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"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
~ Nelson Mandela |
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Medical marijuana card OK'd after 8 minutes, 6 questions
It took me eight minutes to get a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana.
Jason Christ thinks I waited too long.
The less time physicians spend with medicinal-pot seekers the better, according to Christ, executive director of Montana Caregivers Network.
The controversial group has helped thousands of Montanans sign up for medical marijuana cards at traveling clinics and via Internet consultations.
My eight-minute conversation with a doctor over Skype, an Internet video-communication program, was unnecessarily long, Christ said.
"It sounds like it was pretty thorough," he said after I described it to him. "It's not really necessary to have a doctor who does an in-depth evaluation, like an hour-long evaluation."
That's not how the voter-approved Montana Medical Marijuana Act reads or what the Montana Board of Medical Examiners requires. But Christ is confident that his organization is on the right side of history.
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Committee expected to approve medical pot overhaul
A legislative committee on Monday finalized details of a planned overhaul of the state's medical marijuana law, setting up a final vote to send the proposals to the 2011 Legislature.
The panel did little tinkering with a slate of proposals that has taken months to develop with the help of the medical marijuana industry, law enforcement and local officials. The Children, Families, Health and Human Services interim committee is expected to approve the overhaul at a scheduled Tuesday vote.
Medical marijuana business owners and advocates say the measure goes too far by requiring two doctors to issue a prescription for the most common ailment — chronic pain — held by those getting a card, and banning traveling doctors from writing mass prescriptions.
Through the end of July, about 23,500 Montanans had medical marijuana cards — up from just a few thousand last year when the Obama administration announced it would not prosecute medical marijuana users. The big increase has prompted concern in many communities around the state, which on their own have started banning businesses that sell medical marijuana.
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© Montana Sheriffs & Peace Officers Association
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