Pubdate: Thu, 24 Jan 2008
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2008 The Billings Gazette
Contact:  http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n061/a05.html
Author: Angela Goodhope

STATE SHOULD FOLLOW LAW OK'D BY VOTERS

I testified at a recent public hearing in opposition to  a proposal 
by the Department of Corrections to ban  medical marijuana for 
patients who are on probation.  After reading the opinion essay by 
Pam Bunke in the  Jan. 17 Gazette, I reread the department's 
proposed  rule. I can find not a shred of truth in Bunke's 
essay.  Contrary to all her claims, the department's rule is 
a  blanket ban that offers no routes for appeal and makes  no 
exceptions in respect to a doctor's professional  opinion.

The department has already been imposing this rule even  though it 
hasn't adopted it. Patients on probation have  been denied access to 
the medical marijuana their  doctors recommend. This has happened in 
spite of  protests by the doctors, and never has the department 
advised any of the patients that there might be any  possibility of 
an exception. At best, patients have  been told that their only 
recourse is to first dare to  violate the department's ban and then 
take their chances in court.

I find it unconscionable that the Department of  Corrections is so 
blatantly violating Montana's  medical-marijuana law. This is an 
absurd waste of  taxpayer dollars. Right now, people with serious 
medical conditions are suffering because of this. Keep  in mind that 
our law's approved "qualifying conditions"  for medical marijuana - 
like multiple sclerosis,  cancer, glaucoma and chronic pain resulting 
from varied  awful circumstances - occur in the lives of all 
kinds  of people, including Democrats, Republicans and, yes,  even 
people on probation or parole.

Angela Goodhope,

field director

Citizens for Responsible Crime Policy

Missoula
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom