Pubdate: Mon, 11 Jan 2010
Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle (MT)
Copyright: 2010 The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Contact:  http://bozemandailychronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1686
Author: Gail Schontzler, Staff Writer

BUSINESS BOOMING FOR MONTANA'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The recession may be sinking the state's economy and  tax revenues,
but Montana has one new industry that's  on a high n medical marijuana.

"We're putting people to work n with no stimulus  money," Jim Gingery
of Bozeman said proudly on Monday.

Gingery, who wore a suit and tie, is executive director  of the
3-month-old trade association, the Montana  Medical Growers'
Association. He also owns Mary Jane's  Kitchen, which bakes marijuana
in cookies and muffins.

On Monday the trade group hosted its first public event  at the
Emerson Cultural Center n the Medical Marijuana  Education Seminar. It
brought in expert speakers on  everything from Montana law to the
science of using  marijuana as medicine.

The purpose, Gingery said, was to educate anyone who  grows medical
marijuana, including patients and  "caregivers," or growers, to make
sure they understand  the law, follow the law, stay out of trouble and
 deliver good quality, safe "product."

The association, formed last October, is seeking to  deliver a message
to doctors, law enforcement officers  and the public that medical
marijuana is a respectable,  law-abiding industry. And its leaders
hope to lobby the  next Legislature.

"It's a huge industry n everybody is laying off except  for us," said
Robert Sims of Bozeman, community  educator for the
association.

"Right now there are over 500 to 700 new businesses  started in this
state," Gingery said.

He based that estimate on the state Department of  Health and Human
Services' list of 1,500 licensed  medical marijuana caregivers,
serving some 5,500  licensed patients. If roughly 1,000 caregivers are
 husband-and-wife teams n growing marijuana for personal  use because
one of them suffers from cancer or chronic  pain n then that means
about 500 are growing marijuana  as a commercial business.

Montana voters passed an initiative legalizing  marijuana for medical
use in 2004. But growers kept  their operations small and out of sight
until the Obama  administration announced last year that the federal 
government wouldn't prosecute people following their  state's laws.

"It no longer has to be underground, in the basement,"  Sims said.

Montana's industry in the past few months has  "exploded," they said.

The industry includes suppliers of indoor greenhouse  gear, electrical
suppliers who can set up elaborate  lighting systems for plants, and
welding suppliers of  carbon dioxide, which helps greenhouse plants
grow  bigger faster.

Sponsors of Monday's event included General  Distributing, Curt
Electric, Comfort Systems, First  West Insurance, Montana Botanical
Analysis, Planet  Natural, Grow Green and Green Gaia Medicinals.

Montana's medical marijuana industry differs from  California's in a
significant way, Gingery said. In  California, once a patient gets a
doctor's OK, the  "open dispensary" system lets anybody buy anything
from  any supplier, which makes it easy to abuse for people  who just
want to get high for fun.

"California's a mess," Sims said.

In Montana, a patient who gets a medical marijuana  license can buy
legally from only one "caregiver,"  whose name is printed on the back
of his or her state  license.

Every patient can grow six plants on their own. And for  every
patient, a Montana caregiver can legally grow six  plants.

A caregiver with hundreds of patients can make big  bucks. But it's
also an expensive business, with high  costs for grow lights,
nutrients, water, electricity,  staff and security. It's a
labor-intensive business  that takes six months to get plants to
maturity, and  then growers have to worry about things like mites, 
diseases and thieves.

Chris Lindsey, a Helena attorney and founding board  member of the
Montana Medical Growers' Association,  warned the 35 people listening
to his lecture Monday,  "Don't treat medical use like a joke or a
front n it's  what people still expect of us."

Lindsey, a licensed caregiver, said he has more than  250 patients and
11 employees.

"It is booming," Lindsey said of the business. "But on  the flip side,
I don't know anybody making any money  yet. We're pouring money into
infrastructure and  facilities."

Lindsey said he got into medical marijuana when he was  suffering from
Crohn's disease. Several doctors  recommended marijuana, but they
wouldn't sign the  paperwork to let him try it.

"They didn't want to get in trouble," Lindsey said. "I  became an
activist."
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr