Faced with a stalemate on an issue most

Montanans agree needs attention, the Montana Senate last week

managed to approve two medical marijuana bills and get them to the

House.

House Bill 161, which seeks to repeal

the state’s medical marijuana law, was overwhelmingly approved in

the House by a 62-37 vote on Feb. 21 and sent on to the Senate.

Both of Whitefish’s local representatives, Bill Beck, R-Whitefish,

and Derek Skees, R-Kalispell, voted in favor of HB 161.

The bill, however, had stalled in the

Senate until another Whitefish Republican legislator, Sen. Ryan

Zinke, “blasted” it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A 6-6

vote across party lines had effectively stalled the bill on March

14.

“We needed to do something,” Zinke told

the Pilot.

HB 161 was approved by 28-22 on April

1. Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, however, is expected to veto

the bill when it reaches his desk.

The Senate also sent a medical

marijuana reform bill to the House. Zinke said a committee was

formed after HB 161 stalled in the Senate and came up with a reform

bill, Senate Bill 423.

The Senate passed SB 423 on March 31 by

a 36-14 vote after Zinke promoted bipartisan support. However,

because it was moved to the House beyond the transmittal time, the

bill needed House approval to suspend the rules. While the House

had its repeal bill approved and ready for the governor, it

recognized the importance of also having a reform bill in place,

and the special vote went 100-0 in favor of accepting SB 423 for a

House vote.

HB 161 would repeal an act

overwhelmingly approved by Montana voters in 2004. It also could

cost the state about $262,000 next year and $317,000 in 2013 to

arrest and incarcerate drug offenders, the fiscal note attached to

the bill states.

According to an analysis of conviction

trends by the Department of Corrections, drug offenses had

increased by an average of 44 per year from 1995 to 2006 but then

declined by an average of 91 per year from 2007 to 2010. The

department attributed the 6.5 percent decline in drug convictions

to the state’s medical marijuana law.

SB 423 seeks to address concerns of

Montana voters that the medical marijuana act has allowed the

growth of an industry that promotes drug use by people who don’t

need medical marijuana. With more than 28,000 registered

cardholders eligible to use medical marijuana, roughly one out of

every 19 Montana households now have a someone with a card.

SB 423 would require people to see two

doctors in order to get a card, eliminate storefront sales of

medical marijuana, and limit caregivers to supplying medical

marijuana to only four cardholders and “without compensation.”

Skees has said he is a supporter of

taking the money out of the medical marijuana industry.

Zinke said the intent of the bill is to

“remove bad industry players.”

“The state’s medical marijuana law

should help critical, chronic patients, which is what Montanans

have compassion for,” Zinke said.