Pubdate: Sun, 30 May 2010 Source: Missoulian (MT) Copyright: 2010 Missoulian Contact: http://www.missoulian.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/720 Note: Only prints letters from within its print circulation area Author: Jennifer McKee SPREAD OF POT INDUSTRY, VIOLENCE ERODING SOME SUPPORT HELENA - Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commissioner Robert Pierce was among the 62 percent of Montanans who voted to legalize marijuana for medical purposes six years ago. "It was compassion," Pierce said. But then something showed up in his town that prompted Pierce to take another vote on the issue, this time directing his city and county to withdraw from most parts of the law: a giant marijuana leaf painted on the front of a would-be medical marijuana establishment set up right across the street from the Anaconda Dairy Queen. "And that's wrong, in my opinion," Pierce said. Pierce and his commission, which voted in late May on a six-month moratorium for all growing and selling of marijuana in the county, is hardly alone. As the medical marijuana industry has exploded in Montana, county governments, lawmakers, tribal councils and others have grappled to get their hands around the issue. In Kalispell and Billings, the concern has been inflamed by violence and vandalism connected to medical marijuana. But in other parts of state, the concerns are more mundane, focusing on zoning, business licensure and electrical standards for grow houses. The burgeoning industry has surprised even medical marijauna's strongest supporters, including Tom Daubert of Helena, the man behind the successful 2004 initiative that legalized medicinal pot. Daubert fully supports state efforts to more tightly regulate the industry. He said what's happened to marijuana in recent months is nothing like what he envisioned. Daubert is part of a co-op of growers in Helena. Their offices are discreet and unmarked, nothing like the gaily-painted storefronts across the state that so irritate both law enforcement and the general public. Those kinds of displays, Daubert said, are "nails in the coffin of this law." Indeed, at least one lawmaker, Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor, has proposed nailing up the whole thing: repealing the law and starting over. "I don't think (voters) knew the pig they were buying in the poke," he said in a recent interview. * Voters may also get another crack at the issue. A quickly formed group has organized to put repealing the law back on the ballot this fall, although organizers have only weeks to collect 25,000 signatures from voters. The numbers tell part of the story. If a Montanan has a doctor's prescription for a traditional drug, he or she has just over 1,000 licensed pharmacists to choose from. But if you've got a doctor's card for medical marijuana, there are more than 2,700 licensed "caregivers" - and the regulations and educational requirements for caregivers is nothing compared with the degree and professional licensure requirements of a traditional pharmacist. Shockley said it's just that kind of wide open nature to medical marijuana that needs changing. From growing to distributing, the state has very few regulations on the industry, and laying the groundwork for a functional medical marijuana program will require more than "just tweaking," he said. The Legislature will not meet for another six months, meaning any statewide change is not in the near future. Into that void has stepped a long list of Montana cities and towns. * Take a look: After a medical marijuana storefront was firebombed, the Billings City Council voted 8-2 in favor of a six-month moratorium on granting business licenses to any new medical marijuana caregivers. Kalispell also instituted such a ban after a medical marijuana grower there was beaten to death. The tribal council of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes voted last month to opt out of the state medical marijuana law entirely, meaning tribal members and members of other recognized tribes within the Flathead Reservation are forbidden from growing, selling or using medical marijuana. The city of Deer Lodge has banned new medical marijuana businesses, and Anaconda-Deer Lodge adopted a similar ban. The buzz is so hot among local governments reacting to medical marijuana, the state legislative branch has written a memo for local governments on how to regulate and zone the industry. Mark Sweeney, another Anaconda-Deer Lodge commissioner, was the only person who voted against that county's ban. He said the county has real concerns about where growing operations take place, what sorts of electrical standards should be in place, where storefronts can be located and had particular concerns about grow operations in residential parts of town. "It's a citizens' initiative without a lot of direction," he said. Sweeney said the issue has been a real education for the commission, which mostly deals with paving roads and standard municipal regulations. Pot was not on their radar. "It's a can of worms," Sweeney said. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart