On Nov. 2, Montana voters overwhelmingly said yes to medical marijuana. Medical marijuana passed at 63 percent, the largest margin of victory yet for a statewide medical marijuana campaign, making Montana the 10th state to pass laws protecting medical marijuana users under state law. To me this says three things: Montanans care and are compassionate about the suffering of our citizens; it is time for the federal government to stop arresting medical marijuana users and their caregivers; and finally the tide is turning in our nation's war on drugs.

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I'm sure that many marijuana growers and sellers are thankful to the Flathead County Sheriff's deputies and the Northwest Drug Task Force for the recent pot bust and others like it.

Without pot busts like this, marijuana would be worth what other easy-to-grow weeds are worth-very little.

Thanks to the Drug Enforcement Administration and other so-called "drug warriors" the easy to grow weed is more valuable than pure gold-and completely tax free. Any marijuana growers or sellers arrested will soon be replaced-they always are.

Best regards,

Kirk Muse

[end]

As the United States Supreme Court listened to arguments Monday over medical marijuana for patients with a doctor's recommendation, we got to wondering: Why, in the face of adamant opposition from those involved in the "war on drugs," have voters invariably approved such laws?

It can't be a matter of politics, for medical marijuana initiatives have been approved everywhere they have been presented to voters, whether in red states or in blue. Eleven states now have such laws - Montana being the most recent - and it's starting to look as though similar measures would pass just about anywhere.

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Robin Prosser fully expects the U.S. Supreme Court will allow the federal government to arrest and prosecute sick people who use marijuana for medical purposes, even in states that have legalized it.

But Monday - when the court heard arguments in the case of a California woman arrested for doing so - was still a "red-letter day" for Prosser's cause.

"The more information that gets out there, the more everyone will see how they're wasting people's time," said Prosser, a Missoula woman who uses marijuana to help her with the pain, nausea and lack of appetite associated with her lupus-like immunosuppressive disorder.

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Sick Montanans will be able to light up a marijuana cigarette, inhale marijuana fumes or grow their own plants under an initiative passed by voters Nov. 2.

A new Montana law took effect when the initiative passed, although the law's full protections will not be in place for weeks as the state works to put the program into effect.

"I'm trying to do it as quickly as I possibly can," said Roy Kemp, chief of the state Health Facilities Licensing Bureau in the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

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It is a sad beginning for Montana.

Now that "medicinal" marijuana is about to be legal, legitimate terminal patients and those with mysterious aches and pains will seek out doctors that are willing to write prescriptions for them.

As a professional who for more than 12 years fought drug dealers and locked up users in the hopes that they would quit cold turkey, I am very disheartened to see this state legalize them.

I can sympathize with terminally ill people who want marijuana to ease their pain even though marinol is already on the market. I have seen legal drugs prescribed and then abused. I have seen people with "medicinal" marijuana claiming they have injuries but are returning from hiking trips as if there was nothing wrong with them.

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I'm writing about the letters condemning medical marijuana, "Doonesbury" and "Mallard Fillmore."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry after reading the recent letter from the Ministry of Misinformation condemning the passage of the medical marijuana initiative, and the one from the Chief of the Fun Police blasting "Doonesbury" and "Mallard Fillmore."

Like Ed Kemmick, I note the irony of a state like Montana that overwhelmingly approves George Bush for president and, at the same time, votes in medicinal pot (by about the same percentage), despite the Bush administration's efforts to dissuade Montanans from doing so.

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I want to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful people of Montana. The passage of I-148 was a bittersweet victory for myself and my family. As we near the first anniversary of Trav's death, there is no greater tribute to him than this. I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to live in this wonderful state, where the citizens follow their hearts. It gives me great peace to know that future patients and their families will not have to live the nightmare of being a criminal for using medicine. Once again, thank you, Montana.

Teresa Michalski

Helena

[end]

Montanans made a grave, uninformed error when they voted to pass I-148, which allows for the "medicinal use" of marijuana by anyone who claims to have a need for it. Ironically, the same voters also passed a measure to increase taxes on tobacco products, because we all know the health risks associated with tobacco use.

Legalization proponents (most from outside Montana) preyed upon the compassionate nature of Montana's citizens, and deceived the voters to believe that the goal of the initiative was to keep law enforcement from imprisoning people who use marijuana as "medicine." No legitimate physician in the United States would ever recommend that a patient should smoke (or chew) tobacco, much less recommend anyone to smoke marijuana.

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Montana voters on Tuesday approved the use of medical marijuana, but Alaska and Oregon appeared to be rejecting initiatives that would ease restrictions on the drug. In Arizona, voters passed a measure cracking down on illegal immigrants, and Colorado residents rejected an initiative that would have changed the state's method of electing a president.

Overall, voters decided 163 ballot measures in 34 states.

Montana becomes the 10th state to allow the use of marijuana for patients whose doctors have prescribed it to treat various ailments, such as chronic pain or nausea.

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SUMMARY: Trust Montanans to be incorrigible mavericks who say what they think - including in the voting booth.

Nationally, as is the American habit, we've already analyzed the election to pieces. Pundits have explained the big reasons Americans did what they did: We're scared - of terrorists, of losing our jobs, of not being able to pay for our health care, of losing our children to the violence and abandon of popular culture, of finding no Social Security check at the end of the rainbow, of dying of influenza. George Bush apparently had appeal as the candidate who'd keep us safest.

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I'd probably have as much luck reading tea leaves as I would making sense of Tuesday's election in Montana, but it seems clear that the perfect candidate in these parts would be a Democratic Republican who buys his prescription drugs in Canada, grows his own pot and hunts elk in the rotunda of the Capitol.

Nobody knew quite what to think when Democratic Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer showily reached over to the Republican Party to pick his running mate, John Bohlinger, but it might have been the canniest political decision of the year.

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Half a million dollars can do many things. A growing coalition in Stillwater County hopes it can buy better lives for area youth.

Last month, Stillwater County was selected to receive $500,000 in Drug-Free Communities Support Program grant money - $100,000 for each of the next five years for prevention programs.

Three staff members have been hired, and their strategy will be guided by goals that unite communities, schools, families and individual youths.

"Our No. 1 goal is to lower the rate of drug, alcohol and tobacco use with our kids," said Robin Morris, who wrote the county's grant. Morris was instrumental in securing two Drug-Free Communities grants for Havre when she lived in that community.

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HELENA - Montanans suffering from certain medical conditions may be able to legally smoke marijuana to ease their symptoms come January 1.

The Medical Marijuana Act passed by a 63 to 37 percent margin Tuesday with 375 of 881 precincts reporting. The new act will protect patients, their doctors and their caregivers from state and local arrest and prosecution for the medical use of marijuana.

Teresa Michalski of Helena couldn't be happier. Michalski once lived in fear that her late son, Travis, would spend the last few months of his short life in jail for using marijuana during the last stages of Hodgkin's disease.

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HELENA -- Use of marijuana for medical reasons will be legal in Montana and tobacco users will see a tax increase, voters decided Tuesday in passing a pair of ballot measures.

Initiative 148 allows the cultivation, possession and use of marijuana, in limited amounts, for medical purposes. The initiative shields patients, their doctors and caregivers from arrest and prosecution.

Initiative 149 will increase tobacco taxes by $45 million a year, allocating most of the money for new or existing health-care programs.

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As a Colorado citizen who voted for Amendment 20 allowing people to use cannabis medicinally in my state, I urge Montana residents to vote for I-148 (Medical Marijuana Act. Now, Coloradoans use the plant cannabis, following state law simultaneously, and it works. Since Colorado enacted its initiative, rates of juvenile cannabis use have not increased, and the sky hasn't fallen. The government would like citizens to think cannabis is a chemical weapon of mass destruction. In reality, it is one of those seed-bearing plants that God created and said is good on literally the very first page of the Bible.

For perspective, imagine a family member with cancer being allowed to self-induce morphine every six minutes for pain, but be prohibited from using cannabis. That's the way I looked at it when my son was dying with leukemia.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

There's Good News And There'S Bad News

Montana's election returns are still rolling in as this column goes to print, but one thing seems undeniably certain: Montanans, having suffered through more than a decade of one-party control of state government, have cast their ballots to bring the state back into balance--which should move public policy-making away from the deaf, dumb and blind partisanship of recent years and back toward real debate, with logic and facts instead of sheer political muscle.

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HELENA -- Montanans suffering from certain medical conditions will be able to legally smoke marijuana to ease their symptoms come January 1.

The Medical Marijuana Act in Initiative 148 passed by a 64 to 36 percent margin Tuesday with 103 of 887 precincts reporting. The new act will protect patients, their doctors and their caregivers from state and local arrest and prosecution for the medical use of marijuana.

Teresa Michalski of Helena couldn't be happier. Michalski once lived in fear that her late son, Travis, would spend the last few months of his short life in jail for using medical marijuana during the end stages of Hodgkin's disease.

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Opinions from patrons watching Tuesday evening's election proceedings at the Rhino in downtown Missoula echoed what polls had predicted for some time: A large majority supported the legalization of medical marijuana.

Paige Pavalone, a political science graduate student, empathized with the pro-legalization ads put forth by the Missoula-based Medical Marijuana Policy Project of Montana.

"Morphine sometimes just doesn't do what marijuana can," she said. "It's not like we're going to sell the stuff on the streets."

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HELENA -- Use of marijuana for medical reasons will be legal in Montana and tobacco users will see a tax increase, voters decided Tuesday in passing a pair of ballot measures Tuesday.

Initiative 148 allows the cultivation, possession and use of marijuana, in limited amounts, for medical purposes. The initiative shields patients, their doctors and caregivers from arrest and prosecution.

Initiative 149 will increase tobacco taxes by $45 million a year, allocating most of the money for new or existing health care programs.

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