CORRECTION….......
Carl DeBelly is the attorney for THE HEALING CENTER MONTANA.

The fact that qualified patients have to resort to a six or seven hour ordeal at a traveling cannabis roadshow to get their prescriptions is a sad state of affairs. When the sky-high souvineer t-shirt and hoody prices from the carnival were posted, I knew positively the main motivation for them being there. If the consciensious and responsible cannabis crowd wants to maintain an aura of legitimacy, they need to step up and educate the Drs. and established medical clinics on its use and effectiveness so THEY lose the attitude and start prescribing it as any other medication.

Alternately, embrace the evident entrepreneurial spirit of the “caregivers”, acknowledge them as legitimate businesses and part of a growth industry that can supply many jobs and much tax revenue to the state.

We need to figure out what common sense regulation is necessary to drop the “medical” and create a legal market for all adults.

Hummm…  $100 to $150 a head to attend a seminar to learn how to grow your own and get stoned legally. Did that price include free snacks (brownies) at the seminar?  I wonder how much more one had to fork out to buy a pot card. All in all, not a bad deal, but it doesn’t sound too “medical” or professional to me.

Gawd, my neck is really sore, lately.

Circus would be a better word to use than clinic when dealing with these newly legitimized drug dealers.  If it looks like a racket, talks like a racket and walks like a racket it quite probably is.  P.T. Barnum would be tickled pink to see that his old adage about a sucker being born every minute is still fully operational in 21st century America.  Medicineman in particular seems to be the biggest huckster of all.

Far out,  FOF. 
I had a hangnail last night but good old Doc at the biker bar fixed me up.  The cobweb tattoos around his elbows look great when you have a good buzz. 
Alas, I have a headache from the Jack Daniels. 
Twist one.

I wonder if we will see a huge spike in cataracts cases.

dsrobbins can kiss my medicine growing ###.  what went on last saturday was all between consenting adults in what is supposed to be a free country so wipe the sand out of your…........ wether people like it or not this is a new industry voted yes by 62 percent of montanans.  My guess is this dsrobbins is some out of state forigner because a true montanan would be happy for every god given right our socialist government allows us to have.
  we have patients who need us.  people with glaucoma cancer and serious pain.  why dont you tell them im just a drug dealer and that they dont need my services while they slowly go blind or are waiting the inevitable end of cancer
WAKE UP!!!!

Medicine Men

i do agree that there will be problems someone might drive and run over a highway patrol oh wait thats alcohol
  ok well someone might overdose and just die in their sleep oh wait that would be what walgreens is pushin
  the only reason it illigal is because you can grow it yourself making it hard for the government to get their cut alcohol is without question a schedule 1 drugs the difference is i dont have the cash to line the pockets of the guys who make the laws

medicine men,
as a wife and mother, and as someone who has lived in Montana her entire life I would like to THANK YOU!!  I am able to have some kind of life with my family, I get out of bed, move around and eat meals with my loved ones.  Thank you so very deeply.
To anyone else who has never been in a situation where your only options are paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a handful of pills that lasts a week, or injesting an organic natural plant however you decide, you are a very lucky person and I hope you are greatful everyday you wake and begin your day.

“By the way” - once marijuana is legal for everyone, we’ll need to have the same sorts of “while intoxicated” prohibitions as we do with alcohol.

Drug testing for marijuana is a scam - only marijuana is detectable for weeks. Want to beat your drug test? Switch to hard drugs. :/

NORML discussed this problem of defining “medical use” :

http://blog.montananorml.org/2010/01/23/the-medical-marijuana-problem/

Everyone deserves access to whatever medicine helps to heal whatever their condition may be. It is absurd to delegate to the government the power to decide how and with what one chooses to medicate with. Cannabis IS a medicine.

The Los Angeles city council has just voted to close 80% of the medical marijuana dispensaries in the city immediately.  Los Angeles has over 1000 such dispensaries operating throughout the city.  They even outnumber the Starbucks outlets.  City officials said the dispensaries that are allowed to remain open will be subject to far stricter regulation henceforth.  Officials and commentators said it was clear that the sale of medical marijuana had gone completely out of control, and citizens particularly objected to the presence of those located near schools, churchs and other places where children and young people were known to congregate. 

As usual, California leads the nation in recognizing a serious social problem and promptly dealing with it.  Montana, as usual, will lag behind, allowing this latest racket to spread throughout the state.

Hey dsrobins,  maybe you should move back to nation-leading California.  We mis-directed Montanans are too focused on life, liberty and the freedom to medicate naturally not pharmaceutically. Enjoy L.A.

I’m sure many of those closed down dealers in LA are already on their way to Montana. You can bet dsrobins has told his LA friends to come on up to Montana.

If you’ve actually followed the news on LA, you’ll remember that while other California cities were working with the growers to establish local regulations, LA did nothing, for years, and they ended up with 100s of dispensaries. LA was *behind*.

It’s clear that some regulations are needed. I hope that caregivers and municipal leaders work together on things that make sense.

And by the way, Denver actually is in the lead for marijuana stores per capita, last I checked.

Yep, lots more unemployed Californians will be moving up here soon because they are hearing that the next marijuana bonanza will be right here in little old backward Montana.  The Mexican drug rings won’t be far behind and they’ll be bringing all their guns with them too.

dsrobbins, I don’t follow.

The Mexican drug gangs thrive because of prohibition. Creating a legal regulated market has the potential to steal business from them and put it in the hands of law-abiding citizens and responsible regulators who could tax the transactions and fund schools or law enforcement or health care.

Jack, I’m afraid that’s just not true. I’m not sure what kind of tax you think the dispensaries will contribute, since Montana has no sales tax. The nearby state I live in has had legalized medical marijuana for several years and does collect sales tax, but not only have we seen zero benefit from any taxes collected from the dispensaries, the cost for the increase in law enforcement needed vastly outweighs what is collected. As far as the Mexian gangs, I can confirm that completely. The gang crime associated with dispensaries and the producers is literally killing our town. I was all in favor of legalizing and the dispensaries, but I really regret it now - I never would have imagined it would create so many problems. Our area is trying to figure out how to recind the law allowing dispensaries because it has caused so much crime. There is crime around the dispensaries (huge increase in theft in the area - people gotta find money to buy - and also armed robbery of the dispensaries) but growing the product for the dispensaries is where the big money can be made and that is where the big crime comes in. Mexican gangs are really, really good at the marijuana business - they are the undisputed experts and they arrived in our area shortly after the first dispensary opened to provide the product. They do the volume production of the supply for the demand, and because there is so much money involved, they are ruthless.  Like a field of dreams, if you build it (a dispensary) they will come.
Here’s part of an article from the Wall St Journal in Nov 09:
“In the past few years, Mexican drug gangs have done what any burgeoning business would do: move closer to their customers. Marijuana is a lucrative business for Mexican cartels, generating at least $9 billion a year in estimated revenues”.
So, unless you want the marijuana trade to be completely regulated by gov’t, and I doubt you do, it will always have this kind of black market involvement.

