UPDATE ON MTCIA LAWSUIT AND FUNDRAISING STATUS

Dear Members:

There have been many recent inquiries regarding the status of the current MTCIA lawsuit and the hearing scheduled for May 20. We are still on-schedule for the upcoming hearing and are very well-positioned for a favorable ruling from Judge Reynolds on our injunction.

We are in the process of transferring our website management from Modwest in Missoula to Zee Creative in Billings. When we complete that transfer, we will post the PDF files of the complete record of the issues that are being litigated so that you can review the case history in it’s entirety. The transition of the website domain to new management has been a nightmare. We offer our apologies for delays in answering inquiries and blogs. We will be updating our website information and hope to be able to respond to your inquiries in a more timely fashion when our website work is completed.

We currently owe our attorneys $38,000. That figure is estimated to climb to $65,000-$80,000 by the end of the hearing process. Several people have asked when the legal costs will end. The answer is that it won’t end until we have a workable bill passed by our state legislature. We are working feverishly to develop a coalition of lawmakers who will get our bill passed. I can tell you from personal conversations with some of our lawmakers that they are watching with interest the events that are occurring in Colorado and Washington as it relates to both medical and recreational marijuana. The successes or failures of those industries will have a profound influence on the future marijuana laws in Montana.

We are in urgent need of funds to continue paying our attorneys. We will be ordering collection boxes for providers to put in their storefronts so that cardholders can contribute to the legal fund. Currently, the providers are bearing the brunt of contributions for our attorneys. We are also printing informational brochures and stickers for those who donate to MTCIA. MTCIA’s administrative costs consume less than 1% of our total donations. 99% of the donations received in the past year has gone to our attorneys. We must keep the momentum going so that our lawmakers recognize our industry as legitimate, tax-paying Montanans.

Yours in Solidarity,

Mort Reid
President, MTCIA