow caregiver Robin Ruiz were arrested Feb. 3 after police pulled them over on U.S. 2 near Lake Five Road and found three pounds of bulk-bagged marijuana, 300 Tetrahydrocannabinol pills and 11 ounces of THC honey. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana.

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Butte school trustees were uncomfortable Monday changing district policy to allow art, chemistry or welding teachers to be subject to drug testing similar to that required of bus drivers.

The board tabled a proposal that would have added any employee working in a hazardous environment to be subject to drug testing. Trustees heard a complaint from Mike Kujawa, a Butte High art teacher and president of the Butte Teachers' Union, that the rule would have segregated some teachers for extra scrutiny.

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BUTTE -- Butte school trustees were uncomfortable on Monday with changing district policy to allow art, chemistry or welding teachers to be subject to drug testing similar to that required of bus drivers.

The board tabled a proposal that would have added any employee working in a hazardous environment to be subject to drug testing. Trustees heard a complaint from Mike Kujawa, a Butte High art teacher and president of the Butte Teachers' Union, that the rule would have segregated some teachers for extra scrutiny.

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Criminalizing marijuana because it has no medicinal use is unreasonable and unnecessary government regulation of my fundamental rights to privacy, to liberty and to property secured from unreasonable laws by the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Why is it that the marijuana laws are not recognized by the judiciary as a fundamental rights issue?

Judicial review of the marijuana laws by rational review is deprivation of rights under the color of law.

Michael Dee

Windham, Maine

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HELENA - Jason Christ, the Missoula businessman who signed up thousands of Montanans for medical marijuana cards through "cannabis caravans," has filed a lawsuit challenging the 2011 state law that makes it harder to get medical pot.

Christ, who owns the Montana Caregivers Network, sued the state last week in state District Court in Missoula. Acting as his own attorney, Christ asked District Judge Ed McLean to strike the law as unconstitutional on several grounds and prevent the state from enforcing it.

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Three men who openly operated medical marijuana businesses in Helena and Great Falls were sentenced in federal court Thursday to a year in prison.

In an emotionally charged hearing, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell handed down the prison terms to Joshua Schultz, Jesse Leland and Jason Burns. About 75 friends and family members who packed into the federal courthouse in Helena were hoping the judge would take the recommendation of probation made by the men's attorneys, but also feared that the judge might impose a mandatory minimum sentence of five years or even the maximum of 40 years.

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Officials: Delaine Fitzpatrick Had 12 Pounds of Marijuana in Car Trunk

A Havre woman who was cleared on charges stemming from her medical marijuana business in August has been arrested for allegedly possessing 12 pounds of marijuana in Oregon.

Delaine M. Fitzpatrick, 34, and Garrett J. Briere, 47, were arrested on U. S. Interstate 5 near Roseburg, Ore., Nov. 9.

According to an Oregon Department of State Police document, officers found 12 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of the white 2002 Chevrolet Malibu that Briere was driving and Fitzpatrick was riding in.

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A federal defense attorney in Helena is saying that his client should be immune from federal prosecution in a medical marijuana case and was deprived of his due process rights because of selective prosecution by the government.

Michael Donahoe, a senior litigator with the Federal Defenders of Montana, acknowledges that his client, Joshua Schultz of Helena, pleaded guilty in September to distribution of marijuana, in exchange for 24 other counts being dropped. Schultz, 38, as well as his codefendants, Jason Burns and Jesse Leland, all of whom accepted plea bargains in the case, still face a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and could be sentenced to 40 years, a $2 million fine and at least four years supervised release under federal sentencing laws.

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HELENA - Jason Christ, the Missoula businessman who signed up thousands of Montanans for medical marijuana cards through "cannabis caravans," has filed a lawsuit challenging the 2011 state law that makes it harder to get medical pot.

Christ, who owns the Montana Caregivers Network, sued the state last week in state District Court in Missoula. Acting as his own attorney, Christ asked District Judge Ed McLean to strike the law as unconstitutional on several grounds and prevent the state from enforcing it.

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HELENA - Federal law enforcement officials on Tuesday and Wednesday executed 12 criminal search warrants and four civil seizure warrants on medical marijuana operations in four Montana towns.

According to U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter's office, the crackdown was the culmination of a 12-month multi-agency investigation into what authorities say were criminal drug trafficking activities in Kalispell, Missoula, Somers and Whitefish.

