(AP) - A new federal marijuana policy doesn't undermine a recently completed three-year crackdown on large Montana providers by the U.S. attorney's office, and authorities will still be able to prosecute future cases, U.S. Attorney Mike Cotter said Friday. The Justice Department said Thursday it will allow states to regulate marijuana as long as they enforce strict laws to keep it away from children, the black market and federal property. Marijuana remains an illegal drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act, but Washington and Colorado, which have legalized its recreational use, will be allowed to establish their own regulations in producing, possessing and taxing the drug, the federal agency said. [continues 438 words]
I don't know if Jason Washington was targeted for his participation in distributing and manufacturing medical marijuana (Missoulian, Aug. 7), but he was abandoned and scapegoated, if not defrauded, by the state of Montana. Washington says his business decision was based on opportunity and protection provided by state law. Most revealing was his reaction to his conviction: "When I needed help, Montana didn't stand up for me not the city, not the state, and not the citizens who sat on the jury." [continues 177 words]
The medical marijuana businessman who was convicted last spring on federal charges of distributing and manufacturing marijuana says he was unfairly targeted because of his status as a former University of Montana football player and a successful African-American entrepreneur. Jason Washington broke his post-trial media silence Tuesday in a phone interview with the Missoulian from a private prison in Shelby. "It's been a blatant, mean, ugly attack," he said. His medical marijuana business, Big Sky Medical Marijuana Dispensary, was one of the largest operations in the state, which also made it appealing to federal investigators, he said. [continues 629 words]
Cannabis Destiny Localizes the Drug War There may be more than a few documentaries floating around that are critical of the war on drugs in this country, but only a couple that feature scenic shots of Missoula and stories of Montanans. One is Rebecca Richman Cohen's 2012 Code of the West. The other is Kevin Booth's newest film, American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny. (The first, American Drug War: The Last White Hope originally aired on Showtime in 2007 and seems to take a more inclusive view.) American Drug War 2 focuses on marijuana: How it's distributed, the changing face of prohibition and conflicts between state and federal laws in this new era of state-by-state legalization practices. [continues 602 words]
I recently spent an hour visiting several Websites. I was seeking figures relating to death rates in the United States from several causes. I learned the following: Tobacco use in this country kills 443,000 Americans per year. (Close to one every minute.) Alcohol kills 85,000 Americans. (More than 10 per hour.) Guns take 32,000 American lives. (Eighty-eight people every day.) What about deaths from marijuana? The annual total is zero. None. Let's place these numbers into a state-oriented perspective. We can say that guns, tobacco and alcohol destroy the equivalent of Montana's entire population every 21 months or so. Marijuana kills not one single Montanan. Isn't it remarkable that only one of the foregoing elements is illegal in most states, including Montana? John Russell, Missoula [end]
As Americans obsess over NSA spying, abuse by the IRS and other assaults on our freedom, I can't get my mind off the thousand other ways politicians abuse us. In their arrogance, they assume that only they solve social problems. They will solve them by banning this and that, subsidizing groups they deem worthy and setting up massive bureaucracies with a mandate to cure, treat and rescue wayward souls. Their programs fail, and so they pass new laws to address the failures. It's one reason that 22 million people now work for government. [continues 640 words]
The opinions expressed by Pat Prendergast ("Pot more dangerous than you know,"June 16) are his own - literally. According to a nationwide poll telephone poll commissioned this month by Fox News, 85 percent of Americans say that marijuana should be legal if its use is permitted by a physician. The total is the highest level of public support for the issue ever reported in a scientific poll. To date, 18 states and the District of Columbia allow for the legal consumption of cannabis therapeutically. Lawmakers in Illinois just approved similar legislation. New Hampshire lawmakers are poised to do the same in the coming days. In recent weeks, lawmakers in Maine, Nevada, and Oregon have enacted legislation expanding their existing medical marijuana programs. [continues 184 words]
With the recent article published on May 12, 2013, "Mont. goes its own way on pot," it seems like the perfect opportunity to provide some clarifying facts about marijuana. There is no scientific basis for using smoked marijuana as a medicine, no sound scientific studies supporting the medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supporting the safety or effectiveness of marijuana for general medical use. The Food and Drug Administration ruled that smoked marijuana does not meet the modern standards of medicine in the United States. Marijuana is NOT approved nor endorsed by the FDA, the American Medical Association, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Glaucoma Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Cancer Society or the American Pediatric Society. The National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine has concluded that smoked marijuana should "not be recommended for medical use." [continues 551 words]
CORVALLIS -- David Merrick wants to be noticed. As Ravalli County's Libertarian Party chairman, he has a message about property rights that he wants to share. Merrick believes that people in this country have a right to do with what they wish with their own body, as long as no one else is getting hurt. In his mind, it's the essence of a constitutional protection of personal property rights. "If you don't have that property right to your own body, how can you expect to use real estate property rights or any others?" he said. [continues 786 words]
As a former Billings resident, I want to offer another perspective to the May 12 article titled "Federal crackdown busts medical-marijuana industry." The story details the March 2011 raids on businesses in plain sight and says the resulting prosecutions were "widely seen as a success and possibly a model for others." The author failed to account for some things in his "final scorecard" of 33 convictions. Most importantly, a death toll is omitted. Richard Flor was the state's first registered caregiver and the first defendant to be sentenced. An aging Vietnam veteran, Flor's family warned the judge that he would not survive prison. Flor died four months into his five-year sentence. His widow, Sherry, is serving a two-year prison sentence for working as a bookkeeper. [continues 134 words]
HELENA Medical marijuana advocates are making a final try this legislative session to amend the 2011 law that imposed tighter restrictions on what was then a booming industry here. Sen. Dave Wanzenried, D-Missoula, recently introduced Senate Bill 377 for a group called Montana Association for Rights. No hearing date has been set yet. The bill has been assigned to the Senate Business and Labor Committee, but he hopes to get it moved to the Judiciary Committee. SB377 may face long odds for passage because it expands the 2011 medical marijuana law in some ways. [continues 808 words]
HELENA - So far, the 2013 Montana Legislature appears to be no more receptive to medical marijuana than the 2011 session was. The House Human Services Committee on Friday tabled and almost certainly killed four medical marijuana bills by Rep. Kelly McCarthy, D-Billings. The bills all died on 12-4 votes, with 10 Republicans and two Democrats opposing the bills, while four Democrats backed them. McCarthy's bills were intended to fix the 2011 medical marijuana law, Senate Bill 423, which has been challenged in court. He tried to remove those provisions in the law that District Judge James Reynolds of Helena has twice blocked with preliminary injunctions, most recently in January. [continues 520 words]
HELENA --- So far, the 2013 Legislature appears to be no more receptive to medical marijuana than the 2011 session was. The House Human Services Committee on Friday tabled --- and almost certainly killed -- four medical-marijuana bills by Rep. Kelly McCarthy, D-Billings. The bills all died on 12-4 votes, with 10 Republicans and two Democrats opposing the bills, while four Democrats backed them. McCarthy's bills were intended to fix the 2011 medical-marijuana law, Senate Bill 423, which has been challenged in court. He tried to remove those provisions in the law that District Judge James Reynolds of Helena has twice blocked with preliminary injunctions, most recently in January. [continues 520 words]
In short order, a House committee on Friday rejected and then tabled four bills intended to fix parts of the 2011 medical marijuana law that a district judge has temporarily blocked. The House Human Services Committee voted down House bills 340-343, by Rep. Kelly McCarthy, D-Billings, on identical 12-4 votes. All 10 Republicans and two Democrats opposed the bills, while four Democrats supported them. During the discussion, a sharp division emerged among committee members over medical marijuana and the 2011 law, Senate Bill 423. It greatly restricted its use and squeezed the profits out of what had been a booming industry here. [continues 489 words]
Chris Williams' defense was Montana's Medical Marijuana Act. Whose fault was it that he does not know what his basic fundamental rights are as he heads off to prison for political reasons? Marijuana remains illegal because the judiciary has determined the constitutionality of marijuana laws by rational basis. Rational basis is used when no fundamental rights have been declared injured by the defendant from enforcement of the law. Since 1965, 22 million-plus people in the United States have been arrested or summoned to court for violating marijuana laws. That's 22 million people who had standing to question whether marijuana laws are reasonable. [continues 242 words]
The U.S. Constitution helped establish our democratic republic. Working well, it treats residents with fairness, respect and "justice for all." Marijuana has been trying hard to ruin the way we promised to be. For 80 years, our government has punished adults for possession or use of marijuana with jail time and fines to pay. This encourages loss of family and jobs and results in a criminal record, all for doing nothing against anyone. Marijuana has been used for 6,000 years to relieve muscle aches and pain. Is that bad? Adult use does not mean abuse. An adult's desire to use marijuana should not require anyone's permission. It does not cause the trouble alarmists claim it does. An adult can buy alcohol, our worst trouble-maker and killer, at the grocery store. They can buy junk food and tobacco at the grocery, as well, and these are known to cause considerable health problems, even early death. [continues 107 words]
Inside the Russell Smith Federal Courthouse in Missoula on Feb. 1, dozens of Chris Williams' supporters stood when the former Montana Cannabis partner was escorted into the courtroom in handcuffs to be sentenced on federal drug and weapons charges. Some of Williams' friends wept. Others clenched their hands. The lingering smell of marijuana hung in the air. Across the aisle, federal Drug Enforcement Agency agents stared straight ahead. The scene inside the courthouse was as unusual as the post-conviction agreement that prosecutors and defense attorneys crafted in Williams' case. Montana Cannabis was once among the largest dispensaries in the state. After federal law enforcement raided the operation in 2011, the Department of Justice indicted Williams and his former partners on felony drug and weapons charges. Three of the partners pleaded guilty and asked the court for leniency. Williams, however, refused to admit guilt. Williams maintained that he operated legally under Montana's medical marijuana law. The innocent plea, Williams said, constituted a protest of federal marijuana policy. [continues 222 words]
Medical Marijuana Grower Chris Williams Was Sentenced Friday to a Mandatory Five Years on a Federal Gun Charge, and Time Served on a Marijuana Charge. MISSOULA - Calling certain mandatory minimum sentences "unfair and absurd," a federal judge Friday sentenced medical marijuana grower Chris Williams to five years in prison the least amount mandated for his federal gun conviction. Williams initially was convicted of four charges of possession of a firearm during a drug-trafficking offense, which could have netted mandatory minimums totaling 80 years. He also could have gotten another five years for the four drug counts on which he was also convicted in September. [continues 739 words]
Missoula, Mont. - A medical marijuana provider who reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors only after a jury found him guilty at trial has been sentenced to five years in prison. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen accepted the recommendation of Chris Williams' attorney on Friday and sentenced the former Helena marijuana provider to time served on a drug charge and five years for a weapons charge. Williams was convicted of eight charges after a September trial in which he was not allowed to use Montana's medical marijuana law as a defense. He faced a mandatory sentence of more than 80 years in prison. Prosecutors agreed in December to dismiss six charges as long as Williams didn't appeal convictions for possessing a firearm in connection with drug trafficking and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. [end]
Inside Montana
