AG Tim Fox files against motion to wind down medical marijuana program slowly.

AG Tim Fox files against motion to wind down medical marijuana program slowly.

“Patients were hoping for a soft landing following the recent Montana Supreme Court’s decision to allow the legislature’s devastating law undermining the medical marijuana program to go into effect,” said Gregory Zuckert of the MTCIA. “Instead of a soft landing, patients may be in for a crash landing.”

Following last week’s Supreme Court ruling, Jim Goetz, attorney for the MTCIA, filed a motion to create a responsible transition and wind down access to the program. DPHHS sent a declaration to the Court in favor of this motion for the sake of the impacted patients.

Attorney General, Tim Fox’s office’s responded swiftly, however, calling for the Court not to allow the requested structured transition.

“The cancer patients who use cannabis to keep from starving,” said Kate Cholewa, consultant to the MTCIA, “if Fox prevails, they’ll be abruptly cut off. The patient in hospice with a handful of months to live – cut off. Imagine if you had a therapeutic that kept you from seizing every day and someone swept in, said ‘no more,’ and you had to return not only to the seizures but to the hyper-vigilance of never knowing when one might hit.”

Cholewa says there’s no crisis to compel an abrupt implementation of this law that impacts a vulnerable population. “There’s not violence in the streets,” she said. “Fox won the case. As is, legal access to medical marijuana is all but done. We don’t understand why a thoughtful transition would be resisted. Many are calling it “irresponsible,” but to me it is simply unkind, not how Montanans treat their neighbors. “

“We hope the Court will rule for a responsible transition,” said Zuckert, “and in favor of a greater humanity for our citizens.”

 

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