Montana Cannabis Industry Association Opposes SB 423

The newly formed Montana Cannabis Industry Association today announced its opposition to a revised medical marijuana bill that Governor Schweitzer has announced he will allow to become law.

“The medical marijuana law passed by the Montana legislature attacks the state’s citizens at the most basic level – their health and their livelihoods. We’re greatly disappointed that Governor Schweitzer will allow this farce of medical marijuana regulations to go into effect,” said Nathan Pierce of the Montana Cannabis Industry Association (MCIA). “We’d hope he’d veto legislation that attacks tens of thousands of Montanans and makes our state look like a bunch of hayseeds when it comes to the emerging science and market for medical cannabis.”

Pierce is the president of the newly formed association.

“We’re not so much a new group,” Pierce said, “as the evolution of several collective efforts in this area.  SB 423 eliminates the estimated 2,000 jobs that have been created by the medical marijuana program. The legislation requires that people who use cannabis for therapeutic reasons must grow it themselves or find someone who will grow it for them for free. The legislature has claimed that this is what the voters want. But at the same time, those same legislators have repeatedly said that Montana voters made a mistake when they passed this law.”

The MCIA believes that if the goal was to clean up gray areas in the law, increase public safety, and eliminate black market leaks, these regulations not only fail but do the exact opposite.

“They crafted a bill designed to fail,” Pierce said. “Our Governor knows that this legislative body lacked the acumen to properly govern. Our entire state knows that. The medical marijuana law they passed is just another of dozens of examples of their incompetence. We hope the Governor will reconsider a veto and break out the brand. Our standards for common sense should be no lower for medical cannabis legislation that it is for anything else.”