Story available at http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/05/27/news/local/16-smedical.txt?rating=true
Published on Wednesday, May 27, 2009.
Last modified on 5/27/2009 at 5:26 pm
Medical marijuana candidate files for City Council
By The Gazette Staff
Mark Higgins, a Billings man who is seeking to open a medical marijuana retail store, will run for the City Council in Ward 3.
Higgins,
36, filed his paperwork today and paid the $72 fee. He said he will run
on a "pro medical marijuana platform," and will seek to make the
council more open to public comment. Higgins introduced himself to the
council at its meeting Tuesday night. He asked if anyone had any
questions and no one responded.
"They didn't have any questions,
problems or concerns with what I'm trying to do and I know that they
do, because they've said so in e-mails between each other. And they
made fun of it," Higgins said.
Higgins said his chronic back
problems caused him severe pain throughout the meeting while he waited
for the com-ment period at the end.
"It really upset me ... that
they didn't take the time," he said. "I wasn't on any medicine and I
came totally sober so that I could talk to them."
Higgins is a
licensed patient and provider of medical marijuana, which was legalized
by Montana voters in 2004. He is looking for a small retail spot in
which to open his store, which will serve only licensed medical
marijuana users, he said.
Higgins is the only candidate so far
for the Ward 3 spot currently held by Larry Brewster. Brewster has
indicated that he won't run for the seat again. The election is in
November.
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
Story available at http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/05/13/news/local/28-medicalmarijuana.txt
Published on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.
Last modified on 5/13/2009 at 12:28 am
Marijuana shop idea raises questions
By MATT HAGENGRUBER
Of The Gazette Staff
Mark Higgins was quietly looking two weeks ago for a storefront to rent
for his medical-marijuana business. He called two property owners on
Main Street, one of whom has a small space that Higgins thought would
be perfect.
Higgins didn't know that the owner of the building at 649 Main St. was City Councilman Denis Pitman.
"I own the whole building," Pitman said. "He called to ask if we have any restrictions."
In
2004, 62 percent of Montana voters voted to legalize the use of medical
marijuana. Last October, Higgins became a licensed user of the drug,
and last month he became a licensed caregiver.
Higgins said he
suffers from serious back problems after falling off a firetruck while
fighting a wildfire. Now unemployed, the 36-year-old said medical
marijuana dramatically improved his life and he now wants the medicine
to be available to more people in Billings. Right now, Higgins drives
to Bozeman once a week to resupply. He uses an ounce of marijuana a
week, which is equal to about one sandwich bag, he said.
"If I
don't have my medicine, I'm not sitting up in my chair. I'm not sitting
up at all," he said. "I want (the store) to be a place for people to
get the supplies they need so they can supply themselves with their own
medicine."
After Higgins called Pitman about renting the
storefront, Pitman brought his inquiry to city staff. Pitman wondered
if Higgins could legally open such a store in Billings, and what other
legal questions surround the matter.
A chain of e-mails from
city officials finally made its way to Assistant City Attorney Craig
Hensel, who provided a preliminary legal opinion last week. Hensel is
expected to provide a memo to city officials today. Essentially,
medical marijuana is legal in Montana, but the matter is murky at the
federal level, Hensel said. The wild card is how the federal government
enforces marijuana laws.
"There isn't a real clear black or
white answer to the question 'would this be legal,' since the state law
is vague and yet untested in court in a grower/provider context,"
Hensel wrote. "The practice may violate federal law, even if the feds
might have a current policy to not enforce the law against legitimate
providers who are operating legally under state law."
Hensel
said he talked with the County Attorney's Office and the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Billings, and no one seems to know what the new
administration will do with medical-marijuana laws.
Kevin
O'Brien, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said no
local government agency has asked for a legal opinion on the matter,
and the AG's office can't give legal advice to private citizens.
"The
Montana Medical Marijuana Act clearly opens up a lot of questions," he
said. "These questions are definitely not going away."
Higgins
isn't sure if he'll open up a store somewhere. If he did, it wouldn't
be open for three or four months, he said. He only has one patient
right now, and the state law, administered by the Department of Public
Health and Human Services, allows users and caregivers to have just six
plants and one ounce of marijuana per patient.
Higgins said any
store he opens would be tightly controlled, with only card-carrying
patients allowed to buy marijuana and a videotape made of every sale.
Right now, Higgins must supply his sole patient from his well-kept
Billings home. A store would allow him to sell equipment for using
marijuana in the various forms it can be ingested, including smoking,
eating "ganja butter" on toast or brewing it as tea to drink.
"I
would be much more comfortable doing it in a store," he said. "I'm not
the guy you meet behind Wal-Mart. I'm a guy who cares about doing the
right thing."
Tom Daubert, a Helena political consultant who
founded the advocacy group Patients and Families United, said such a
business would be tough to keep open, but medical-marijuana patients in
Montana are hoping to see such stores open.
"The economics of it
absolutely mystify me. I don't see it," he said. "But there's broad
approval from the Montana public for medical marijuana."
Higgins
said he'll wait to hear from city officials about the legality of such
a store, but he wants officials to understand that medical-marijuana
users aren't on the fringes of society, he said. Higgins and his wife
have three daughters, and he said he is careful never to smoke
marijuana in front of them. He said he has even talked with school
officials at his daughters' school about the matter.
"My kids have never seen me smoke it," he said. "By not making it a big deal in my house, it's not a big deal for my kids."
Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
Hot 101.9 Fm( The Big J show )
Thursday May 14th 2009 Mark Was on Hot 101.9 Fm With Big jay and Mcluvin. We had a discussion about medical marijuana and also took liseners calls.
The Billings support is very encouraging for a Medical Marijuana store.
Big Medical Marijuana News .
For Immediate Release: May 18th, 2009
U.S. Supreme Court Affirms California's Medical Marijuana Law
High court refuses to hear state lawsuit brought by San Diego County
Washington, D.C. -- Medical marijuana advocates celebrated
today as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a landmark case
brought by San Diego County. Advocates assert that the High Court's
decision removes one of the final obstacles to full implementation of
California's medical marijuana laws. The lawsuit filed by San Diego in
2006 challenged the state-mandate to implement an identification card
program for patients based on the argument that state law is preempted
by federal law. However, both the San Diego Superior Court and the
Fourth District Court of Appeals rejected that argument, which was
followed by the California Supreme Court's refusal to review the case
in 2008. Despite this failure in the state courts, the San Diego Board
of Supervisors voted to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"No longer will local officials be able to hide behind federal
law and resist upholding California's medical marijuana law," said Joe
Elford, Chief Counsel with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a national
medical marijuana advocacy group, which represented patients in the
county's lawsuit against the state. "The courts have made clear that
federal law does not preempt California's medical marijuana law
and that local officials must comply with
that law."
After the California Supreme Court denied review of
County of San
Diego v. State of California in October of 2008, ASA filed a
lawsuit in January against Solano County for its refusal to implement
the state ID card program. "This decision and our lawsuit against
Solano will undoubtedly have an impact on the other counties that have
failed to implement the ID card program," continued Elford. ASA has
given notice to all 10 counties (Colusa, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Mono,
San Bernardino, San Diego, Solano, Stanislaus, and Sutter) of their
obligation to implement the ID card program.
The
San Diego case was preceded by another landmark medical
marijuana case,
City of Garden Grove v. Superior Court (Kha),
which also involved preemption. In the
Garden Grove or
Kha
case, both lower courts similarly found that state law was not
preempted by federal law and that "it is not the job of the local
police to enforce the federal drug laws." The defendant in that case,
medical marijuana patient Felix Kha, was also represented by ASA and
involved the California Attorney General's office. Advocates argue that
it was the
Kha case that, at least in part, compelled Attorney
General Jerry Brown to issue enforcement guidelines in August 2008. ASA
is currently seeking attorneys fees in the
Kha case.
ASA worked with the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project to litigate the
San
Diego case, with both organizations on the side of the California
Attorney General defending the state's medical marijuana law. The
County of San Bernardino joined San Diego County in its original
lawsuit and the subsequent appeals. The ID card program was adopted in
2004, resulting from the legislature's passage of SB 420, the Medical
Marijuana Program Act. The ID cards, when properly implemented, assist
law enforcement and affords greater protection to patients.
Further information:
2008 landmark Court of Appeals ruling in the
San Diego
case:
http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/San_Diego_Appeal_Ruling.pdf
2008 landmark Court of Appeals ruling in the
Kha case:
http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/GardenGroveDecision.pdf
ASA web page on the
San Diego case:
http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/article.php?id=4405