On April 29th Governor Schweitzer said he was going to allow HB 423 to become law without receiving the mark of his Veto brand although he wasn’t comfortable enough with the bill to actually sign it with his seal of approval. HB 423 vastly restricted the Medical Marijuana operations in Montana by limiting the amount of plants to 4 per patient and it took the profit out of the grower’s operations. In short – July 1st they are out of business.
Not surprisingly DPHS officials has taken it upon themselves to decide that the law is not feasible so they will continue to issue medical marijuana cards even though the law went into effect on May 14th. Ray Kemp who is in charge of the card issuing process said they will continue to issue new cards until June 20th.
This is not surprising as we have many tax funded state employees that basically do as they damn please regardless of what the intention of the law are. I am not speaking for or against the recent changes to the MM law in this post but I find it disheartening that we have an alleged “citizen” ran government that allows our tax-funded bureaucratic wonders to do as they damn please with no consequences. MM law is not the only regulation we have found state department heads “adjusting” to their way of thinking once it hits the implementation stage.
For the complete story check the following links
HB423
Bozeman Chronicle
Independent Record
of course the bigger example is our few elected politicians overturning the will of the people, so whats the difference?
ReplyDeleteI don’t think they overturned the will of the people ax. No one voted for unbridled drug dealing and 30,000 medical marijuana card holders. The Governor said himself that he didn’t like this bill but he had to let it become law because of the vast number of recreational marijuana users that were holding cards claiming they needed their medicine.
ReplyDeleteI voted for the medical marijuana way back when and I sure as hell didn’t like what the system became. I voted to help the terminal person with pain not for some college kids to be legal at pot parties
That’s how the medical marijuana passage got out of control in the first place. The voters approved it and then it was sent to the department of health and human services for administrative rules. The so called rules they come up with to regulate this industry were terrible and the result was the mess we are now in. If these people are this incompetent some of them should be fired and some people with common sense hired in their place.
ReplyDeletePeople working right in the Capitol figured out a way to ignore the intention of the voters that voted yes to helping the sick and dying people that needed this option for relief. I also voted for it because I thought it was a humanitarian bill but it turned into a drug dealer’s wet dream. I would vote no if it appeared on the ballot again
Yeah this is a tough one.
ReplyDeleteI am very suspicious of the true intention of the people. Their will be done? I voted for the initiative too, but in retrospect, I probably should not have and definitely would not in the future. We should have known this could happen, but...
As a lifelong Montanan I like our independent spirit and felt, what the hell, if sick people need "medicine" who am I to judge them, right? I mean if I was, God forbid, in chronic pain and suffering, I would hope I too could have this option. However, the result of this initiative has gone far beyond what anybody I know ever wanted.
My wife and I were discussing this recently and she who is a nurse said she feels this should be provided for medically under a doctor's supervision. If it could be prescribed by a physician and dispensed by a pharamcy who is legally licensed to dispense medicine than she could live with it. I agree. However, apparently this flies against federal law. Funny how we pick and choose which federal laws we will follow, i.e. Obamacare and which ones we won't!
Anyway, Ax I think your fight should be with those in Congress. If you feel this medicine should be available then you need to get the Feds onboard. Otherwise this will always be a blackmarket, half-assed system which is abused and corrupt.
As for DPHHS and this lamebrain card issuer, get over it pal! Do your job and stop issuing licenses.
Look at all the people who abuse "legal federally approved medicine" it's an epidemic.I am happy the DPHS is still helping sick people like me not be criminals right away.I am 50 years old and i am dying.The meds they had me on made me drool all over myself at least when I got on the pot I can at least go places.From the beginning of time people used pot, and it aint going to change now.I agree the first law was to crazy but the one they are using now is so restrictive that i dont have the energy to go thru all the hoops.God forbid any of you or your family get to a point where you need it and it's not available.Meanwhile i will just have to get it illegally.
ReplyDeleteThanks for re-hashing the ole pot delema, but i was sort of talking about something else. Im not really a big politics fan so im not sure, but is it something that happens a lot where the legislatures just reverse something voted on and passed? Or is this some kind of precedence.
ReplyDeleteAnd btw, Professor, i totally agree with you that the only way to have any kind of workable resolution to this problem would be for the feds to be on board, which i dont see happening. But these days, you never know what is going to happen.
The idiots in Helena have, IMO, made the problem worse rather than better.
ReplyDelete1- Now we have people being forced to grow their own around kids.
2- Nothing like killing an industry that was providing jobs, tax revenue etc.
Were there problems with the program? Absolutely. Will the changes made solve the problem or even make it better? I highly doubt it. I fully expect to see an increase in the availability of it on the street.
The law is half baked (haha)and unworkable thats why DPHHS is acting the way they are and we will only have to put up with it for a few more months until 423 is wiped from the books.
ReplyDeletePot parties! Nice one! Ha Ha Ha! Drug dealers wet dream! Ha Ha Ha Ha! Where do you people come up with this shit!
ReplyDelete