GALLATIN COUNTY — In Montana, 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. That’s why the Gallatin County Commission allocates marijuana tax revenue dollars towards mental health services, like the Help Center.
“There's no wrong door to accessing services here. There’s no wrong way for somebody to come in and get help,” said McKenley Hayes, who works at Help Center, Inc.
“It’s quite an honor to get to be with people when they’re vulnerable,” said Perrin Lundgren, who works at Help Center, Inc.
Hayes and Lundgren both started as volunteers at Help Center. Hayes has been there for seven years; Lundgren for 16.
WATCH: From cannabis to care - marijuana tax revenue helps support crisis call line
Help Center, founded in the 1970s, is a non-profit serving 13 counties in Southwest Montana through three crisis call lines, sexual assault advocacy, and trauma-informed counseling.
“Help Center is so important not just because of the things we’re doing… it’s community supporting community,” said Lundgren.
The Help Center moved to a new location off Haggerty in January 2025. They used to operate out of a house on Peach Street and a building off Babcock.
“All of our admin and the hotline were in, like, two tiny little bedrooms,” said Lundgren.
In 2025, Help Center served more than 4,800 people and provided more than 8,000 hours of counseling. What you may not know: $100,000 of marijuana tax revenue went towards renovations of the new campus.
“The revenue we received, we were able to renovate a portion of the main building here into our new call center,” said Lundgren. She also says the funding enabled them to add more call stations.
That $100,000 is just a portion of the $500,000 to $800,000 of marijuana tax revenue Gallatin County receives every year. Voters passed a 3% local option tax on recreational and medical marijuana in 2022.
“All of the revenue that Gallatin County receives goes into our mental health fund,” said Zach Brown, Gallatin County Commissioner.
Why? Brown says it's because the state and federal government are divesting in mental health services.
“We’re all each other has here at the community level, I think in a lot of ways, and we have to make our service system stronger so that our neighbors have access to health when they are having a bad day.”
In fiscal year 2025, the commission also allocated $200,000 of the revenue to HRDC for Homeward Point and another $200,000 towards purchasing a youth mental health crisis campus north of Belgrade.
“We’re just trying to be a good partner, and these marijuana funds have helped us be a good partner,” said Brown.
For the Help Center, both the county and the community have been vital.
“Really, without each of those pieces, we wouldn’t be here. So we just feel really grateful,” said Hayes.
For more information about accessing mental health services, visit this link.
