Legislators to Continue Review of Medical Marijuana Law

A legislative subcommittee will continue efforts to revise the Montana Medical Marijuana Act when it meets Thursday, Aug. 12, in Helena.

The meeting of the subcommittee of the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 137 of the state Capitol. The public is welcome to attend and will have a chance to comment on the work of the subcommittee. Anyone unable to attend may submit written comments via e-mail at mmcomment@mt.gov.

A meeting agenda and other related materials are available on the legislative Web site at www.leg.mt.gov/cfhhs.

Subcommittee members will focus much of their discussion on what role the state should play in regulating the medical marijuana industry. They also will discuss local government and workplace issues related to medical marijuana.

In addition, the subcommittee will review a bill draft reflecting changes to the law that it has approved so far. The changes include:

• requiring patients to get recommendations from two physicians when seeking a registry card for medical marijuana to treat chronic pain;
• requiring fingerprint background checks for people who provide marijuana for medical use;
• revoking medical marijuana registry cards when patients violate the Medical Marijuana Act or certain other provisions of state law;
• prohibiting anyone with a felony conviction from being a caregiver, the term used for people who provide medical marijuana; and
• prohibiting people who are on probation or parole from taking part in the medical marijuana program as either a patient or caregiver.

Some of the changes are still in the preliminary stages of discussion. The subcommittee may modify the bill draft before approving a final version. It will then go to the full interim committee for consideration during an Aug. 23-24 meeting in Helena. If the full committee approves a bill draft, the bill will be referred to the 2011 Legislature.

The meeting will be broadcast over the legislative Web site at www.leg.mt.gov. It also will air on the state public access television network TVMT. For a list of TVMT channels, visit www.leg.mt.gov/tvmt.

Members of the subcommittee are Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula (chair); Rep. Gary MacLaren, R-Victor; Rep. Penny Morgan, R-Billings; and Sen. Trudi Schmidt, D-Great Falls.