How to legally medicate with medical marijuana in Montana Play Video
Posted: Feb 4, 2010 4:45 PM
Updated: Feb 5, 2010 5:17 PM
This is the second story in our Rocky Mountain Remedy series on medical marijuana in Montana.
From cannabis to chronic, ganga to giggle weed, blue haze to bud, marijuana is known by many names.
It's a plant that has been used for centuries around the world, but has had a relatively short history of being called medicine in the United States.
The movement for medical marijuana began in California in 1996. Now 14 states have legalized cannabis, including Montana, where 62 percent of voters passed Initiative 148 in 2004, saying "yes" to the medicinal use of marijuana.
To legally medicate with marijuana in Montana, you must first register with the state Department of Public Health and Human Services in Helena.
The application process is fairly simple - fill out the form, provide written approval from a licensed doctor that says you have a debilitating medical condition and pay $25.
The law limits the kinds of illnesses that qualify a patient for medical marijuana. They include cancer, glaucoma, HIV or AIDS, chronic pain, severe nausea and seizures. Unlike California, insomnia or anxiety will not get you a license in Montana.
State officials have issued nearly 8,000 medical marijuana cards in the last five years. Due to a high number of applicants, it is currently taking seven to eight weeks for new patients to get legal.
One caregiver emphasized that marijuana is a real medicine that is helping real people change their lives.
"Many of these patients have never used this product ever in their life, but they try it. One cancer patient in Butte who had never used, she takes a quarter of a cookie every night, and it allows her to sleep, and that's something she had never been able to do before," Jim Gingery with the Montana Medical Growers Association said.
Right now, Montana law stipulates that anyone with a medical marijuana card can possess six plants or one ounce of dried cannabis. If they can't or don't want to grow marijuana themselves, patients choose a caregiver, who becomes the only person legally able to sell the product to that patient.
While a caregiver can have an unlimited number of patients, each medical marijuana card holder can only have one caregiver.
Click here for more information on medical marijuana from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.
