Medical marijuana users urge calm amid fiery debate
Jul 19, 2010 Online Issue
Linda Decker is a legal assistant at a Great Falls law firm. She lives south of the city along the Missouri River.
VanDerschelden and Decker have something in common — they both use medical marijuana.
Businesses that sell marijuana are prohibited from operating in the city of Great Falls under a ban approved June 1 on a split vote by the City Commission.
The two Great Falls residents said they don’t believe the city’s action will prevent them from obtaining medical marijuana for their chronic pain, but they object to the city’s move on symbolic and other grounds.
For example, VanDerschelden said his caregiver, a medical marijuana provider, told him about another client in Great Falls who is chronically ill.
“He’s homebound. He can’t go anywhere. How the heck is he supposed to go out of the city limits to get his medication?” VanDerschelden asked.
“That’s a very sad situation, truly,” said Great Falls City Attorney James Santoro, who took a stern line against medical marijuana businesses during City Commission debates this spring.
Santoro said in an interview that a caregiver still can grow marijuana on behalf of a patient, but noted caregivers are prohibited from selling marijuana to patients within city limits.
Santoro added that not all medical procedures are available to people in Great Falls, and patients seeking those procedures sometimes must leave the city for services.
In 2004, Montana voters approved medical marijuana for the chronically ill and people in pain, but interest in the state program soared at the end of the decade.
This year, a backlash against the number of medical marijuana patients in Montana — the total is expected to exceed 20,000 patients later this summer — has squelched medical marijuana businesses in cities such as Great Falls and Kalispell, which enacted bans that prompted moratoriums and provoked debates in many Montana communities.
Montana’s Legislature is expected to take up myriad bills on the subject in January.
Source : GreatFallsTribune.com
Tags: legalize marijuana, marijuana, marijuana for medical use, marijuana laws, marijuana legalization, Medical Marijuana, medicinal marijuana
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