Pubdate: Sat, 19 Mar 2011
Source: Montana Standard (Butte, MT)
Copyright: 2011 Montana Standard
Contact:  http://www.mtstandard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/609
Author: Tim Trainor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

SESSO: CRACKDOWN ON POT IS COMING

State Rep. Jon Sesso, D-Butte, told the Montana Bar Association 
Friday to expect the Legislature to clamp down on medical marijuana.

Sesso, the House minority leader, who spoke to the lawyers' group in 
Butte, said he anticipates significant reform, but not outright 
repeal of the 2004 Medical Marijuana Act.

"The abusers will be on notice, probably in the next 30 days," said 
Sesso. "If you aren't legitimately sick, you are not going to be able 
to use (medical marijuana)."

He said legislators on both sides of the aisle recognize that abuse 
of the law is overriding its merits and that reform is necessary.

Currently, numerous bills are working their way through the Senate 
and more moving through the House. Sesso said he expects a bill 
combining some of their elements will be enacted this session. 
Particulars about how the final products will look, however, remain unknown.

"Today's report will be essentially obsolete tomorrow," said Sesso. 
"24 hours means a lot in the legislative session and things are 
moving as we speak."

Changes have already been enacted, such as House Bill 19, which put 
medial marijuana under the Clean Air Act and forbid smoking in 
enclosed public places.

But the Legislature is toying with a number of other ways to tinker 
with the law. Some of the bills being debated include provisions for 
making it illegal for felons to become caregivers, forbidding those 
on probation from using medical marijuana, clarifying the conditions 
that qualify for the drug, prohibiting physicians from having 
financial ties to the marijuana industry and requiring product labeling.

Sesso said the problems with medical marijuana law snuck up on the 
Legislature because at first the program was working as designed.

In 2009, five years after the referendum passed, 1,500 Montanans used 
medical marijuana. Those patients suffered from cancer, glaucoma, 
AIDS and other serious ailments. But in 2010, fueled by an 
"explosion" of touring clinics and doctors that gave out thousands of 
scripts, more than 4,000 patients were joining the rolls each month.

That is when Sesso said he realized there was a problem with the system.

He said he still wants legitimate users to have access to marijuana 
if they wish. But he warned the thousands of patients that signed on 
in the wave of 2010, many of whom cited vague health problems, should 
prepare to do without legal access to marijuana.

The thousands of new caregivers, too, may find that the drug is not 
going to be the moneymaking industry they may have imagined. 
Caregivers may be limited to the number of customers they can have 
and the federal government, which recently conducted raids on two of 
the largest producers in the state, may have a say in that matter, too.

"The word is out that the federal government is not going to make 
medical marijuana a low priority, but will enforce the law as it is 
intended - as a Tier 1 drug subject to prosecution," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom