Pubdate: Mon, 28 Jun 2010
Source: Montana Standard (Butte, MT)
Copyright: 2010 Montana Standard
Contact:  http://www.mtstandard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/609
Author: Matt Volz

LAWMAKERS TO DRAFT MEDICAL MARIJUANA FIXES BY AUG

After months of hearing from hundreds of patients, caregivers, police
and worried parents, an interim legislative committee plans to draft
possible changes to the state's medical marijuana law by August.

Lawmakers received dozens of recommendations Monday on how to improve
the law passed by initiative in 2004.

The recommendations from a working group ranged from creating a
regulatory board that licenses medical marijuana providers _ called
caregivers _ to reviewing the one-year period that a patient's medical
marijuana card is valid.

Four members of the interim legislative committee will take those
recommendations and craft a bill or set of bills to be considered by
the full Legislature when it convenes in January.

Their goal is to shore up the law that has allowed the number of
patients in the state to grow to 17,000 and the number of caregivers
to reach 3,500.

Several people on the panel said the boom goes against the original
intention of the law to provide compassionate care to people with the
most debilitating illnesses or conditions.

Chairwoman Diane Sands, D-Missoula, said there were two ways the
committee could go: Narrow the law to cut the number of patients and
caregivers or refine it to allow medical marijuana to become a
regulated industry.

"What did the voters think they were voting for and can we get back to
those basic issues of providing limited, controlled access for people
who the public thought really needed this as compassionate care?" Sands 
said.

One proposed change is establishing a regulatory board that oversees
medical marijuana distribution, said Lewis Smith, the attorney for
Powell County.

"If you're gong to be in the business then you should be licensed, and
you should wait until you are licensed before you start participating.
Otherwise, in my viewpoint, you're simply a drug dealer and we should
be treating you as such," he said.

The recommendations do not call for repealing the law. Sands said the
committee would not consider that possibility because separate
legislation has been proposed seeking repeal.

Some people in the audience said repeal was the only proper
course.

"The initiative was never about 17,000 people in Montana wanting to
self-medicate with marijuana. It was never about regulating marijuana
as an industry," said Pam Christianson, a self-described mom from
Missoula. "But here we are, trying to close the floodgates on a dam
that was never built."

At the center of the debate is Jason Christ and the organization he
created last year called the Montana Caregivers Network. The
organization sponsors traveling clinics that bring doctors to people
who might not otherwise have access to a physician willing to
prescribe medical marijuana.

Christ's clinics have been criticized as assembly lines that allow
hundreds of people to sign up as patients at the expense of proper
medical screenings.

Christ told lawmakers Monday that his organization has seen 16,000
patients _ 3,500 in February alone _ and made more than $1 million
during the past year. The response has been surprising, but the goal
has been to end suffering, not make money, he said.

Tom Daubert, a caregiver who helped author the medical marijuana
initiative, blamed the pot boom on Christ's organization.

"Any objective observer of what's happened would conclude that, for
all the flaws in the law, the biggest single problem has been Mr.
Christ's exploitation of its loopholes," he said.

Sands reprimanded Daubert for the comment. Christ did not directly
address the criticism but said he supports more regulation, adding his
clinics have a screening process and follow the law.

Christ said his group works to teach people that marijuana is
medicine, not a recreational drug.

"I run a $1 million a year company, people, and I'm high on pot,"
Christ told the lawmakers. "That goes against the general perception
that smoking pot makes you dumb."
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MAP posted-by: Matt