The town of Cascade took up the issue of medical marijuana at a contentious meeting on Thursday evening.
After over an hour of sometimes heated public comment, the city council voted to impose a six-month moratorium which will prevent medical marijuana businesses from operating within city limits.
Emotions were running high as patients and supporters of medical marijuana made their final plea to city council members during the meeting.
Leon Tirums, a medical marijuana caregiver, said, "I did a test for it for a year, on myself, to see if it worked and I was overwhelmed. It changed my life completely and there's other people in this room that will attest, it's a life-changing thing."
Tirums has the only medical marijuana business in the area, serving 30 patients. One person at the meeting said, "If I don't have Leon, I am so doped up laying in a hospital bed... dying."
But council members made their position clear from the start, with Mayor Bill Peterson stating, "First of all, we the council have taken the position that medical marijuana is in direct defiance of federal law."
They say Montana preceded federal law when it passed the 2004 Medical Marijuana Act, and because Cascade is dependent on federal money for many of the town's resources, they say they don't want to do anything that could jeopardize future funding.
Peterson said, "This could prevent us, here in the town of Cascade, from getting money to fix water and other things on grant possibilities."
No medical marijuana business would be allowed to operate during the six-month moratorium, which means Tirums would have to shut down and his patients would need to look elsewhere for medication.
Tirums spoke out, saying: "Tell me where you want them to go! Don't tell them to go to hell, because that's what you're saying when you do that."
But the council stuck to their position despite the pleas from the majority of the crowd, and the ordinance passed by a unanimous vote. Council members said that they say they would like to use the six months to study zoning issues and wait for action from the federal government.
The ordinance still needs to pass second reading to go into effect; the council is scheduled to vote again at a meeting on June 9th, where they will also vote to revoke Tirums' business registration.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: KXLH.com
Author: Kay Rossi
Copyright: 2010 KXLH.com
After over an hour of sometimes heated public comment, the city council voted to impose a six-month moratorium which will prevent medical marijuana businesses from operating within city limits.
Emotions were running high as patients and supporters of medical marijuana made their final plea to city council members during the meeting.
Leon Tirums, a medical marijuana caregiver, said, "I did a test for it for a year, on myself, to see if it worked and I was overwhelmed. It changed my life completely and there's other people in this room that will attest, it's a life-changing thing."
Tirums has the only medical marijuana business in the area, serving 30 patients. One person at the meeting said, "If I don't have Leon, I am so doped up laying in a hospital bed... dying."
But council members made their position clear from the start, with Mayor Bill Peterson stating, "First of all, we the council have taken the position that medical marijuana is in direct defiance of federal law."
They say Montana preceded federal law when it passed the 2004 Medical Marijuana Act, and because Cascade is dependent on federal money for many of the town's resources, they say they don't want to do anything that could jeopardize future funding.
Peterson said, "This could prevent us, here in the town of Cascade, from getting money to fix water and other things on grant possibilities."
No medical marijuana business would be allowed to operate during the six-month moratorium, which means Tirums would have to shut down and his patients would need to look elsewhere for medication.
Tirums spoke out, saying: "Tell me where you want them to go! Don't tell them to go to hell, because that's what you're saying when you do that."
But the council stuck to their position despite the pleas from the majority of the crowd, and the ordinance passed by a unanimous vote. Council members said that they say they would like to use the six months to study zoning issues and wait for action from the federal government.
The ordinance still needs to pass second reading to go into effect; the council is scheduled to vote again at a meeting on June 9th, where they will also vote to revoke Tirums' business registration.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: KXLH.com
Author: Kay Rossi
Copyright: 2010 KXLH.com
