Pubdate: Wed, 10 Feb 2010
Source: Ravalli Republic (MT)
Copyright: 2010 Ravalli Republic
Contact:  http://www.ravallirepublic.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3254
Author: Sepp Jannotta
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/Topic/Dispensaries

GROWING BUSINESS

The City of Hamilton business license for the town's first medical 
marijuana shop ran Amanda Davis and Kyle McCready $20.

When Davis and McCready open their door to the public today, the 
products offered at their MD Farmacy storefront will run card-holding 
medical marijuana patients roughly $280-$480 per ounce of marijuana 
and $5-10 per baked good.

Davis said getting ready to open has been hectic.

"It's been pretty stressy but we have fun," she said. "It's going to 
be a blast: we're going to help a lot of people and hopefully the 
community, too."

MD Farmacy is the first licensed medical marijuana dispensary in 
Ravalli County.

"Take a picture of that, that's the first one ever," McCready said, 
pointing to MD Farmacy's business license. "That'll be worth some 
money in a hundred years."

While the Hamilton business is a first for the Bitterroot Valley, it 
is hardly a pioneering effort for Montana.

With a 2004 voter-initiative medical marijuana law on the books 
allowing Montana caregivers to grow six marijuana plants per 
card-holding patient, and a recent federal law enforcement directive 
not to go after legal growers, the dispensary concept has taken root 
in Montana in recent months.

Missoula has no fewer than six licensed dispensaries.

The idea is for medical marijuana patients to link themselves to a 
caregiver/grower under a dispensary's management. Since there is no 
limit on the number of patients a caregiver can grow for, 
dispensaries can pool resources to offer an expanded menu of products.

MD Farmacy will have marijuana buds and hash for smoking, edibles and 
cooking oils for those who prefer to eat their medicine and a product 
called "honey oil."

McCready said honey oil is 100-percent tetrahydracannabinol, or THC, 
the hallucinogenic compound that gets marijuana users high.

McCready and Davis, who grew up together in Darby, said they will 
only employ local caregivers.

"It's definitely locally owned and locally grown," McCready said.

Although Hamilton Mayor Jerry Steele said the city had only approved 
one such business so far, another looks imminent.

Like MD Farmacy, Missoula Cannabis Caregivers has also put up medical 
marijuana signage at a First Street location, this one exactly one 
block east of Hamilton City Hall. Missoula Cannabis Caregivers could 
not be reached for comment.

Steele said he hadn't seen the company's application, but said the 
city would give it a thorough review to see that it meets zoning restrictions.

"We don't want it near a school or a church or in a residential 
area," Steele said.

Acknowledging that the up-and-coming and apparently legal practice 
puts the city in a tough position, Steele said City Attorney Ken Bell 
was planning to recommend that the Hamilton City Council place a 
temporary moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries so it could 
get a better handle on how to deal with them.

The city of Lewistown placed a six-month moratorium on opening any 
new medical marijuana businesses, The Associated Press reported 
Tuesday, while city officials there decide how to regulate the 
businesses within the city limits.

Lewistown has one medical marijuana dispensary that opened at the 
beginning of the year, and that business will be allowed to stay open.

Billings, Whitefish and Great Falls are among the cities that have 
placed moratoriums on medical marijuana businesses while they decide 
zoning issues.

Calling the state's medical marijuana policy "half cocked," Steele 
said it was only a matter of time until the presence of dispensaries 
would create problems.

"The state has this law, but the cities are out there floundering," 
Steele said. "Then all of a sudden we get challenged in court. Don't 
get me wrong, I'm not opposed to anybody making a living. But we have 
to be thinking about what kind of trouble we're going to be having here."

Steele said once they are licensed the city couldn't really do much 
about the businesses because they are legal in Montana.

The police would only be involved to the point of ensuring that they 
were following the law, he added.

Whatever the reaction at a government level, Davis said her family 
and friends have been nothing but supportive of her new venture.

Davis, who is pursuing an associates degree in business and marketing 
and floated the dispensary plan as a school project, said she had 
only gotten one negative response and that came from a fellow 
business student at the University of Montana's College of Technology 
in Missoula.

"That was it," she said. "My advisor really supported the idea."

Both she and McCready said the driving philosophy behind their 
business is to make medical marijuana available to those who want an 
alternative to traditional drugs.

Those who don't have a medical marijuana card will be pointed in the 
direction of a doctor who can prescribe one for them, McCready said.

"We're pretty much here to help them find a safe and easy way to get 
medical marijuana," added Davis.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom