Seventy high school students from Big Timber watched Thursday morning as a woman only a few years older than they are was hammered with a mandatory 10-year sentence in a methamphetamine conspiracy case.

Erin Zindler, 21, former star volleyball player for Laurel and mother of a 6-month-old daughter, dabbed her eyes as U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull said he had no choice but to hand her a sentence that will keep her in an out-of-state federal facility until she is nearly 30.

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Almost every day in Montana, a child awakens from a nightmare in which the forces pulling his parents away have a chemical smell.

Methamphetamine has mom and dad on a short leash. Meth holds them so tightly they no longer understand that their offspring need to eat or have their diapers changed. They may not realize that the kids have been home alone all night or even that leaving them alone is not a good thing.

Someone has to step in, and increasingly it's grandparents, human services workers say.

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Mission of the Youth Connections Coalition is to promote positive skills for youths

A recent survey of Helena youth indicates that 50 percent of them believe adults in Helena do not disapprove of underage drinking and drug use.

This week, a media campaign designed by seventh graders will premier on local television, radio, newspapers and billboards, asking parents to be the adults and set the rules for their children.

"How can I break the rules if I don't know what they are?"

[continues 385 words]

POLSON - Two former Plains residents have filed suit in District Court in Missoula over alleged mistreatment by Northwest Drug Task Force agents, who searched their home for marijuana two years ago.

No criminal charges resulted after agents searched the home of Gabrielle Wescott and her daughter Annabelle Heasley on July 29, 2003.

According to the complaint, the women were mistreated, threatened, cursed at and terrorized during the raid by "three men dressed entirely in black with black hoods over their faces."

[continues 164 words]

Anti-drug advocates are painting Great Falls red this week in recognition of Red Ribbon Week.

The anti-drug campaign, which began back in 1988, is a reminder to youth to avoid alcohol and drugs.

Local car dealerships, city and county buildings will sport red balloons and ribbons.

Already, big red bows adorn the trees in front of the Cascade County Courthouse.

Great Falls also has a number of events scheduled throughout the week to celebrate Red Ribbon Week.

Sunday, churches are encouraged to recognize Red Ribbon Week.

[continues 146 words]

HELENA - Montana pharmacists are reporting few problems and law enforcement officials fewer meth labs since a law went on the books in July that limits the amount of cold medicine people may buy containing methamphetamine's raw material.

"So far, so good," said Jeanette Cooksey, a pharmacy technician at Driscoll Drug in Butte. "People aren't overly thrilled about having to show ID, but it hasn't been a big deal."

Since the law went into effect, law enforcement officers have busted just two meth labs, said Mike Batista, administrator of the Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation. Before that, 15 labs had been busted since the beginning of the year.

[continues 582 words]

I am writing in response to an Aug. 28 article by Ed Kemmick entitled "Meth users real people, not low-lifes."

Kemmick tried to make the point that methamphetamine users are normal people just like you and me. They are our neighbors, friends, family members and co-workers. And they should not be looked at as "low- lifes."

Kemmick notes that "there's a lot that needs to be done to fight the meth plague. We need more treatment for people trying to kick the crank habit. We need more education, more resources aimed at prevention." I agree with Kemmick, we need more education and more treatment, but we also need to control the proliferation of drugs on our streets.

[continues 131 words]

The views expressed in the article "Marijuana Design Attracts Sales, Flak" truly revealed the phobic beliefs many people have with concern to marijuana use today. Two issues of concern were the fears expressed regarding both the message of a marijuana leaf and the patrons who choose to purchase such a product.

First, I fail to see either how viewing a marijuana leaf can cause otherwise sober individuals to become drug users. The choice to use marijuana is and always has been one for the individual to decide and is by no means influenced by a simple leaf. Furthermore, the association between marijuana and the growing methamphetamine use/production problem in Montana is preposterous. The only reason that marijuana users sometimes decide to move on to harder drugs is because of the exposure that accompanies the black market, exposure to harder drugs that are also illegal.

[continues 116 words]

CHEYENNE - Rep. Elaine Harvey is having a bill drafted to make it clear that a new Wyoming law protecting children from methamphetamine also applies to an unborn child.

Last week, a state district judge in Lander dismissed a child endangerment case against a woman whose newborn child tested positive for methamphetamine because the state law did not specifically say it applied to fetuses.

Harvey, R-Lovell, was the chief sponsor of the 2004 felony child endangerment law the defendant, Michele Ann Foust, 31, was charged under.

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But More Work Is Needed, Attorney General Tells Summit

Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath brought plenty of bad news about the state's methamphetamine problem to Thursday's Butte-Silver Bow Meth Summit in the Butte Civic Center annex.

"It's easy to make, easy to market and difficult to treat," McGrath told several hundred concerned citizens. Meth consumes a huge proportion of the state's police, correctional and health resources, he added.

Yet, McGrath also noted the progress Montana is making against meth. That progress starts with communities, like Butte, acknowledging the problem.

[continues 553 words]

Knowing there's no time to spin their wheels, the members of Cascade County Meth Free on Monday outlined the next steps in their assault on the highly addictive stimulant.

Earlier this month, the group organized an educational forum that drew 500 people who wanted to learn more about methamphetamine to the Great Falls Civic Center.

Terry Youngworth, fair housing specialist with the City of Great Falls, said the forum just emphasized the need to get basic information out.

"A lot of people want to know what is meth? Why is the community so worried about it?" he said.

[continues 478 words]

Editor's note: Carrie and her family, who have lived in the Bighorn Basin for nearly 30 years, wanted to speak candidly about her illness, but did not want to deal with the social repercussions in small-town Wyoming. Her name has been changed to protect their privacy.

CODY - Carrie's emotions were like mismatched puzzle pieces - they didn't fit the world around her.

She laughed in the wrong places. "Normal" responses eluded her. By the time she was 12, Carrie and her mother knew she was different from other kids. But when the diagnosis came back "rapid-cycling bipolar," Carrie bucked.

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A correctional facility to keep women out of prison is planned for Billings, the Department of Corrections director said Thursday.

"This is an individualized program designed to divert those sentenced to the department to other options," Bill Slaughter said.

The Billings Assessment and Sanctions Center, with 30 beds, will be designed to keep inmates out of the main prison and reduce the cost of dealing with increasing numbers of convicts. It also will provide services aimed at preventing prisoners from returning to the main prison facility.

[continues 616 words]

A Missoula social worker and drug prevention expert has been named executive director of the statewide Montana Meth Project - a $5.6 million anti-drug campaign that aims to quash teen addiction.

Peg Shea will assume the new position at the beginning of October, leaving her 12-year post as executive director of Western Montana Addiction Services in Missoula.

"My commitment in taking this position is to focus all of my professional resources and experience toward one goal - prevention," Shea said.

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BC's Prince Of Pot Faces Extradition

While 4,000 people gathered in Caras Park Sept. 10 to support industrial hemp at Missoula's Hempfest, worldwide Smoke Out America protests calling for an end to the U.S. drug war drew thousands more. One protest, at the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia, had special urgency and a special guest. Marc Emery, aka "the Prince of Pot" who founded the British Columbia Marijuana Party [BCMP] as well as Cannabis Culture magazine and Internet-based Pot TV, showed up to rally for his own cause.

[continues 901 words]

How can Montana confront the widespread destruction unleashed by methamphetamines?

Thomas Siebel has a bold plan.

More than that, he has the entrepreneurial spirit and resources to put that plan into action.

Widely known in business circles as founder of Siebel Systems, a leading global computer software company, Siebel also is a part-time resident of Montana.

Spending time here, he became aware of the state's increasing problems associated with meth.

As he pondered how he could help, he reflected on the American Cancer Society's successful campaign to de-glamorize cigarette smoking.

[continues 384 words]

A statewide anti-methamphetamine campaign was unveiled Wednesday, launching a series of shocking, graphic radio and television spots that directly target Montana teens.

The Montana Meth Project has one mantra - "Not Even Once" - which centers on the drug's addictive power. According to research, a person can become addicted to meth after using it to get high just one time.

The $5.6-million effort to quash teen addiction has garnered wide support from state officials, who gathered at the Missoula County Public Schools Administration Building on Wednesday. The Montana Meth Project is set to run for two years and will be the largest scale and longest-running campaign of its kind in history, said Tom Siebel, the campaign's chairman.

[continues 380 words]

A little before 5 a.m. on Friday, May 6, a couple of hours after shooting up what she thought would be her last dose of methamphetamine, Karen Hilleary prepared to kill herself.

