Advocates Ask Montana Gov. for 2nd Veto to Save Medical Marijuana Law

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer already vetoed a medical marijuana repeal bill this session, and now, medical marijuana advocates are calling on him to repeal a bill that won final passage in the legislature Thursday, a bill they call "repeal in disguise." They just may get their wish.

The legislation, Senate Bill 423, was originally designed to regulate Montana's burgeoning medical marijuana industry, but was heavily amended in the legislative process and now contains provisions unacceptable to medical marijuana advocates. The governor also has serious problems with it. He called it "unconstitutional on its face" earlier this week.

Advocates say the bill, the work of the Republican leadership in the state legislature, now seeks not to regulate but to cripple Montana's medical marijuana program. Among other provisions designed to hobble medical marijuana, the bill calls for providers to be limited to growing for three patients and to receive no compensation -- not even the repayment of expenses incurred -- for their efforts. Providers could produce smokable marijuana or edibles, but not both.

The bill also requires that law enforcement be notified of a person's status as a medical marijuana patient and, if the patients grows his own medicine, allows for his grow to be inspected by law enforcement at any time. It requires that patients seeking relief for chronic pain, the most common ailment for which medical marijuana is recommended, undergo two separate physician exams.

The bill restricts physicians to writing recommendations for no more than 15 patients per year. Physicians who write more than 15 recommendations would be subject to investigation by the state medical board -- at their own expense. The bill also bans laboratories that test medical marijuana for safety, content, and quality control reasons.

"We came to the 2011 session seeking to work constructively with legislators, law enforcement and numerous civic groups to develop smart regulations that would close loopholes, end abuses, and create a strictly regulated program that would  serve legitimate patients and meet the needs of law enforcement and local  community values," said a broad coalition of Montana medical marijuana organizations in a joint statement after the bill's initial passage Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, the legislature roundly rejected a number of bipartisan proposals that had strong support from all concerned. Ultimately, the views of physicians and patients were dismissed and the opinions of growers with a unique knowledge of the challenges involved in growing medical-grade cannabis were ignored. Instead of ending up with workable but rigorous oversight, we've been given a prospective wasteland, with the very best of what has emerged over the past few years potentially outlawed by the legislature. This deliberately unworkable repeal in disguise deserves a veto brand as much as the repeal bill did," the groups said.

The groups signing onto the statement included Patients & Families United, the Montana Medical Growers Association, Solutions for Montana, Alliance for  Cannabis Science, Montana  Botanical Analysis, Cannabanalysis Laboratories, Citizens for Cannabis  Comprehension, Montana Connect and Montana NORML.

"SB 423 is written to fail patients, not to fulfill compassionate voter intent in ways that also will work well for law enforcement and communities," the groups argued. "We call on Gov. Schweitzer to veto the bill and instead to aggressively use administrative authorities under the existing law to create effective regulation."

Gov. Schweitzer had similar issues with the bill as passed Tuesday, and on Thursday, he sent a letter to the legislature outlining amendments that would make it acceptable to him. Those include: