Friday, 3/20 – Attend the Hearing on SB 326!

We hope you can join us this coming Friday afternoon, for a hearing of critical importance to our efforts to improve Montana’s medical marijuana law.

The Senate passed SB 326 – our ambitious program-improvement bill – with only a few amendments. Now, it is vital that members of the House Human Services Committee understand how this legislation will greatly contribute to the future security and well-being of the state’s medical marijuana patients.

The House hearing on SB 326 will begin promptly at 3 pm in room 152 of the capitol building.

Earlier in the day, Patients & Families United will host an organizing luncheon at Jorgenson’s for those who plan to testify or to attend the hearing. Our reservation at Jorgenson’s begins at 11:30 am, with soup, salad and sandwiches to be served at Noon.

Please RVSP in response to this email if you plan to join us for the lunch!

Wheelchair access to the Jorgenson’s banquet room is easiest from the parking lot on the West side of the facility. You can find a map and directions to Jorgenson’s – it’s on the NW corner of 11th Avenue and North Lamborn.

Very soon after the hearing, we will ask you to take time to send emails to and leave phone messages for members of the House committee – and to ask all your friends to help in this way as well. We need a majority-vote of support in this committee to succeed.

In the meantime, however, if you or any of your friends lives in an area local to any of these committee members – or if you have a personal relationship with any of these legislators (particularly with any Republicans) – please begin calling and emailing this week:


House Human Services Committee

Arlene Becker, chairperson (D-Billings)
Mary Caffero, vice-chair (D-Helena)
Pat Ingraham, vice-chair (R-Thompson Falls)
Bill Beck (R-Whitefish)
Julie French (D-Scobey)
Tim Furey (D-Milltown)
David Howard (R-Park City)
Chuck Hunter (D-Helena)
Dave McAlpin (D-Missoula)
Michael More (R-Gallatin Gateway)
Pat Noonan (D-Ramsay)
Ken Peterson (R-Billings)
Diane Sands (D-Missoula)
Cary Smith (R-Billings)
Ron Stoker (R-Darby)
Jeff Wellborn (R-Dillon)

We need at least one Republican on this committee to vote in support of SB 326 – Republicans are clearly our “weak link.” Despite their frequently stated “values” in support of freedom and individual choice, Republicans seem frozen in old-fashioned thinking that regards marijuana solely as an “illegal drug.”

Key themes to emphasize:

• Medical marijuana is invaluable to patients – and Montana voters overwhelmingly want patients with physician recommendations to have access to the medicine they need. SB 326 is designed to make it much easier for patients to be assured of success.

• SB 326 will make it easier for patients and their caregivers to grow steady supplies of medical marijuana. It also will allow patients (and caregivers) to turn for help from other caregivers when their own gardens aren’t ready yet.

• The current law is far too restrictive. For patients who need to ingest (rather than vaporize or smoke) their medicine, it is virtually impossible to function legally under the current law. Even with the improvements of SB 326, patients and their caregivers combined would only be allowed to possess at any time the equivalent of 3-weeks of medicine under the regime the federal government uses for its medical marijuana program (the feds distribute 8 ounces per month to patients; SB 326 allows a total of 6 ounces for patient/caregiver combined).

• SB 326 embraces the spirit of the decision Montana voters made – which, in turn, was summarized by President George W. Bush in his 2007 State of the Union address: “In all we do, we must remember that the best health care decisions are made not by government and insurance companies, but by patients and their doctors.”

The phone number for leaving messages for legislators is: 406-444-4800.

The fax number for reaching House members is: 406-444-4825

You can email legislators here (use back-spacing to make it easy to send the same message to multiple legislators quickly): http://leg.mt.gov/css/sessions/61st/legwebmessage.asp

You can read the current version of SB 326 here: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billpdf/SB0326.pdf

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Green Mountain Group

Is there a chance of a republican supporting this? or will they pull the party line and have a 8/8 deadlock? what;s the word on the street?

Several republicans in the state senate already jumped on the first vote, so there is a possibility.
The more response they get from us the better chances that it will pass.
Please come to Helena Friday to show your support!
GMG

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Green Mountain Group