Full Repeal Vetoed by Schweitzer!

Ill post this one here since its not related to my Caregiver to Caregiver post. Schweitzer vetoed the full repeal bill! Read Here!

Only one bill left to threaten us patients this session, SB423. Ill be keepin this thread posted with further details.

Send in your message. They need to hear your voices.
I got this e-mail today.

Daniels
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: News/Update from PATIENTS & FAMILIES UNITED
To:
Date: Tuesday, April 19, 2011, 5:15 PM



[Because we continually update our e-mailing list, this may be your first edition of our periodic news/update about medical marijuana and pain-treatment issues in Montana. By Tom Daubert, founder/director/lobbyist for Patients & Families United.]




· ALERT: Key House & Senate Votes Expected Tomorrow
· Urge House & Senate NO Votes on SB 423 Conference Committee Report
· Next Steps…


Key House & Senate Votes Expected Tomorrow, 4/20

In an irony as laden with sadness as SB 423 is with arbitrary and deliberately unworkable and punishing provisions, tomorrow, April 20, will likely be the day on which both the House and Senate vote on a “free conference committee” report that legislators completed just moments ago.

The SB 423 conference committee report puts “the finishing touches” on a bill we call “repeal in disguise” – and that others have called “the black market bill” – a bill literally intended to “get as close to repeal as possible.” Well, mission accomplished.

SB 423 would stick Montana with the very worst “medical marijuana” law in the country. It is filled with arbitrary and extreme requirements intended to make it virtually impossible for patients with chronic pain to become legal – and to make it extremely unlikely that any approved patient will have reasonably reliable and consistent access to medical-grade cannabis. Any physician making more than 15 recommendations within a year gets investigated, and pays for all the investigations. Chronic pain patients need two different physicians to do a complete exam unless they have “proof” of the “etiology” of their pain. Probationers are banned from eligibility, no matter how dire their medical need for cannabis. Federal medical privacy rights go out the window as local law enforcement is notified of every patient’s status. No one can grow for more than three patients, and people can’t grow cooperatively or efficiently at shared locations. You grow either for infused (non-smokeable) products only, or for “bud” – not both. All growing and production must be “free.” You can never possess more than four “mature, flowering” plants and up to 12 “seedlings” (no taller than 12 inches, after which they magically become “mature and flowering”), nor more than one ounce of cannabis. Labs for quality control are essentially banned.

SB 423 is literally designed to fail patients – not to work as voters intended.

(By the time floor votes on the conference committee report are held, a copy of the new bill should be available via the Legislature’s webpage. The conference committee adopted more than 160 amendments over the last several days.)


Urge House & Senate Members to Vote NO on SB 423

A recent poll by Mason-Dixon found that 87% of Montana voters want either no change or regulatory reform of the medical marijuana law. Montana voters DON’T want “repeal in disguise.”

And, while most agree that the law needs to be “fixed,” legislators SHOULD NOT accept SB 423’s punishing provisions simply because legislative leaders have not allowed alternatives to survive.

Please take a moment to send your own email to all members of both the House and Senate. You can copy and paste your personal message, which will be delivered to all 150 legislators, here:

http://www.montanadrugpolicy.org/alert/40


Next Steps…

If the conference committee report passes both the House and Senate, the bill will then go to the Governor for consideration. If his office formally receives it while the Legislature is still in session, one of his options will be to issue an “amendatory veto,” in which he could propose changes to SB 423 in a “take it or leave it” move. But if the Legislature has shut down by the time the bill gets to the Governor’s office, then his only choices would be to veto or accept the bill (with or without his actual signature).

It’s not too early to urge the Governor to Veto SB 423 unless he is willing and able to transform it into regulation that will actually work for legitimate patients.

Here’s a site from which you can easily send your message to Governor Schweitzer:

http://www.montanadrugpolicy.org/alert/39



[Founded in early 2007, Patients & Families United works to support Montana’s medical marijuana patients, regardless of their medical condition, and pain patients, whether they use medical marijuana or not. If you don’t want to be on the mailing list for these periodic updates, please email to tell us at [email protected]. Visit our website for background and information of use: www.mtpfu.org. We welcome feedback of any kind, including stiff, honest criticism, but we reserve the right to remove from our mailing lists anyone who makes a habitual practice of sending threatening or irrational “flames.”]


www.mtpfu.org

AMERICANS FOR SAFE ACCESS ~ MONTANA
RALLY FOR PATIENT RIGHTS
URGE THE GOVERNOR TO VETO SB423
www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org
Our community is still under attack, even though Governor Schweitzer
vetoed HB161, the medical cannabis repeal bill. SB423 is a repeal bill in
regulatory clothing. Governor Schweitzer may be supportive of the medical
cannabis community, but we must urge him to veto SB423, a bad, harmful
bill. Our community depends on Governor Schweitzer to champion patient
rights by establishing fair and reasonable regulations through administrative
channels.
Help show the Governor that we support his veto of SB423. Join local patients,
caregivers, industry partners and concerned community members for
a rally to ensure patient rights are upheld!

Who: Montana Medical Cannabis Community
What: Rally Against SB423
When: Saturday, April 30, 2011 starting at Noon
Where: North Steps of the Capitol, near 1301 East 6th Ave., Helena 59601
Questions, Comments, Concerns?
Email [email protected] or call 240 393 5504.


I'm going on Sat.
Daniels

Schweitzer didn't do crap and said he wouldn't interfere. I think it's funny his nephew got busted by the feds for getting about a kilo of pot FedExed to his home.LOL.