State medical marijuana law needs fixing
Montana’s 6-year-old medical marijuana law is working out worse than most Montanans expected, according to a Gazette State Bureau poll conducted earlier this month. With 53 percent saying the results of the law are worse than expected, in another question 52 percent said they would support repealing it and on a third question 83 percent would support stricter regulation.
But given a choice in one question, this is how public opinion divided:
11 percent would “keep Montana’s medical marijuana law intact.”
57 percent would “enact stricter regulations and licensing requirement.”
31 percent would “repeal Montana’s medical marijuana law.”
1 percent weren’t sure.
Those poll findings suggest that lawmakers are following the wishes of a majority of their constituents when they work to control medical marijuana without killing the law that voters approved in 2004.
Among more than a dozen bills introduced dealing with medical marijuana issues are measures that would regulate and others that would repeal. Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, who chaired the interim legislative committee that studied medical marijuana issues at length, is sponsoring HB68 to revise the law and create regulatory structure for the industry. Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, is sponsoring HB175 to submit a repeal to Montana voters. Rep. Tom Berry, R-Roundup, and Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, have introduced HB429 and SB154, respectively, both of which would revise the law in various ways. Among many other things, Berry’s bill would require both a physician’s recommendation and a court order to allow legal use of marijuana. Lewis seeks to regulate the business of growers supplying marijuana to patients. HB161, sponsored by House Speaker Mike Milburn, R-Cascade, would repeal the law. Milburn’s bill passed the House, but has failed to get majority support in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Legislature should not discard the votes of Montanans who enacted the medical marijuana law. However, the law clearly has loopholes that must be corrected:
Individuals on probation or parole should not have medical marijuana cards or be legal “caregivers” providing marijuana to patients.
The use of medical marijuana for “chronic pain” has been abused, causing the number of legal card holders to skyrocket from 3,921 in September 2009 to 28,379 in February 2011. The use of marijuana as a pain remedy requires additional restrictions.
Cities and counties need clear authority to regulate medical marijuana businesses through zoning and local ordinances.
The Montana Clean Indoor Air Act should apply to smoking medical marijuana as it applies to smoking tobacco.
The law’s provision that employers need not allow medical marijuana on the job should be clarified.
Medical marijuana users shouldn’t be allowed to smoke their drug in public places or on public transportation.
Better regulation of medical marijuana will please neither the folks who want to outlaw it nor those who want to profit from it. But the Legislature should strive to carry out the will of voters to allow seriously ill or dying individuals, upon medical advice, to choose to use a limited amount of marijuana to ease their symptoms in the privacy of their home.
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