The four civil seizure warrants executed at financial institutions in Missoula seek an unspecified amount of money, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office on Wednesday afternoon.

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It wasn't clear at the time, but when the federal government abruptly steamrolled dozens of medical marijuana providers in Montana last March - the cultural equivalent of more than 900 simultaneous raids in California - it marked the start of a radical national reversal in President Barack Obama's administration's policy.

It was Obama himself, as a candidate in 2008, who promised to stop caring about legal medical marijuana operators in states like Montana. And it was Obama's Justice Department that, in 2009, told U.S. Attorneys to focus on other issues and to leave alone those marijuana patients and providers who performed in "clear and unambiguous compliance" with their states' laws.

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Edwin Stickney's guest opinion is ill-informed on both the law and the scientific facts regarding so-called "medical" marijuana. Stickney accuses the president of "reneging" on his pledge to support marijuana - - but in reality the so-called "Ogden" memo was never the green light marijuana legalization advocates hoped for from the administration.

The memo specifically acknowledges that federal law renders marijuana - - for any use - illegal, regardless of state laws. The memo further goes out of its way to say that marijuana is a Schedule I drug with no accepted medical use by the Food and Drug Administration and that resources would continue to be used in the most efficient way possible (that is, those profiting off of the vulnerable would be targeted over the truly sick).

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The Obama administration has been a disappointment in some ways, but by far the worst of its actions concern medical marijuana. What the federal government is doing now is nothing short of cruel and unfair, not to mention a gross waste of taxpayer dollars. It began with aggressive raids last March on legal Montana producers and providers who had been working to help worthy patients, and now has escalated to become a national scandal.

As a physician, I have issued more than 400 recommendations to patients who have benefited greatly from the use of medical marijuana. It seems to me that we are seeing the fruits either of colossal ineptitude on the part of Obama's appointees or, much worse, an unconscionable double-cross that essentially amounts to deliberate entrapment by the government of good, law-abiding citizens.

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HELENA, Mont. - Robbie Regennitter is a registered medical-marijuana patient

Regennitter says he ingests approximately 10-20 milligrams of THC -- the active compound in marijuana -- each night before bed to ease the painful symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease and an esophagus condition.

Regennitter is also a hunter and gun owner. According to a new memo from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it is illegal for him or any registered medical-marijuana patient to own or possess firearms or ammunition.

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HELENA - A gun group and medical marijuana advocates expressed outrage Tuesday over a new federal policy clarifying that it is illegal for medical marijuana cardholders to buy firearms and ammunition and for dealers to sell these products to them.

Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, and Kate Cholewa and Chris Lindsey, board members of Montana Cannabis Industry Association, separately blasted the Sept. 21 letter sent by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the U.S. Justice Department to federally licensed firearms dealers.

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HELENA -- Law enforcement officials and a criminal defense attorney said at a conference Tuesday that they find the Montana medical marijuana law ambiguous and leaving a lot open to legal interpretation because of conflicting federal law.

Conference moderator Lee Banville, a University of Montana professor, asked the panelists if law enforcement had the tools "that help you sort of navigate this water between the complicated space between a federally illegal product and a state-sanctioned system."

Blue Corneliusen, a deputy Cascade County sheriff and president of the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, said law authorities have tried to figure out how to take Montana voters' mandate to legalize medical marijuana in 2004 and "put it in the scope of still fighting crime."

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HELENA -- For medical marijuana to become more accepted by lawmakers, law enforcement, the medical community and the public, the industry needs to be based on based on tight controls, good record keeping and consistent quality, according to a licensed provider in New Jersey.

The industry also needs to keep good records and do in-depth research about the effectiveness of marijuana as a medicine, said Webster "Dan" Todd, chairman of the board of Compassionate Sciences, one of the six licensed medical marijuana providers in New Jersey.

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HELENA - The number of medical marijuana cardholders continues to drop under a strict new state law, but an industry official said many ex-patients are turning instead to the illegal black market, a legislative committee heard Monday.

As of Aug. 31, Montana had about 25,500 medical marijuana cardholders, down nearly 16 percent from the 31,500 registered last May 31, according to a report presented to the Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee.

The number of providers who sell medical marijuana to patients has plummeted by a far faster clip, from 4,650 on May 31 to just 285 on Aug. 31, or nearly 94 percent. Providers were known as caregivers under the previous law.

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