Search Results: montana/ (22)

LEAP

National Black and Latino Police Groups Announce Endorsements for Amendment 64
A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who support Amendment 64, the Colorado ballot measure to regulate marijuana like alcohol, held a press conference on Thursday to release a letter of endorsement signed by law enforcers from across the state and to announce the endorsement of the national police organizations Blacks in Law Enforcement of America and the National Latino Officers Association.
The campaign has also secured the personal endorsement of Colorado’s public defender, Doug Wilson.
“Law enforcement officers are on the front lines of the war on marijuana and have seen first-hand that prohibition does more harm than good,” says Art Way, Colorado Senior Drug Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. 

THC Finder

Court Rejects Patients’ Right To Medical Marijuana; Patients’ Group Says Voters Will Reject ‘Godawful Law’ by Defeating IR-124
 
The Montana Supreme Court ensured late on Tuesday that voters will have the final say on the Legislature’s 2011 medical marijuana law this November, and Patients for Reform, Not Repeal believes voters will say “No” to it.
The court held there is no fundamental right to use medical marijuana, or any drug that’s prohibited under federal law, reports Sam Favate at the Wall Street Journal. In a 6-1 decision, the court reversed a lower court ruling blocking enforcement of IR-124, a state law to restrict access to medical marijuana.

Billings Gazette
Richard Flor, 68 died Wednesday night after having two heart attacks while being transported to federal prison to serve a five-year sentence for medical marijuana

A former medical marijuana provider in Montana died in federal custody while being transported to federal prison Wednesday night. Richard Flor, 68, was being sent from a private prison to a federal prison when he had two heart attacks and passed away, Toke of the Town has learned.

Flor, of Miles City, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison on April 19. He had asked for leniency because he suffered from numerous physical and mental ailments.
Flor, his wife, Sherry, 55, and their son Justin, 35, all pleaded guilty to drug charges related to a medical marijuana operation run out of their home.

Opposing Views

A Montana landlord with no criminal history has been sentenced to a year in prison for a medical marijuana operation run by his tenants.

Jonathan Janetski, 36, of Flathead Valley, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Monday to 12 months and one day in prison, reports The Associated Press.
“GREAT we get to support this guy for a year,” commented “home stretch” on the Billings Gazettes website. “Another 80000 dollars down the tubes, and for what? How does this help?”

Billings Gazette
Richard Flor, 68, was sentenced to five years in prison for growing medical marijuana in Montana

A former medical marijuana provider in Montana is appealing his five-year federal prison sentence on charges of maintaining “drug-involved premises.”

Richard Flor, 68, of Miles City, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on April 19. He had asked for leniency because he suffers from numerous physical and mental ailments, reports the Associated Press.
Flor will be evaluated to determine the federal facility “best suited for him” to serve the sentence, at least if U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell’s recommendations are followed.

Missoulian
U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy ruled on Friday that Montana’s medical marijuana providers can be prosecuted under federal law even if they are strictly following state law

​A federal judge has ruled that Montana’s medical marijuana program doesn’t shield providers of cannabis from federal prosecution.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy on Friday is another blow to Montana’s medical marijuana industry, reports the Associated Press. Montana’s medicinal cannabis community was already on the ropes; in the past year, it has seen tough, new state restrictions, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, as well as federal raids by Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
Judge Molloy ruled that medical marijuana providers can be prosecuted under the federal Controlled Substances Act even if they are strictly following state law. He cited the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which says that federal law prevails if there is any conflict between state and federal statutes.

CBS News

​Bye-bye, Second Amendment? The U.S. Department of Justice is notifying federally licensed firearms dealers that they aren’t allowed to sell guns or ammo to anyone who smokes pot — even medical marijuana patients.

The memo from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, dated September 21, says the federal government considers marijuana a Schedule I controlled substance, even in states that have legalized cannabis for medicinal uses, reports The Associated Press.
Federal law prohibits anyone who is an “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” from possessing firearms or ammunition.

KTVQ

​A study on the effects of Montana’s tough new medical marijuana law, adopted by the Republican-controlled state Legislature last year, shows the number of patients and providers has dropped since the makeover of the law passed by voters in 2000.

But the new law has also created a lack of access and forced many patients to return to the black market, according to Kate Cholewa, policy director for the Montana Cannabis Industry, reports Ryan Whalen at Beartooth NBC. Cholewa who said patients were scared they won’t be protected from the federal government by the new Senate Bill 423.
“This doesn’t necessarily end up with fewer people using cannabis,” Cholewa said, reports Charles S. Johnson of the Helena Independent Record. “It just ends up with more people you can put in jail for it.”

Photo: Billings Gazette
Flowering cannabis plants at Montannabis, Inc., Billings, Montana, March 16, 2011.

​Montana on Tuesday appealed to the Montana Supreme Court a judge’s ruling which blocked tight new restrictions on medical marijuana on the state, and will argue there’s no constitutional right to sell cannabis for a profit. The new restrictions have been described by some patient advocates as a de facto repeal of Montana’s medical marijuana law, passed by 62 percent of the state’s voters in 2000.

The Montana Justice Department will ask the state’s high court to overturn portions of Helena District Judge James Reynolds’ decision from June 30, which suspended enforcement of several provisions of the tough new law passed the the Republican-dominated 2011 Legislature to crack down on the state’s growing medical marijuana industry, reports Mike Dennison at the Billings Gazette.

Photo: Eliza Wiley/Helena Independent Record
Senator Dave Wanzenreid (D-Missoula) spoke Tuesday in the secretary of state’s office to announce the Initiative Referendum 124 petition campaign by Patients For Reform – Not Repeal.

​It only took a week to get 2,000 Montanans to sign petitions to let voters in 2012 decide the fate of the restrictive medical marijuana law passed by their state Legislature this year, backers of the referendum said on Tuesday.
A group called Patients For Reform – Not Repeal has launched a statewide campaign trying to get enough voter signatures to place Senate Bill 423 on the ballot next year, reports Charles S. Johnson at the Billings Gazette.
If the group reaches an additional level of signatures by September 30, the law will be suspended until voters decide in November 2012 whether to keep or reject it.
The referendum is part of a three-pronged attack by medical marijuana supporters and patients. On another front, the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, along with other groups, has mounted a court challenge to the law’s constitutionality.
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