Following the Supreme Court ruling yesterday, our case is now back before district court in Helena. Our attorney Jim Goetz filed a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order this morning to keep the state from enforcing SB423′s limit of 3 or fewer patients for providers and the ban on any form of compensation for back-end agricultural costs and overhead. He also asked for a new injunction which would reinstate the portions of the injunction overturned by the Montana Supreme Court.
The judge held a hearing today with our attorney and the attorney general’s office to discuss the Temporary Restraining Order. The judge decided he will not rule on the TRO until the close of the day on Friday. That means that currently, providers can not have more than 3 patients and cannot receive anything of value from the patients they have.
The MTCIA argued strongly that this would have a devastating effect on the providers out there because once operations stop, they will be very difficult if not impossible to start up again should the TRO come out a few days from now. The state argued that under the new standard set by the Supreme Court, we are unlikely to get a new injunction and so a TRO is a waste of time. Both sides buried the judge in a blizzard of documents and the judge felt he needed to review everything before making his decision – thus telling the two sides they would have to wait until Friday for his answer despite our arguments.
In the mean time, DPHHS will start sending letters out to patients in the morning (Thursday) telling them they have 30 days to declare a new provider or notify the state they will grow their own. The Department will send letters in alphabetical order and it will likely take a few days to get all 5,500 letters in the mail.
I did not enjoy this article.
this is horrible news.
Yay! More stress!
Me neither Rose
Throwing up now!
What???
What are we suppose to do?
Grow our own???
Will our government give us as patients, grant monies to build a green house? So, I can grow my own medicine?
Seriously, if Medical Marijuana is a ‘medicine’, why don’t we just get a perscription, from the doctor like any other ‘medicine’?
Frustrated:(
Well, you did get a prescription from your doctor, at least you did if you have a card.
Your legislatures have decided that you don’t need this prescription unless you can grow your own.
Right now it looks like we have a few choices; We need to get that temporary restraining order and we need to work hard to get everyone to vote against IR 124. I think we can do it. Please tell everyone you know to vote against it!
Tvorsky made a really good statement yesterday and our 3 patients came up with their own version and think its a great idea. $200 pays for the ziploc, $40 thoughtful donation (because they are great plastic bags), $10 taxes to Uncle Sam for sale of ziploc = $250 … and for a limited time only, during October, any purchase of 1 or more ziploc wins the purchaser 1 year of free cannabis.
Tvorsky said, “might not be able to buy medicine, but in the free market whatever is a fair price to both seller and buyer is legal. So, what’s to stop me from paying my provider nothing for medicine but agreeing to pay $240 for a ziplock bag, if I want to pay that for a zip lock bag?”
Yup! Count me in for exclusive ziplock, decorate the damn things with original drawings and raffle tickets for monthly prizes and incentives. Ill make the best damn ziplock creations you can imagine
.
I’m SO thankful for everyone on mtcia, and want to thank everyone and anyone apart of this/dealing with this horseshit. We are not bad people, we are not evil greedy corporate monsters. We are the family homes, the friendly neighbors, the smiles in town. The power of the people as a whole will allow us to be free you guys I swear. I give my deepest regards to all of you, and humble myself for helping with this cause. When you get down and out, please know that my/everybody’s heart goes out to you.
So what’s the news?!??!