She drove her '88 Olds Toronado up 27th Street toward the airport, then onto Airport Road, heading east. She turned off Airport Road to the undeveloped parkland on top of the Rims, then drove slowly toward the edge of the sandstone cliffs overlooking Billings.

It was beautiful, she said, looking at all the lights. She backed up a little to get a good run, put the Olds in gear and gunned it. Flying toward the lights, knowing she was going to die, was a bigger rush than meth ever was, she said.

[continues 1968 words]

While many of Helena's high-profile violent crimes 15 years ago had their roots in domestic violence, methamphetamine seems to have replaced it as, if not an impetus, at least a prevailing undercurrent.

While the details of last month's beating death of local librarian Amy Marie Rolfe are still emerging, it appears her alleged killer had, by his own admission, been using methamphetamine in the days preceding the young woman's death.

Lewis and Clark County Attorney Leo Gallagher doesn't want area residents to discount the effects of other forms of chemical dependency on violence in our community, but he's quick to add that methamphetamine has its tentacles woven into the majority of cases he sees.

[continues 1579 words]

A Billings pharmacist and former member of the Montana Board of Pharmacy pleaded not guilty Monday in District Court to 15 felony counts of fraudulently obtaining dangerous drugs.

John Herbert Poush, 40, also pleaded not guilty at arraignment to three counts of felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs. Poush was allowed to remain free until trial on a $30,000 bond.

Prosecutors said in court records that Poush was working last year as a pharmacist at Target when he wrote prescriptions for Hydrocan cough syrup for fictitious people and took the drugs home.

Investigators searched Poush's house on Palisades Park Drive and found "hundreds of controlled pills," including hydrocodone, alprazolam and diazepam, court papers said.

In 1997, Poush was appointed to serve a five-year term on the Montana State Board of Pharmacy.

[end]

Parental Drug Addiction Devastates Children

An estimated 6 million U.S. children live with at least one parent who abused alcohol or other drugs in 2001, the Annie Casey Foundation noted in its annual Kids Count Data Book. A study of children in a welfare program showed that children, especially adolescents, with drug-abusing parents had more behavioral, emotional and physical problems than their peers in drug-free families. Likewise, children whose parents abused drugs were more likely themselves to engage in risky behaviors.

[continues 343 words]

Two young women told a federal jury Tuesday how they helped run a conspiracy that brought high-quality methamphetamine to Billings from Washington state.

Gwen Black, of Washington, who seemed mature beyond her 19 years, calmly and directly testified how, when she was 17, she and her then-31-year-old boyfriend, Edwin Santiago, picked up shipments of meth from Martin Garcia in Mount Vernon, Wash., brought it to Billings for resale and sent back thousands of dollars in cash.

Black had pleaded guilty earlier to a related charge.

[continues 860 words]

HELENA - The state prison system is full again, and private groups in Great Falls and Lewistown hope to provide a relief valve in the coming months.

State Corrections Director Bill Slaughter also has told Gov. Brian Schweitzer that Montana inmates may be sent to out-of-state prisons this fall, to relieve overcrowding that's backed up into county jails.

"We've had to put beds in some of the 'day rooms' at the prison, which is the last possible option you'd want to do," said Joe Williams, head of the Correction Department's Centralized Services Division. "There is just nothing left in the system."

[continues 587 words]

Methamphetamine floods the brain with 10 times the pleasure of sex and 20 times the pleasure of food.

It's no wonder so many people who try the drug become addicted.

"There is nothing we can equate through natural phenomena or we can give through chemical phenomena that gives this rush," said Thomas Freese, a researcher with the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs in Los Angeles, during a presentation for medical staff at Deaconess Billings Clinic on Friday.

[end]

Officials Ponder Out-Of-State Transfers

HELENA -- State Corrections officials are considering shipping some Montana inmates to out-of-state prisons this fall due to a methamphetamine-fueled spike in felons sentenced to hard time.

In a letter to Gov. Brian Schweitzer last week, Corrections Director Bill Slaughter said the state's prisons are overcrowding and backing up into county jails.

"Our adult offender population is exceeding the emergency bed capacity of our" state prisons, the July 26 letter reads.

The state is housing 257 inmates in county jails because there is no room either at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge or at the state's only private prison, Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby. Counties, meanwhile, are sitting on roughly 3,750 outstanding felony warrants they cannot serve because they have no place to house the felons if they catch them.

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A Gardiner woman previously convicted of encouraging her 18-month-old daughter to smoke marijuana was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.

A federal judge in U.S. District Court in Billings also handed 24-year-old Jessica Lynne Durham four years probation. The ruling came almost eight months after she was found guilty of distributing marijuana to a person under the age of 18.

That ruling, reached by U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull, was a result of a one-day trial before the judge, who heard the case without a jury. At the time, Cebull told the Associated Press, "I haven't seen a case like this."

[continues 88 words]

HELENA -- The group behind Montana's medical marijuana law wants the state to investigate why a commander of the nation's war on drugs didn't disclose the cost of his tax-funded Montana trip last year when he campaigned against the ballot measure.

The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project filed a complaint in Helena District Court Thursday. The suit asked District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock to force the state's commissioner of political practices to investigate why Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, didn't make public the cost of his trip to Montana last October.

[continues 470 words]

HELENA - The group behind Montana's medical marijuana law wants the state to investigate why a commander of the nation's war on drugs didn't disclose the cost of his tax-funded Montana trip last year when he campaigned against the ballot measure.

The Marijuana Policy Project filed a complaint in Helena District Court on Thursday asking Judge Jeffrey Sherlock to force the state's commissioner of political practices to investigate why Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, didn't make public the cost of his trip to Montana last October.

[continues 468 words]

Adults have the option to buy booze if they want. There are no state registrations, doctor's authorizations or yearly fees required to do so. Even if our society realizes how much terror and misery alcohol has brought upon us, we still have the choice to purchase it. The innocent, non-abusive consumer of alcohol is not judged badly because of the many abuses that cause havoc on our population.

Cigarettes and junk food cause a sooner-than-later death. Everyone realizes the negative impact they have on our health - yet we are not charged a state yearly fee, state registration and doctor's OK to purchase these. We adults are being trusted enough to make our own decisions concerning these potentially dangerous substances.

[continues 183 words]

Marijuana Policy Project Wants Cost of Drug Czar's Trip Made Public

HELENA -- The group behind Montana's medical marijuana law wants the state to investigate why a commander of the nation's war on drugs didn't disclose the cost of his tax-funded Montana trip last year when he campaigned against the ballot measure.

The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project filed a complaint in Helena District Court Thursday. The suit asked District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock to force the state's commissioner of political practices to investigate why Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, didn't make public the cost of his trip to Montana last October.

[continues 470 words]

HELENA - The group behind Montana's medical marijuana law wants the state to investigate why a commander of the nation's war on drugs didn't disclose the cost of his tax-funded Montana trip last year when he spoke against the ballot measure.

The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project filed a complaint in Helena District Court Thursday. The suit asked District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock to force the state's commissioner of political practices to investigate why Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, didn't make public the cost of his trip to Montana last October.

[continues 473 words]

The federal government's war on drugs has turned into a witch hunt for doctors who legitimately prescribe legal painkillers, says a California physician who claims he was the target of an unethical federal investigation.

"The war on drugs has become a war on sick people," Dr. Frank Fisher said Friday. "The war on drugs has morphed into a war on patients, and the doctors are caught in the crossfire."

Fisher said the battle has erupted in Billings, where the Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating neurologist Richard A. Nelson. Nelson treated multiple chronic-pain sufferers with opioids, or narcotic painkillers, until federal agents raided his West End clinic three months ago.

[continues 582 words]

A Montana senator has assured a group of chronic-pain sufferers whose Billings doctor is under federal investigation that their medical needs will be evaluated by a local clinic.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., secured a promise from Deering Clinic that the county-run medical center will offer patients of neurologist Richard A. Nelson "the opportunity to be assessed by their staff for a continued pain-management care plan."

The Drug Enforcement Administration in April suspended Nelson's privileges to write prescriptions for certain painkillers pending a criminal investigation into his West End medical practice. Nelson has not been charged with a crime and remains in good standing with the Montana Board of Medical Examiners.

[continues 726 words]

More than 30 people crowded outside of Max Baucus' downtown office Friday afternoon in hopes of giving the senator faces to place with the names on the dozens of letters his office has received since April from chronic-pain patients.

"These are people," said Greg Wilkinson, a pain sufferer. "They are Montana citizens. They are being denied medical care."

Wilkinson has pain from a spine injury three years ago that affects his body. He is one of about 75 patients who have been unable to get medication since DEA agents raided Dr. Richard A. Nelson's West End office and told him to stop treating the chronic-pain patients two months ago.

[continues 318 words]

WASHINGTON -- Exasperated by pessimism about the "war on drugs," John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, says: Washington is awash with lobbyists hired by businesses worried that government may, intentionally or inadvertently, make them unprofitable. So why assume that the illicit drug trade is the one business that government, try as it might, cannot seriously injure?

Here is why: When Pat Moynihan was an adviser to President Nixon, he persuaded the French government to break the "French connection" by which heroin came to America. Moynihan explained his achievement to Labor Secretary George Shultz, who said laconically: "Good."

[continues 669 words]

The Drug Enforcement Administration unfairly targets doctors who prescribe narcotic painkillers - including a Billings neurologist - as a means to justify its existence to the federal government, said a national chronic pain management advocate during a visit to Billings on Wednesday.

"What the DEA does is sell drug prosecutions to Congress to say, 'Look what we're doing about the drug problem,' " said Siobhan Reynolds, president of the Pain Relief Network.

It is a "desperate effort by an endangered federal agency," she said.

[continues 804 words]

Cole Kimber pointed a revolver at his head and pulled the trigger. Click. He pulled again. Click. He wanted to be ready.

"You've got to prepare yourself psychologically for it," Kimber said. "Suicide might be an option."

It wasn't the only way the Billings man rehearsed killing himself. He also closed the garage door and started his car. He wanted to know how much time would pass before he could no longer smell the exhaust.

Without medication to muffle red-hot pain radiating from his back, injured almost 20 years ago moving furniture, "My quality of life isn't worth it," Kimber said.

[continues 1333 words]

When the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Monday that federal authorities can ignore state laws condoning medical marijuana and prosecute patients who use marijuana under state programs, Montana's new medical marijuana registry wasn't affected on its face. But the decision does reinforce the disconnect between federal and state authorities, and it props the door open for federal intervention in states like Montana that have sanctioned medicinal marijuana.

"There won't be any state prosecutions for medical marijuana use," Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath said Monday in response to the ruling. "We still have a valid law in Montana and a person can get a prescription from their doctor, get on the registry and use marijuana for medical purposes under state law."

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HELENA -- Montanans who smoke doctor-recommended marijuana can be prosecuted on federal drug charges, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday, although Montana's top law enforcement officer said pot-smoking ill Montanans wouldn't face state charges.

The nation's top court ruled 6-3 Monday that state-passed medical marijuana laws, like Montana's, don't protect users from federal prosecution or federal prison time.

Montanans overwhelmingly passed Initiative 148 to legal medical marijuana last November by a 62-38 percent margin.

[continues 685 words]

It's an almost ridiculous notion: federal agents swooping in to arrest deathly ill patients for using marijuana as a pain reliever.

Still, it's possible.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that patients in 11 states -- including Montana -- who receive legal prescriptions for marijuana from their physicians are subject to prosecution for violating federal drug laws.

If the Supreme Court won't protect states' rights on this issue, Congress must.

Hooray to Sen. Conrad Burns for saying that he'd side with his constituency if the vote goes before Congress.

[continues 280 words]

SUMMARY: Real implications of medical marijuana case involve the expanding reach of the federal government.

The federal government may enforce a zero-tolerance policy on marijuana because drug laws passed by Congress trump state laws permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday.

You have to wonder whether this ruling will have much actual effect on patients following their doctors' recommendations to use marijuana to relieve pain. It's hard to imagine the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency getting so caught up on its work shutting down meth labs and nabbing cocaine smugglers that it can devote much time to rounding up cancer patients. Even if it did, what prosecutor with a sense of justice would help strip a terminally ill patient of his last refuge from pain? Indeed, in Montana, among the 10 states where voters have approved limited use of medical marijuana, the attorney general said the feds will get no help from him.

[continues 303 words]

I've got that all-over tingly feeling not felt since Martha Stewart was put away and America's mean streets made safe again.

I'm talking, of course, about Monday's Supreme Court ruling against state-sanctioned medical marijuana use that will keep the terminally ill and chronic pain sufferers from firing up a marijuana joint, getting stoned and, in addition to risking acute munchies, enjoying a temporary reprieve from hellish suffering.

Thank G-d we've got that particular homeland security problem under control. Why, in the age of terror, one can never be too careful with dying people who have nothing left to lose.

[continues 408 words]

HELENA -- Montanans who smoke doctor-recommended marijuana can be prosecuted on federal drug charges, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday, although Montana's top law enforcement officer said pot-smoking ill Montanans wouldn't face state charges.

The nation's top court ruled 6-3 Monday that state-passed medical marijuana laws, like Montana's, don't protect users from federal prosecution or federal prison time.

Montanans overwhelmingly passed Initiative 148 to legalize medical marijuana last November by a 62-38 percent margin.

[continues 686 words]

HELENA -- Montanans or other Americans who use "medical marijuana" under the protection of state law still can be prosecuted for violations of federal drug laws, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.

But Montana's new law allowing medical-marijuana use remains on the books, preventing state arrest or prosecution of anyone legally registered to use marijuana for medical purposes.

"A person can get a prescription, sign up on the (state) registry and theoretically use marijuana for medical purposes," said Attorney General Mike McGrath.

[continues 564 words]

Last Wednesday DEA agents swept through Missoula and four other Montana cities, stopping in one tobacco-accessory-selling store in each town and seizing everything from pipes to T-shirts with pot leaves on them.

Owners of the Vault in Missoula, the Grateful Shed in Bozeman and the Blue Moon in Great Falls all confirmed the DEA's visit, and two other warrants were also served statewide.

Blue Moon owner Sue Kerkes wouldn't comment beyond affirming the DEA's visit, but Vault owner David Sil and Grateful Shed manager Bob Holstine did confirm that agents confiscated thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. They said agents served the businesses with warrants but issued no charges; they simply loaded up the goods and moved on.

[continues 261 words]

GARDINER -- Move over Elmo and Barney, Retro Bill is in the house.

The nationally known children's speaker took center stage Friday at the Gardiner Elementary School's Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, graduation. He put on a show with everything from silly-string to rubber chickens. In between hi-jinks, Retro Bill taught students about strangers, bullying and conflict resolution.

If you are not familiar with the high-haired antics of Retro Bill, ask your elementary school children about him. Chances are they have seen one of his safety videos, which are shown in schools all over the country.

[continues 509 words]

HELENA - Corrections officials are looking to build a new kind of treatment prison in the next 18 months, focusing on mentally ill, drug-addicted or elderly convicts.

Exactly which kind of "special needs" inmate the new prison might house and how many will end up there remains to be seen, said Joe Williams, administrator of the agency's Centralized Services Division.

"It's really going to be pretty wide open," he said of the possibilities the agency is willing to consider.

[continues 511 words]

Jim Hartford knows how marijuana eases his AIDS symptoms. What he doesn't know is how to get a physician's approval so he can register to use it.

Hartford, of Billings, was diagnosed with HIV nearly 11 years ago. He takes a cocktail of drugs to manage what has developed into AIDS. He knows that AIDS is one of the conditions for which medical marijuana can be approved, and he believes that cannabis can relieve some symptoms - nausea, lack of appetite, a feeling of restlessness in the legs - in ways that other drugs cannot.

[continues 1031 words]

Jim Hartford knows how marijuana eases his AIDS symptoms. What he doesn't know is how to get a physician's approval so he can register to use it.

Hartford, of Billings, was diagnosed with HIV nearly 11 years ago. He takes a cocktail of drugs to manage what has developed into AIDS. He knows that AIDS is one of the conditions for which medical marijuana can be approved, and he believes that cannabis can relieve some symptoms -- nausea, lack of appetite, a feeling of restlessness in the legs -- in ways that other drugs cannot.

[continues 1031 words]

Dr. Richard A. Nelson called about 50 patients to his office last Thursday to deliver the news: federal officers had raided his office, seized records and told him to stop prescribing certain narcotic painkillers.

The patients, whom Nelson treated for chronic pain from injuries, cancer and other ailments, were shocked.

"We were angry and I guess a bit frightened about what we're going do, who's going to treat us," said Mike Bledsoe, 52, who has been seeing Nelson for about two years to ease the agony of a work-related injury and other problems. "It's a bad situation."

[continues 917 words]