Medicinal marijuana popped up in the news again today - this time with the use of marijuana to address the medical conditions of Montana parolees.
A proposal to modify the conditions for probation and parole for Montana criminal offenders was met with resistance in the second and final hearing on the Department of Corrections' proposed rule changes.
Critics of the measure said parolees would face higher recidivism and unemployment rates, and increased medical costs and physical suffering if the rule is approved as written. The measure would, in part, prohibit supervised offenders from using medical marijuana, drinking alcohol, gambling or incurring debt.
"This proposed rule is illegal and it completely defies Montana's medical marijuana law," said Tom Daubert, founder and director of Patients & Families United, the group that spearheaded the 2004 voter-approved initiative legalizing medical marijuana in the state. "That law makes it quite clear that people who are under department supervision, who are not inside a corrections facility, such as probationers and parolees, can use medical marijuana as authorized under the law."
So...if you're on parole...and you use marijuana to treat a debilitative medical condition, under these rules, you'd go back to prison. And the use of marijuana to treat a medical condition is legal, according to state law.
Then why is the Montana Department of Corrections planning to throw parolees back into prison for using medicinal marijuana?
Ron Alsbury, chief of probation and parole for the DOC, said the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's position on medical marijuana is clear. He added that marijuana use, for any reason, is a federal offense, regardless of state law.
Er...since when does Montana back down in the face of the incursion of federal power?
And forget federal power for a moment. Does this make sense? Why do we want to spend state taxpayer money jailing folks for using a medicine prescribed legally by a doctor? Is that any of our business to begin with?
The Tribune story notes that the DOC is taking public comments on its proposal. You can submit written comments to Myrna Omholt-Mason at PO Box 201301, Helena, MT, 59620.
(For an idea of who's using medicinal marijuana, check out Rob Harper's profile of Dillon's "pot baron," Scott Day.)
William F. Buckley, Jr:
Conservatives pride themselves on resisting change, which is as it should be. But intelligent deference to tradition and stability can evolve into intellectual sloth and moral fanaticism, as when conservatives simply decline to look up from dogma because the effort to raise their heads and reconsider is too great. The laws aren't exactly indefensible, because practically nothing is, and the thunderers who tell us to stay the course can always find one man or woman who, having taken marijuana, moved on to severe mental disorder. But that argument, to quote myself, is on the order of saying that every rapist began by masturbating. General rules based on individual victims are unwise. And although there is a perfectly respectable case against using marijuana, the penalties imposed on those who reject that case, or who give way to weakness of resolution, are very difficult to defend. If all our laws were paradigmatic, imagine what we would do to anyone caught lighting a cigarette, or drinking a beer. Or - exulting in life in the paradigm - committing adultery. Send them all to Guantanamo? |
