Pubdate: Sun, 21 Mar 2010
Source: Daily Inter Lake, The (MT)
Copyright: 2010 The Daily Inter Lake
Contact:  http://www.dailyinterlake.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2501
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

LEGAL POT: AN RX FOR DISASTER?

The citizens of Montana no doubt had good intentions in 2004 when 
they overwhelmingly voted to allow medical use of marijuana.

It was a feel-good initiative designed to allow some patients with 
certain medical conditions such as cancer, glaucoma or AIDS to ease 
their symptoms with marijuana.

That was all well and good back in 2005, soon after the Medical 
Marijuana Act was approved, when there were 119 approved patients on 
the state's medical marijuana registry.

Fast forward to today, when a recent explosion of the pursuit of pot 
has sent the number of legal marijuana users and growers soaring.

Today there are some 11,000 registered marijuana users statewide -- 
and more than 3,000 of those have been registered since January of this year.

Would voters six years ago have been so favorable if they had 
foreseen what is happening in 2010?

Would Flathead County voters in particular have been inclined to 
approve 400 growing operations in this county alone?

Each grower (or, to use the more polite legal euphemism, each 
"caregiver") can have six pot plants for each patient and a caregiver 
can have more than one patient.

Do the math: 16 percent of caregivers have more than five patients, 
so now there is a veritable legal marijuana industry that has sprung 
up virtually overnight. The Mexican cartels must be getting worried.

More marijuana math: There are currently 1,500 state-certified 
marijuana patients in Flathead County -- or almost 2 percent of the 
population here.

As one reader inquired last week: "Are we really that much sicker up here?"

It's more likely that economics and opportunism are at work. There's 
money to be made in the marijuana trade and the risk of being busted 
has vanished because the federal government is no longer enforcing 
its ban on medical marijuana.

We don't mean to disparage the real need that some people have for 
the medical benefits of marijuana. But we question whether there are 
so many truly in need to justify hundreds of marijuana producers and 
dozens of neighborhood pot shops.

The recently developing marijuana free-for-all has tied city 
governments up in knots trying to figure out how to regulate an 
industry that didn't really exist as recently as last year.

That's at least partially due to the vagueness of Montana law on 
medical marijuana -- vagueness that also hamstrings law enforcement's 
ability to deal with illegal marijuana.

Those precious and proliferating marijuana registration cards from 
the state essentially have become get-out-of-jail-free cards for 
some. With so many legal users, it becomes nearly impossible to bust 
illegal pot smokers.

We are faced, then, with a choice between having de facto legalized 
marijuana for almost everyone or attempting some better regulation 
through legislation.

The soonest that regulation would come is next year's Legislature, so 
it is recommended that voters question candidates closely about where 
they stand on this issue.

If you support the free flow of marijuana in our society, then vote 
for people who will maintain the status quo or support legalization. 
But if you want to see the genie go back in the bottle, vote for 
candidates who support additional restrictions.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom