HELENA - Limit the number of medical marijuana patients that a caregiver can sell pot to? Ban caregivers from selling pot to one another? Make it illegal for anyone other than a licensed caregiver to dispense medical marijuana? A panel of lawmakers in Helena brainstormed these and other ideas Monday as it continued to grapple with a sudden expansion in Montana's young medical marijuana industry. Not all of those ideas were good, said some who grow and use medical marijuana. "You guys are going to take away my profit. I'm trying to make a living," said Mare Boustead, a caregiver and patient from Bozeman. [continues 463 words]
HELENA - This is what Sen. Trudi Schmidt, D-Great Falls, doesn't like about medical marijuana: Would-be "caregivers" laughed at a gravely ill woman Schmidt knows because the woman had never been stoned before. When the woman finally found what she thought was a reputable caregiver, she was distressed to discover the person seemed "half-baked all the time," Schmidt said. "There is such abuse going on, and it's our responsibility to bring this back under control," she said. [continues 456 words]
Limit the number of medical marijuana patients a caregiver can sell pot to? Ban caregivers from selling any marijuana to one another? Make it illegal for anyone other than a licensed caregiver to handle medical marijuana? A panel of lawmakers brainstormed these and other ideas Monday in Helena as it continued to grapple with a sudden expansion in Montana's young medical marijuana industry. Not all of those ideas were good, said some who grow and use medical marijuana. "You guys are going to take away my profit. I'm trying to make a living," said Mare Boustead, a caregiver and patient from Bozeman. [continues 465 words]
Montana's traveling cannabis caravans, responsible for signing up thousands of people for medical marijuana cards in the last year, will be a thing of the past if a group of lawmakers here gets its way. A bipartisan panel spent most of Tuesday morning brainstorming changes to Montana's existing medical marijuana laws, taking particular aim at traveling clinics, which according to some, have exploited problems in Montana's law and made medical marijuana much more common. Among its ideas: physicians who recommend marijuana for their patients must have an established practice in Montana, and they must have a face-to-face evaluation of a patient before issuing the person a medical marijuana recommendation. [continues 546 words]
HELENA - A panel of lawmakers is starting to "get into the weeds," as one state senator put it, and are hoping to write first drafts of possible new laws by the end of the summer addressing Montana's wide- open medical marijuana scene. "We have to have a firm dividing line between what's legal and what's illegal," Powell County Attorney Lewis Smith told the interim Children, Families, Health and Human Services Committee at a meeting Monday. The bipartisan group has been studying the state's medical marijuana regulatory scheme. Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, the chairwoman of the committee, said she expected the group to have bills for discussion by their next meeting in August. [continues 536 words]
A panel of lawmakers is starting to "get into the weeds," as one state senator put it, and are hoping to write first-drafts of possible new laws by the end of the summer to address Montana's wide-open medical-marijuana scene. "We have to have a firm dividing line between what's legal and what's illegal," Powell County Attorney Lewis Smith told the interim Children, Families, Health and Human Services Committee at a meeting Monday. The bipartisan group has been studying the state's medical-marijuana regulatory scheme. Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, the chairwoman of the committee, said she expected the group to have bills for discussion by its next meeting, which will be in August. [continues 543 words]
HELENA - A panel of lawmakers is starting to "get into the weeds," as one state senator put it, and is hoping to write first drafts of possible laws by the end of the summer addressing Montana's medical marijuana controversy. "We have to have a firm dividing line between what's legal and what's illegal," Powell County Attorney Lewis Smith told the interim Children, Families, Health and Human Services Committee at a meeting Monday. The bipartisan group has been studying the state's medical marijuana regulatory scheme. Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, the chairwoman of the committee, said she expected the group to have bills for discussion by its next meeting in August. [continues 535 words]
HELENA -- Montana's professional pharmacists say they don't want to get into the medical marijuana business, scuttling the suggestion that lawmakers could firm up Montana's controversial pot scene by making pharmacists dispense the drug. The Montana Pharmacy Association adopted a resolution at its June 5 meeting stating that professional pharmacists will not support dispensing cannabis until medical research proves the drug is effective and adequate dosing guidelines are established. The resolution further stated there is currently no accepted medical use for marijuana, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and that marijuana is still considered an illegal drug by the federal government. [continues 612 words]
Montana's professional pharmacists say they don't want to get into the medical marijuana business, scuttling an attempt by at least one lawmaker to firm up Montana's controversial pot scene by making pharmacists dispense the drug, not "caregivers." The Montana Pharmacy Association adopted a resolution at its June 5 meeting stating that professional pharmacists will not support dispensing cannabis as treatment until medical research proves the drug is effective and establishes adequate dosing guidelines. The resolution stated that there is currently no accepted medical use for marijuana according to the Federal Drug Administration and marijuana is still considered an illegal drug at the federal level. [continues 237 words]
HELENA - Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commissioner Robert Pierce was among the 62 percent of Montanans who voted to legalize marijuana for medical purposes six years ago. "It was compassion," Pierce said. But then something showed up in his town that prompted Pierce to take another vote on the issue, this time directing his city and county to withdraw from most parts of the law: a giant marijuana leaf painted on the front of a would-be medical marijuana establishment set up right across the street from the Anaconda Dairy Queen. [continues 694 words]
Rush To Regulate HELENA - Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commissioner Robert Pierce was among the 62 percent of Montanans who voted to legalize marijuana for medical purposes six years ago. "It was compassion," Pierce said. But then something showed up in his town that prompted Pierce to take another vote on the issue, this time directing his city and county to withdraw from most parts of the law: A giant marijuana leaf painted on the storefront front of a would-be medical marijuana establishment set up right across the street from the Anaconda Dairy Queen. [continues 709 words]
Anaconda - Deer Lodge County Commissioner Robert Pierce was among the 62 percent of Montanans who voted to legalize marijuana for medical purposes six years ago. "It was compassion," Pierce said. But then something showed up in his town that prompted Pierce to take another vote on the issue, this time directing his city and county to withdraw from most parts of the law: a giant marijuana leaf painted on the storefront of a would-be medical marijuana establishment set up right across the street from the Anaconda Dairy Queen. [continues 717 words]
Medical Marijuana's Popularity Catches Many Off-guard HELENA -- Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commissioner Robert Pierce was among the 62 percent of Montanans who voted to legalize marijuana for medical purposes six years ago. "It was compassion," Pierce said. But then something showed up in his town that prompted Pierce to take another vote on the issue, this time directing his city and county to withdraw from most parts of the law: A giant marijuana leaf painted on the storefront of a would-be medical marijuana establishment set up across the street from the Anaconda Dairy Queen. [continues 703 words]
A prominent Ravalli County Republican lawmaker wants to overturn Montana's 2004 voter-passed law that legalized medical marijuana, saying the current scheme controlling prescription pot is fatally flawed. Sen. Jim Shockley, R-Victor, on Monday requested a bill to be drafted for the 2011 Legislature to repeal the marijuana law. Shockley said he believes marijuana has medical benefits and should remain legal, only in a much more controlled way. "It was a good idea, poorly executed," Shockley said Tuesday. "I wouldn't want everybody growing (prescription painkiller) Percocet, either." [continues 444 words]
HELENA - A bill to let physician's assistants and nurse practitioners certify patients to use medicinal marijuana stalled in committee on a party-line tie vote Monday. The House Human Services Committee voted 8-8 on whether to approve House Bill 73 by Rep. Julie French, D-Scobey. The vote means the bill cannot advance; unless the vote changes, HB73 is likely dead. All eight Democrats on the panel supported the bill. All eight Republicans opposed it. Montana voters in 2004 passed a law allowing people with a "debilitating medical condition" to use marijuana, if a physician certifies that the benefits of the use outweighs any negative health risks. [continues 242 words]
A bill to let physician's assistants and nurse practitioners prescribe medicinal marijuana stalled in committee on a party-line tie vote Monday. The House Human Services Committee voted 8-8 on House Bill 73, by Rep. Julie French, D-Scobey. The vote means the bill cannot advance; unless the vote changes, HB73 is likely dead. All eight Democrats supported the bill. All eight Republicans opposed it. Montana voters in 2004 passed a law allowing people with certain medical conditions to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, provided they have a prescription from their doctor. [continues 216 words]
BOULDER - Christine Sutherland has been locked up for most of her 13-year-old son's life. A methamphetamine addict since junior high, Sutherland, 29, asked to be sent to a meth treatment prison before one was even built. Now, she is 80 days away from graduating from the Elkhorn Treatment Center, a women's lockdown meth prison here, and aspires to the "normal life" she has never experienced: a job, taking care of her boy, making dinner after work. Sutherland hopes to be one of the "ones who make it" whom Gov. Brian Schweitzer talked about when he toured the center Wednesday. [continues 592 words]
However, Rate Remains More Than Twice That Of All High Schoolers Gazette State Bureau HELENA - Montana's American Indian high school students report using the drug methamphetamine at more than twice the rate reported by all Montana students. However, meth use among Indians has fallen dramatically since 1999, when more than one-fourth of Indian high school students on Montana's reservations reported using meth at least once. Almost 11 percent of Indian high school students on Montana's seven reservations reported using meth at least once in their lives in the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a routine questionnaire distributed to high school students around the state every two years. For American Indian students in Montana's urban areas, the rate was 10.5 percent. [continues 451 words]
HELENA - Montana's American Indian high school students report using the drug methamphetamine at more than twice the rate reported by all Montana students. However, meth use has fallen dramatically since 1999, when more than one-fourth of Indian high school students on Montana's reservations reported using meth at least once. Almost 11 percent of Indian high school students on the state's seven reservations reported using meth at least once in their lives in the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a routine questionnaire distributed to high school students around the state every two years. For Indian students in urban areas, the rate was 10.5 percent. [continues 471 words]
HELENA - Methamphetamine use in Montana appears to be declining, a new report shows, although the social costs of the addictive drug remain very high, costing the state about $10 million a year. "We have a long way to go," said Attorney General Mike McGrath, who unveiled the report Wednesday. "This doesn't mean we've necessarily turned the corner, but we're certainly going around the bend." Methamphetamine is a highly addictive drug "cooked" from some cold medicines and a laundry list of other ingredients. Compared to other drugs, meth is relatively new, but quickly gained foothold in Montana in the past 15 years. The destructive drug now plays a major role in Montana crime and has pumped up costs of the state's social welfare and correctional systems. [continues 485 words]