KRT1,
WHAT BULL SH#T YOU WRITE!!!!!!!
There is zero (0) Mexican marijuana in REAL collectives!
Our patients use REAL medical cannabis.
As the executive director of the largest NON PROFIT collective in Montana. (registered with state of Montana in good standing)
The Healing Center Montana.
I can attest to the fact that your vicious statements are 100%!!! false!
Come to our collective and see for yourself.
(if you have a card)? Do you?
There is zero bricked Mexican weed at any of our collectives! ( that’s how its get here you know)
It is this fear mongering like yours, that continues to put a bad light on this subject.
All of our medical cannabis is grown locally, like the wheat in our field and the bison in our meadow.
We are 100% organic producers just like @ your local co-op!
We employ local workers at a REAL living wage!
Even our web site is 100% wind powered!
Also any safety measure’s used at a bank or a liquor store or a jewelry store are used in our locations.They seem to be able to operate. How can that be?
I work 7 days a week at least 12 hrs a day.
I have hospice for certain patients ( free medicine).
We have donated $500 to our local food bank so far this year.
We have donated $500 to Haiti relief.
We have donated $500 to Sensible Colorado.
As for taxes,
I WILL NOT LET YOU TAX MY SICK AND DIEING PATIENTS!!!!!!
There is NO sales taxes on pharmaceuticals ANYWHERE in this country what makes you think you can tax this?????
Legalize cannabis and tax it!!!!!
Like,
Tobacco
Alcohol,
Gambling,
Prostitution ( yes its legal in Nevada and taxed by the feds)!!!
This is my life to live and I know what helps my ailments keep you grubby little hands out of my personnel affairs!!
That is my right as a Montanan!!
If you do not like it….............MOVE!!!!
I guess you will believe ANYTHING as long as the Wall Street Journal prints it….........and NONE of what is actually seen!
Please do so current research.
Foot note;
I operate in Colorado also,Durango and Pagosa Springs to be exact and none of what you have said is happening there either!
By your statements I have very strong suspicion that you are in Colorado.

Sincerely,
Michael J. Smith
Executive Director
www.thehealingcentermt.org

KRT1:  Thank you for a very good post. I hope you have popped that euphoric bubble so many people have about marijuana. Another thing people don’t realize is that todays high grade strains of marijuana are 15 to 20 times more potent than the traditional stuff smoked 20 years ago and more expensive. Hence, the involvement of Mexican drug cartels and others competing for control of this very profitable trade. British Columbia has also been producing High grade marijuana, “BC Bud”, in sophisticated indoor hydroponics labs. Montana’s new legalized marijuana laws could very well make us a trafficking state for supplying marijuana to the entire northwestern U.S. There is good reason to be concerned.

Mr. Smith, aka “medicineman” sounds like a nice upstanding citizen, wouldn’t you say.  How nice of him to move his business operations from Colorado to Montana .

im a born and raised montanan and so are my parents.  i run a tight ship here.  Everything by the book and if i ever heard of any patient using marijuana for anything but medical i would have to end the relationship. 
Get rid of the taboo.  Walgreens meds get into the wrong hands alll the time and much harder drugs and they also get robbed all the time.  But your not trying to run them outta town?
doesnt anyone believe in freedom anymore.  freedom to take a medication of choice not some chemical crap doctors push to fattin the kick back check.  All organic and natural.  created by the man unstairs himself. 
Maybe you should have him arrested.

Wow, the real Michael J. Smith of the Healing Center Montana, aka Medicineman, emerges with all the anger, rage and obscenity that one expects from a huckster or a carny caught in the act of self-promotion.  It’s sad that so many innocent and naive Montanans get suckered into dealing with people like him.

no his screen name is medicine man
my dispensery is medicine men
different people.  anger rage obsenity, i think im being nice considering the attacks you make on me and the business im in.

KRT1, Rawhide:

The Mexican gangs are still in it because of the half-steps we’ve taken towards a legal market. They’re the brave ones (after all they cross borders with guns and cash and contraband!) who are diving in. Not everywhere, but I believe your story.

If we had a proper legal regulated market, legitimate licensed businesses would be producing marijuana in fields and warehouses.

I would like to see marijuana regulated in a manner similar but not identical to beer & wine. Age limits, limited home production allowed (homebrew), licensed producers, licensed retailers, advertising restrictions.

High-grade marijuana (high % THC) has always existed, it’s just more prevalent now because growers have learned better practices. Stronger is not the equivalent to more dangerous. It just means people smoke less to gain the desired effect, whether it’s pain relief, appetite stimulation, better sex, artistic inspiration, cinematic hilarity, or whatever.

Sadly, I’m sure the only way for this issue to become resolved is for the Cannabis growers to take lots of money from their patients so they can afford to get the right votes, just look at the big pharmaseutical companies and that is a step by step guide how to get the most dangerous mind altering substances legal and pushed to the public without any legal consequences.

Jack;  The Mexican gangs/drug cartels are not the “brave ones” involved in the Marijuana business. They are the dangerous ones. I accept the legal use of marijuana for TRUE medical purposes, but there seems to be way too many people out there with fraudulent or imagined medical problems who just want a legal pass to use and sell marijuana. I see these legal pot promoters being in it just to make a buck, much the same as the drug cartels.  “The Healing Center -Montana” claims to be a non-profit organization, and yet they advocate growing pot as a major crop in Montana for exporting out of state (which is legal under our present law). Take a look at their own web site. The state needs to look into that.

Taxing legal marijuana will not eliminate the illegal trade. It will only drive up the price and create more demand for illegal pot. The answer is strict control and tough law enforcement. But Montana doesn’t have the resources (tax $$) for adequate enforcement and the dealers know it.

So any word on when the war on drugs will be won? Illicit drugs are cheaper and purer than they were two decades ago, and continue to be readily available. Oh, it’s more enforcement you want? Check to see how much we’ve spent on fighting it. I’ll cue you in, it’s in the hundreds of billions and counting.

Rawhide,
I do not know where you get your info but we do not export medicine out of state!
You must be confused due to the fact that my 69yr old mother runs a collective in Colorado.She grows there also for her patients.
As for non profit YES we are look it up on the states website before you go slandering someone.
That is not how real Montanans act!
Bone spurs are real and so is nerve damage.
A lot of our younger generation 20s-30s are much much more active in extreme sports and are injured younger and younger.
A natural remedy is much safer in the long run as compared to the pharmaceutical industry.
The younger generation is much more aware of the ramifications of pills than there parents.
Thank you
Michael J. Smith
Executive Director
The Healing Center Montana
Sensible Montana
Montana Hemp Farmers
406-581-8712
www.TheHealingCenterMt.org
www.MontanaHempFarmers.org
www.SensibleMontana.org

Rawhide, you are right. Those gangs are indeed the dangerous ones.

No experts I am aware of believe marijuana prices will rise when we create a taxed and regulated market for all adults. The (vigorous) debate is about how much it will drop, 30%, or 300%. For perspective, the most labor-intensive and valuable herb in the world, saffron, sells for around $100-200/oz.

What we do need to watch out for is taxes that are too exorbitant—if taxes are too high, tax-free black market marijuana dealers will continue to thrive. We’ve seen this with tobacco already.

Mr. Smith;  Much of my information came from your own website, its links and “Caregivers” (suppliers).  The following info is cut and pasted directly from your extensive website (without trying to provide free advertising):

“ALL GOV ISSUED MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARDS FROM OTHER STATES ARE LEGAL HERE IN MONTANA. WE CAN HELP YOU.  Mike @ THC - 406.581…...

Strains Available: Tighty Whitey - is very potent improvement,  very high THC.  Potency: exceeds 28%
 
Champagne - is a hybrid…. Immediate altered state. Gives an intense body high .... mind high that sticks with you for hours …… THC Content 18-22%

As for you being a non-profit organization, I’m only suggesting the state keep its eye on you so as to keep you that way.

Rawhide,
You are just a liar.
You did not cut and paste the following from my website.
There is NO strain on my website called ” tighty whitey-is very potent” Etc.
Do you know what slander is?
All gov cards are accepted in Montana its in the law, why dont you try reading it!!!!
As it is in Michigan and Rhode island, it called be reciprocal.
If you continue to slander my non profit you WILL be litigated against.

Rawhide ,
I dont have a link to caregivers either.
Put your beer down and sober up.
You have confused me with someone else.

Wow, yet another angry posting by Michael J. Smith, aka medicineman, who heads what he likes to call the non-profit Healing Center Montana.  Judging from his rage and anger, there must be lots at stake here.  Perhaps that’s why he’s repeatedly threatening to sue anyone who criticizes him, his organization or his objectives.  Anger management counseling seems highly advisable.  As for the rest of us, we’ve already decided we will never do business with him or any entity connected to him.

Mr. Smith has done a good job revealing his true self and what kind of medicine show he’s running. I’m sure Montana’s Department of Justice will keep close tabs on him and his sideshow.