As Montanans, although our intentions were good, we were fooled by marijuana advocates who got free rein and basically legalized marijuana in Montana. Fortunately, the Legislature came to our rescue and placed tight restrictions on the use of marijuana. Let's not be fooled again and go back to the dangerous place that marijuana advocates led us to before, where you could get a marijuana card over the Internet, where unscrupulous doctors held caravans across the state encouraging healthy people to get cards as long as they could pay for it, where felony and misdemeanor probationers easily got cards, where dispensaries opened next to schools, where people drove from other states to get their "weed," when there were 31,000 card holders instead of the current 3,000. [continues 185 words]
Edwin Stickney's guest opinion is ill-informed on both the law and the scientific facts regarding so-called "medical" marijuana. Stickney accuses the president of "reneging" on his pledge to support marijuana - - but in reality the so-called "Ogden" memo was never the green light marijuana legalization advocates hoped for from the administration. The memo specifically acknowledges that federal law renders marijuana - - for any use - illegal, regardless of state laws. The memo further goes out of its way to say that marijuana is a Schedule I drug with no accepted medical use by the Food and Drug Administration and that resources would continue to be used in the most efficient way possible (that is, those profiting off of the vulnerable would be targeted over the truly sick). [continues 120 words]