Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
Initiative 1-182 passed on election night, supposedly restoring the state's medical marijuana program. But Vietnam veteran and Butte resident Johnny Shipley, along with thousands of other patients, is still completely cut off.
Dispensaries that promised to see their patients in November if 182 passed have kept their doors shut as a clerical error in the marijuana reform initiative means the provisions that return access to patients won't go into effect until June 30 of next year.
Shipley lost his provider on Aug. 29 of this year, like 93 percent of Montana's 13,000 medical marijuana patients, after a 2011 legislative bill, SB 423, came into effect after years of litigation. The law capped providers at an unprofitable 3-patient maximum. Most dispensaries closed their doors, hoping I-182 would put them back in business come November.
Shipley took medical marijuana for his arthritis, but had to switch to high doses of acetaminophen, which he said is safer than opioids. The marijuana also helped Shipley with PTSD, which as of I-182's passing is now classified as an illness for which doctors can prescribe medical marijuana.
"I'm delighted. It's not the answer for everybody, but it does help me and it stops the dreams and it stops me yelling at night," Shipley said, "I'm hoping it can help so many of the veterans we've got coming home. We know when you're on an 18-month tour and when you go back time and time again you're going to have PTSD."
Even though Shipley's PTSD now qualifies him for medical marijuana, no dispensaries can yet serve him, or would even have the supply ready to.
Providers say they will need months to grow enough marijuana to serve as many patients as before SB 423, but worries about shortages and price inflation are as of yet unfounded, as the dispensaries are still shuttered.
Medical marijuana advocates may try to get the bill amended to come fully into effect earlier through the Legislature, which meets Jan. 2, and is the only body that can amend a citizen initiative - a fact that has worked out poorly for medical marijuana in the past.
I-182 wouldn't have been necessary had the Republican-dominated 2011 Legislature not turned a medical marijuana reform bill into a near-complete repeal of the 2004 citizen initiative that created the Montana Medical Marijuana Program.
That reform bill was introduced by Billings Republican and Senate Majority Leader Senator Jeff Essmann as SB 423 in response to what many on both sides of the aisle agreed was an abuse of an unregulated medical marijuana program by healthy folks who just wanted to get high.
SB 423 passed the Senate and was sent to the House just one day before HB 161, a bill completely repealing medical marijuana in Montana sponsored by House Speaker Republican Mike Milburn, was sent to Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer's desk.
Schweitzer said he met with leading Republicans at the Governor's Mansion before the 2011 legislative session, including Milburn, and told the Tea Party faction they could please their constituents by sending him bills and he could please his constituents by vetoing them.
True to his word, Schweitzer vetoed HB 161 and sixteen other bills on April 13, publicly branding seven of them with a cattle iron to much fanfare and national media attention on the Capitol lawn.
Schweitzer said his veto of HB 161 wasn't overridden because by that point enough Republicans actually wanted to reform medical marijuana through SB 423 rather than repeal it outright.
But the reform bill, now in the House of Representatives, was amended by the House Human Services Committee Vice Chair - Billings House Majority Whip Cary Smith - with a litany of new sections that included a single-patient limit per provider and a ban on providers accepting compensation from patients. The House Human Services Committee, stacked 10-5 with Republicans, easily passed the first incarnation of the new SB 423.
With the versions of HB 423 passed by the House and Senate now incongruent, a joint legislative committee between the House and the Senate was called to resolve the bill's differences. Chaired by Essmann and stacked 4-2 with Republicans, the committee passed nearly over 150 amendments to SB 423, including a so-called "Red Bill" that set the patient limit for providers at 3 and re-codified the ban on providers accepting payment from patients.
Schweitzer said he placed Democratic Senator Cliff Larsen on the committee to try to prevent the most Draconian changes, but he was unsuccessful, and the amended SB 423 quickly passed through the committee, House and Senate.
Schweitzer called the version of SB 423 sent to him by the Legislature far more restrictive than the bill Essmann originally proposed, blatantly unconstitutional concerning privacy and unwarranted searches for patients, and essentially a repeal of medical marijuana. He issued an amendatory veto that, he said, removed elements of SB 423 that violated the Montana Constitution, and modified sections that would shut down the provider market and cut off patients, including the 3-patient limit and ban on providers from accepting compensation from patients.
"Every one of those legislators who voted for that unconstitutional bill taking legitimate rights away from Montanans ought to be ashamed of themselves," Schweitzer said. In his mind, he said, 150 legislators shouldn't get to overrule over 60 percent of Montanans.
The Legislature overrode Schweitzer's veto the same day and put SB 423 back on his desk. Schweitzer said since the Legislature had the majority to do that, then they obviously had the majority to overrule a veto of the entire bill too, so he let it sit unsigned for 10 days until it became law. As he predicted, the bill was immediately challenged in court on constitutional grounds, and its full implementation delayed until for five years.
Could it happen again?
The Republicans responsible for the 2011 Legislature's curtailment of medical marijuana are still in positions of state power.
Milburn did not seek re-election in 2012, and became chief of staff for Attorney General Tim Fox. The Attorney General's Office did not respond to requests for comments on Milburn's role, if any, on the Attorney General's decision to call on the Montana Supreme Court to immediately implement the 3-patient limit and other clauses of SB 423 that cleared state courts earlier this year.
Fox's request came after Montana Cannabis Industry Association attorney Jim Goetz filed a motion - supported by the Montana Department of Health and Human Services - for the Supreme Court to delay SB 423 going into effect until after voters had decided on I-182, fearing it would cut off most patients.
"After the Supreme Court upheld a majority of SB 423 as passed by the 2011 Legislature, the Attorney General had no legal authority to delay implementation of the law," spokesman Eric Sell said.
The sections found unconstitutional and nullified by the Montana Supreme Court were not the ones that Schweitzer correctly predicted would effectively repeal medical marijuana in the state. The 3-patient limit for providers cut off 93 percent of patients from providers who couldn't afford to keep their lights on, and led to an exodus of nearly 6,000 patients - nearly half the program - according to the health department.
Montana Republicans did well in the 2016 election, claiming three Senate seats to increase their majority to 32-18, and maintaining their 59-41 House advantage.
Milburn's Great Falls House district remains in Republican hands, his successor crushing a Democratic challenger with 72 percent of the vote. But fifty-seven percent of Cascade County residents voted in favor of I-182.
Smith is now a Billings State Senator near his old House District and Essmann's district. The county encompassing his district voted 52 percent in favor of I-182.
Larsen is no longer in the Legislature due to term limits, and his Senate district was claimed Tuesday by Daniel Salomon, a moderate Republican. That county's constituents voted in favor of I-182 by more than 60 percent.
It's unclear whether the Republican-dominated Legislature will again try to gut citizen-approved access to medical marijuana.
Essmann, now chair of the Montana Republican Party, refused to comment on whether he or other members of the majority were planning amendments to I-182 or other anti-medical marijuana legislation.
"You're going to have to find somebody else to talk to about that," Essmann said, adding he wasn't happy with what SB 423 turned into under his joint legislative committee.
Schweitzer predicts the emboldened Republicans will try to repeal medical marijuana in the upcoming session just as they did before.
"I still have the veto brand registered with the Department of Livestock should Bullock need to use it," he said Friday.
Gov. Steve Bullock could not be reached for comment.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Error In I-182 Cuts Medical Marijuana Off For Another 8 Months
Author: Hunter Pauli
Contact: (800) 877-1074
Photo Credit: Walter Hinick
Website: Montana Standard
Dispensaries that promised to see their patients in November if 182 passed have kept their doors shut as a clerical error in the marijuana reform initiative means the provisions that return access to patients won't go into effect until June 30 of next year.
Shipley lost his provider on Aug. 29 of this year, like 93 percent of Montana's 13,000 medical marijuana patients, after a 2011 legislative bill, SB 423, came into effect after years of litigation. The law capped providers at an unprofitable 3-patient maximum. Most dispensaries closed their doors, hoping I-182 would put them back in business come November.
Shipley took medical marijuana for his arthritis, but had to switch to high doses of acetaminophen, which he said is safer than opioids. The marijuana also helped Shipley with PTSD, which as of I-182's passing is now classified as an illness for which doctors can prescribe medical marijuana.
"I'm delighted. It's not the answer for everybody, but it does help me and it stops the dreams and it stops me yelling at night," Shipley said, "I'm hoping it can help so many of the veterans we've got coming home. We know when you're on an 18-month tour and when you go back time and time again you're going to have PTSD."
Even though Shipley's PTSD now qualifies him for medical marijuana, no dispensaries can yet serve him, or would even have the supply ready to.
Providers say they will need months to grow enough marijuana to serve as many patients as before SB 423, but worries about shortages and price inflation are as of yet unfounded, as the dispensaries are still shuttered.
Medical marijuana advocates may try to get the bill amended to come fully into effect earlier through the Legislature, which meets Jan. 2, and is the only body that can amend a citizen initiative - a fact that has worked out poorly for medical marijuana in the past.
I-182 wouldn't have been necessary had the Republican-dominated 2011 Legislature not turned a medical marijuana reform bill into a near-complete repeal of the 2004 citizen initiative that created the Montana Medical Marijuana Program.
That reform bill was introduced by Billings Republican and Senate Majority Leader Senator Jeff Essmann as SB 423 in response to what many on both sides of the aisle agreed was an abuse of an unregulated medical marijuana program by healthy folks who just wanted to get high.
SB 423 passed the Senate and was sent to the House just one day before HB 161, a bill completely repealing medical marijuana in Montana sponsored by House Speaker Republican Mike Milburn, was sent to Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer's desk.
Schweitzer said he met with leading Republicans at the Governor's Mansion before the 2011 legislative session, including Milburn, and told the Tea Party faction they could please their constituents by sending him bills and he could please his constituents by vetoing them.
True to his word, Schweitzer vetoed HB 161 and sixteen other bills on April 13, publicly branding seven of them with a cattle iron to much fanfare and national media attention on the Capitol lawn.
Schweitzer said his veto of HB 161 wasn't overridden because by that point enough Republicans actually wanted to reform medical marijuana through SB 423 rather than repeal it outright.
But the reform bill, now in the House of Representatives, was amended by the House Human Services Committee Vice Chair - Billings House Majority Whip Cary Smith - with a litany of new sections that included a single-patient limit per provider and a ban on providers accepting compensation from patients. The House Human Services Committee, stacked 10-5 with Republicans, easily passed the first incarnation of the new SB 423.
With the versions of HB 423 passed by the House and Senate now incongruent, a joint legislative committee between the House and the Senate was called to resolve the bill's differences. Chaired by Essmann and stacked 4-2 with Republicans, the committee passed nearly over 150 amendments to SB 423, including a so-called "Red Bill" that set the patient limit for providers at 3 and re-codified the ban on providers accepting payment from patients.
Schweitzer said he placed Democratic Senator Cliff Larsen on the committee to try to prevent the most Draconian changes, but he was unsuccessful, and the amended SB 423 quickly passed through the committee, House and Senate.
Schweitzer called the version of SB 423 sent to him by the Legislature far more restrictive than the bill Essmann originally proposed, blatantly unconstitutional concerning privacy and unwarranted searches for patients, and essentially a repeal of medical marijuana. He issued an amendatory veto that, he said, removed elements of SB 423 that violated the Montana Constitution, and modified sections that would shut down the provider market and cut off patients, including the 3-patient limit and ban on providers from accepting compensation from patients.
"Every one of those legislators who voted for that unconstitutional bill taking legitimate rights away from Montanans ought to be ashamed of themselves," Schweitzer said. In his mind, he said, 150 legislators shouldn't get to overrule over 60 percent of Montanans.
The Legislature overrode Schweitzer's veto the same day and put SB 423 back on his desk. Schweitzer said since the Legislature had the majority to do that, then they obviously had the majority to overrule a veto of the entire bill too, so he let it sit unsigned for 10 days until it became law. As he predicted, the bill was immediately challenged in court on constitutional grounds, and its full implementation delayed until for five years.
Could it happen again?
The Republicans responsible for the 2011 Legislature's curtailment of medical marijuana are still in positions of state power.
Milburn did not seek re-election in 2012, and became chief of staff for Attorney General Tim Fox. The Attorney General's Office did not respond to requests for comments on Milburn's role, if any, on the Attorney General's decision to call on the Montana Supreme Court to immediately implement the 3-patient limit and other clauses of SB 423 that cleared state courts earlier this year.
Fox's request came after Montana Cannabis Industry Association attorney Jim Goetz filed a motion - supported by the Montana Department of Health and Human Services - for the Supreme Court to delay SB 423 going into effect until after voters had decided on I-182, fearing it would cut off most patients.
"After the Supreme Court upheld a majority of SB 423 as passed by the 2011 Legislature, the Attorney General had no legal authority to delay implementation of the law," spokesman Eric Sell said.
The sections found unconstitutional and nullified by the Montana Supreme Court were not the ones that Schweitzer correctly predicted would effectively repeal medical marijuana in the state. The 3-patient limit for providers cut off 93 percent of patients from providers who couldn't afford to keep their lights on, and led to an exodus of nearly 6,000 patients - nearly half the program - according to the health department.
Montana Republicans did well in the 2016 election, claiming three Senate seats to increase their majority to 32-18, and maintaining their 59-41 House advantage.
Milburn's Great Falls House district remains in Republican hands, his successor crushing a Democratic challenger with 72 percent of the vote. But fifty-seven percent of Cascade County residents voted in favor of I-182.
Smith is now a Billings State Senator near his old House District and Essmann's district. The county encompassing his district voted 52 percent in favor of I-182.
Larsen is no longer in the Legislature due to term limits, and his Senate district was claimed Tuesday by Daniel Salomon, a moderate Republican. That county's constituents voted in favor of I-182 by more than 60 percent.
It's unclear whether the Republican-dominated Legislature will again try to gut citizen-approved access to medical marijuana.
Essmann, now chair of the Montana Republican Party, refused to comment on whether he or other members of the majority were planning amendments to I-182 or other anti-medical marijuana legislation.
"You're going to have to find somebody else to talk to about that," Essmann said, adding he wasn't happy with what SB 423 turned into under his joint legislative committee.
Schweitzer predicts the emboldened Republicans will try to repeal medical marijuana in the upcoming session just as they did before.
"I still have the veto brand registered with the Department of Livestock should Bullock need to use it," he said Friday.
Gov. Steve Bullock could not be reached for comment.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Error In I-182 Cuts Medical Marijuana Off For Another 8 Months
Author: Hunter Pauli
Contact: (800) 877-1074
Photo Credit: Walter Hinick
Website: Montana Standard
