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 Green_T
Getting to the chopper
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,024
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 MT: Lawmakers to hear pair of medical marijuana bills 
#9646548 - 01/20/09 02:42 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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GT's summary:
Montana is considered a socially and politically conservative state, which is sparsely populated.The problem in their existing MJ law is that if a medical MJ patient is caught committing a traffic violation with marijuana metabolites in their blood (which can last for days, even if the person is not intoxicated), they lose their right to the medicine: for life. This kind of restriction does not extend to other prescription medications such as opiates.
The first bill wants to repeal that aspect of the medicinal mj bill, while the other hopes to extend prescribing ability beyond doctors to nurse practitioners (most people's primary caregivers in rural ares) so people don't have to drive hundreds of miles to see certain doctors.
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Source: Great Falls Tribune
Lawmakers to hear pair of medical marijuana bills
By JOHN S. ADAMS Tribune Capitol Bureau • January 19, 2009
HELENA — When voters passed the Montana Medical Marijuana Act by a wide margin in 2004, would-be medical marijuana patients across state the rejoiced.
For the first time, Montana doctors could legally recommend medical marijuana to patients suffering from cancer, HIV/AIDS, debilitating pain, multiple sclerosis and many other ailments. Supporters and patients saw the passage of the initiative as validation for the plant they say is a wonder drug.
Marijuana's detractors still have their doubts.
Lawmakers will hear from both sides this week as the Legislature begins hearings on two bills designed to modify the 2004 medical marijuana law.
Supporters of medical marijuana say a bill scheduled for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning is an attempt by detractors to unfairly single out marijuana patients in the case of traffic stops.
Senate Bill 212, sponsored by Sen. Verdell Jackson, R-Kalispell, says that if a medical-marijuana patient or caregiver is stopped for a traffic violation or is involved in a crash, the police can demand the person submit to a blood test. Under the proposed law, if the driver is found to be impaired by marijuana — based on limits outlined in the bill — they could face prosecution and forfeiture of their medical marijuana privileges.
"If an officer suspects someone is driving under heavy influence of marijuana and is driving erratically, this particular law would basically provide the procedures for the officer to follow the law," Jackson said.
Tom Daubert is the founder and director of Patients and Families United, a support group for medical marijuana patients.
Daubert said Jackson's bill unjustly targets marijuana patients when there are thousands of Montanans who take prescription medications that can lead to impaired driving.
"The most draconian aspect of the bill is that it proposes to eliminate, for life, those patients' right to possess medical marijuana regardless of what their doctors say, regardless of what happens to their medical condition in the future. There is no such penalty in place right now for any other substance." Daubert said.
Chris Lindsey, a criminal defense attorney in Helena and a medical marijuana patient, said Jackson's bill would deter patients from seeking legal registration with the state health department. He said some patients would avoid the registration rather than carry a card that would single them out to law enforcement officers.
"If I am just Joe Citizen driving down the street, and I don't have a (marijuana registry) card, law enforcement has no particular or special right to treat me any different than anybody else. Yet if I am a patient, if a doctor has actually come along and said, 'This is something that you'd benefit by,' and the state then gives me a license, what I'm actually doing is volunteering for a blood draw if I ever exceed the speed limit," Lindsey said. "I don't think that's what our voters had in mind."
The bill sets a legal limit of tetrahydrocannabinol — or THC, the active chemical in marijuana — allowed while driving. Daubert said those limits are not based on science. Plus, Daubert said, THC can remain in a patient's blood days after that patient actually took the medicine.
Jackson said a constituent worked on the language dealing with THC limits and didn't know how they were derived.
Jackson said he doesn't have a position on the 2004 voter-approved medical marijuana law. He said the intent of his bill is to reduce the number of impaired drivers on the road.
"In the case of marijuana, we may have a problem where people are taking it and they are impaired and they may be in a position where someone gets killed as a result of that," Jackson said.
The other bill up for consideration this week is House Bill 73, sponsored by Rep. Julie French, D-Scobey. Medical marijuana supporters favor French's bill, which would allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants to recommend marijuana for medical use. Under the existing law only licensed physicians are allowed to do so.
Daubert said nurse practitioners are often the primary health care providers for patients in rural areas. Daubert said there are more than 1,500 registered medical marijuana patients in 42 Montana counties, and many of those patients live far from doctors.
"Under the current law these folks have to drive sometimes hundreds of miles to see a doctor who doesn't know them and has never treated them before," Daubert said. "Their nurse practitioner can already prescribe any other drug, but they can't yet make medical marijuana recommendations. This law would fix that."
The bill would also extend the expiration date of a medical marijuana registration from one year to three years.
Lindsey said the main problem with re-upping every year is that failure to do so would automatically disqualify a patient or caregiver from the program and open them up to prosecution.
"In the case where the person may be their own caregiver, if they lose their status they are instantly committing a felony, and a very serious one: manufacturing a dangerous drug," Lindsey said. "What we've got here is that through mistake, through not sending in your registration on a timely basis every year, you end up with a felony and one that could land you in prison for an awful long time."
The two medical marijuana bills up for hearing this week are the first of several expected to come before the Legislature this session. Other bills that have yet to be introduced include a measure to increase the amount of marijuana patients and caregivers are allowed to possess. Another would add ailments such as PTSD and Alzheimer's disease to the list of ailments for which marijuana could be recommended.
Tom Berry, R-Roundup, is working on a bill that would bar persons convicted of a felony drug offense from the state medical marijuana registry. That bill would also stiffen the penalties for people who violate the restriction of the medical marijuana law.
Daubert said patients are hoping lawmakers will continue to improve the law passed by voters in 2004, and make it easier for sick and suffering Montanans to get the medicine they need. Not the other way around.
"We have a lot of specific goals, but the overarching goal we have this session is to make the medical marijuana law work for suffering patients as voters intended," Daubert said.
"Unfortunately under the terms of our law, it is very difficult for patients to be sure of always having the supply of the medicine they need."
Reach Tribune Capitol Bureau Chief John S. Adams at 442-9493, or jadams@greatfallstribune.com
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"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson
Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
Their vial of acid, which is on the table over there, tastes vile because they're incompetent chemists.
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 TreeMoss
I live in a Fox Hole
Registered: 12/05/08
Posts: 1,615
Last seen: 3 years, 3 months
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Re: MT: Lawmakers to hear pair of medical marijuana bills [Re: Green_T]
#9650467 - 01/21/09 05:27 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Strange, in my state the cut off for cannabis in you body is lower than the federal standards or even probation. Normally the cut off it 50ng a ml..........but the law for drivers is ten.
And there is also an opiate cut off but it's huge, around 1000.
I agree, it has very little to do with being under the influence; it's a metabolite and most metabolites are not psychoactive.........let alone ten or fifty.
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Drug chemicals are going to be more abundant and survive longer than any anti-drug agendas. Some of us are just ahead of the game, we already know what the future will understand. Drugs weren't bad but how some people used them were and some people just were bad because they had to be.
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