Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2011
Source: Missoulian (MT)
Copyright: 2011 Missoulian
Contact:  http://www.missoulian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/720
Author: Gwen Florio
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

MONTANA MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROVIDERS AGAIN HOLDING TRAVELING, ONLINE CLINICS

Montana's tough new medical marijuana law was supposed to end the 
phenomenon of assembly-line doctor appointments or online 
recommendations for therapeutic cannabis.

It didn't.

While some medical marijuana businesses have shut down during the 
legal wrangling over the new law, others are staging one-day clinics 
where people can get a doctor's recommendation for marijuana.

And Jason Christ, the Missoula medical marijuana entrepreneur who 
staged the roaming "cannabis caravans" that signed up hundreds of 
patients at a time, announced last week he's reviving his online "Teleclinics."

"We are seeing patients for their mmj cards by the hundreds," brags 
the website for CarePlus+, the new name for Christ's business that 
gained notoriety as the Montana Caregivers Network and, later, CannabisCare.

Christ's email announcing the service touted "visits on your computer 
with a Montana-licensed physician," as well as in-person visits "with 
our travelling doctors."

That's exactly what the new state law - approved by the 2011 
Legislature without Gov. Brian Schweitzer's signature, only to see 
portions struck down by District Court Judge James Reynolds of Helena 
a day before it went into effect - aimed to stop.

"I don't think there's an argument that the former 
teleclinic/traveling model is permitted," said Sen. Jeff Essman, 
R-Billings, who sponsored the law restricting the 2004 voter 
initiative that legalized the medical use of marijuana. "The 
intention to prohibit the traveling clinics was quite clear."

The new law went into effect July 1. The CarePlus+ website lists 
clinics in Missoula on July 21 and July 23, one in an unspecified 
area in the Flathead on July 30 and one in Helena July 31, as well as 
a Missoula teleclinic July 17.

Another business, The Healing Center, offers clinics in Bozeman on 
July 25-26 and in Butte on July 27.

"Walk-ins welcome," says the website, which lists a series of one-day 
clinics in Montana, Arizona and Alaska. "All patients will qualify 
(as per state law)."

Mike Smith, executive director of The Healing Center, said about 40 
to 50 people are seen at each of the clinics in a business model he 
plans to take nationwide. He bristled at any comparison to Christ's caravans.

"We do not do it like Jason Christ," he said. "We see every patient, 
one at a time, in a doctor's office."

The new law mandated an automatic review - at the physician's cost - 
by the state Board of Medical Examiners of any doctor recommending 
medical marijuana for more than 25 patients within a year. State 
health statistics show a single, unnamed physician signed 
recommendations for more than one in five of Montana's 30,000 
registered medical marijuana users. But that requirement was among 
the provisions blocked by Reynolds.

Still, the Legislature wanted all doctor's recommendations for 
medical marijuana to come from "a bona fide legitimate patient 
relationship," said Assistant Attorney General Jim Molloy. "The 
intent therefore was to make it unlawful to recommend medical 
marijuana by the use of traveling or temporary medical clinics."

*

Tom Charlton said he's "trying to toe the line" when it comes to the new law.

"We're continuing business as before, even though it's not like 
before," said Charlton, who was a caregiver for medical marijuana 
patients as part of his M4U business in the North Reserve Business 
Park in Missoula.

Along with another nearby medical marijuana business, M4U staged a 
three-day clinic over the weekend so that Charlton's old patients 
could designate him as their medical marijuana provider. Another 
two-day clinic is set for next month. All of M4U's clinics take place 
in Missoula, he said.

Under the old law, Charlton was a caregiver, permitted to grow six 
marijuana plants for each of an unlimited number of patients. The new 
law requires him to re-register as a provider. It limited providers 
to three patients, but that portion was temporarily blocked by Reynolds.

The law also mandates that patients using medical marijuana for 
chronic pain - who comprise two-thirds of those with medical 
marijuana cards - bring X-rays or MRI scans from their primary 
physician to support their claims, and to obtain a recommendation 
from a second doctor.

Charlton said the rule at M4U's clinic is simple: No records, no 
recommendation.

The Healing Center's website notes that "since our doctors are 
consulting about a patient's eligibility to acquire their medical 
cannabis ID card we require that all of our patients have at least 
one other current physician."

And Christ's email said CarePlus+ could refer patients to "outside 
services" for lab work, X-rays and MRIs.

Christ told the Missoulian last October that nearly all Montana 
Caregiver Network recommendations were made via online Skype video 
appointments. At the time, he boasted that MCN had signed up 80 
percent of the state's then-23,000 medical marijuana cardholders.

The state Board of Medical Examiners ruled in November that online 
visits could only be used for medical marijuana card renewals. 
Christ's note about the CarePlus+ services said the Teleclinic visits 
included "follow-up recommendations," but didn't specify that online 
visits were limited to renewals.

*

Debate over the new state law, along with a series of federal raids 
on several medical marijuana businesses around the state this spring, 
cast a pall over Montana's booming medical marijuana industry. Many 
in the business openly criticized Christ for provoking the law that 
they say is destroying their livelihoods.

Christ had assumed a considerably lower profile in the last year 
after a series of lawsuits and counter-suits involving former 
employees and business partners, as well as a pending felony 
intimidation charge that stems from an alleged bomb threat against a 
Missoula Verizon store.

So his email last week appeared to signal what some see as an 
unwelcome return to prominence.

"The damn Teleclinics," Smith called them. "He's already pissing people off."

Dr. John Stowers, a plaintiff in the suit filed against the new law, 
dashed off a furious email in response after Christ announced CarePlus+.

"So here we go again! You stupid arrogant (expletive)," Stowers 
wrote. "Haven't you figured out that you created the majority of the 
problems in the first place. ... I have no doubt the Medical Board 
will not be so complacent with you and your whore doctors this time around."

Essman chose his words more diplomatically.

"Mr. Christ's problem ultimately is going to be with federal law 
enforcement," he said. "... Mr. Christ is definitely facilitating the 
distribution of a controlled substance, as are the physicians he's 
affiliated with. At some point, some aggressive young prosecutor is 
going to issue a subpoena to obtain that doctor's name and have a 
visit with Mr. Christ."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom