Panel to Focus on Medical Marijuana Distribution, Caregivers

A bipartisan panel of legislators will meet Monday in Helena to continue exploring ways to improve the state medical marijuana law.

The subcommittee of the Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee will meet 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. A complete agenda and other meeting materials are available on the legislative Web site at www.leg.mt.gov/cfhhs.

The subcommittee plans to focus its efforts Monday on three specific issue areas surrounding medical marijuana:

• law enforcement issues;
• distribution and tracking of medical marijuana; and
• regulation of medical marijuana providers, or “caregivers.”

Ultimately, the subcommittee hopes to present the full interim committee with draft legislation to introduce during the 2011 session.

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.