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Not too long ago any talk of a "green" business had something to do with the environment or climate change. But a bumper crop of new medical marijuana businesses in Missoula—and across the state—forces a new definition of the phrase. Montanans are now coming to grips with a different kind of green business, and an emerging "green rush."
Much like the West's gold rush, the noticeable rise in cannabusinesses elicits a mix of heart-warming success stories, rampant opportunism and chaotic legal wrangling. More than anything, the current green rush speaks to just how fast the industry has grown since federal enforcement was relaxed late last year.
The numbers tell much of the story. At the end of 2008, Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) reported 1,557 registered medical marijuana patients in the state. One year later, there were 7,339. Based on current trends and estimates from those in the industry, the state likely added another 3,000-plus patients to the rolls in January.
In Missoula County, where 935 patients were registered at the end of 2009, storefront businesses are sprouting up throughout downtown. The city counted four licensed medical marijuana businesses last November. Now, just three months later, there are 12, according to Bill Bonetati, accounting supervisor at the city's licensing department.
That number doesn't include the many more registered caregivers operating without storefronts. According to DPHHS, 260 caregivers call Missoula County home, and they range from those growing marijuana in a spare bedroom for one patient to those with more than 500 patients growing thousands of plants in local warehouses. These operations may challenge the community's capacity to enforce the vague state law that governs them, but are still gaining legitimacy. To wit, one local business, Zoo Mountain Natural Care, joined the Missoula Chamber of Commerce last month, the first such business to join any of the chambers in the state.
The "green rush" took five years to take root in the Treasure State (see timeline below). In 2004, 62 percent of voters supported Initiative 148, making Montana the 10th state to pass a medical marijuana program. (There are now 14.) At the infancy of the Medical Marijuana Act, patients and caregivers still feared federal prosecution. For instance, Missoula activist Robin Prosser, the poster child for medical marijuana rights, fought a constant battle against federal authorities to gain access to her medicine until she killed herself in 2007. Just last year, the Independent interviewed four different caregivers who, despite adhering to state laws, operated largely secret grow houses and delivery services in order to help registered patients who also felt as if they could be arrested at any moment.
But the landscape abruptly changed last October after the Obama administration announced that federal authorities would defer to state marijuana laws, essentially meaning the days of feds raiding patients' homes and pot dispensaries around the country were over. The move opened the floodgates in Montana, bringing the industry out of the grow rooms and onto main street. Patients and marijuana advocates rejoiced, and law enforcement appeared to look the other way. Today, advocates and law enforcement alike wonder if it's grown too fast (see sidebar on page 16). Specifically, concerned patients question whether some caregivers operate in deference to the "spirit of the law" and keep a patient's best interests in mind. Authorities suspect the law now serves to "cloak" illegal drug dealing. Either way, the industry has changed dramatically, causing a ripple effect through the local job market, medical community, court system and police force.
The Independent spoke with more than 50 sources to try to cut through the haze of the state's medical marijuana industry. What we found might be best explained by walking through the three steps to becoming a medical marijuana patient: finding a doctor, choosing a caregiver, and growing medicine on your own.
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Great article. Its fair to say that there are some "drug dealers" taking advantage of the Montana Medical Marijuana Act and using it primarily to make great profits. However, more importantly seriously ill patients are able to legally access this remarkably safe medicine that in many cases greatly improves their quality of life. Over the past 2 decades researchers around the world are learning more and more about the newly discovered endogenous cannabinoid system. Yes, folks - all humans have receptors for cannabinoids and all humans make their own cannabinoids (endocannabinoids) that are essential to life and are responsible for maintaining homeostasis. Cannabis/marijuana is the ONLY plant that has these same cannabinoids (phyto-cannabinoids) and this new research helps us understand how and why this plant has such a wide array of therapeutic effects. Patients Out of Time is a national non-profit organization dedicated to educating health care professionals and the public about the therapeutic use of cannabis. This year Patients Out of Time celebrates its 15th anniversary (see www.medicalcannabis.com) and the 10th anniversary of its biennial series of accredited clinical cannabis conferences. The Sixth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick-Providence, RI on April 15-17, 2010 and will feature an international faculty of researchers, clinicians and patients. coming from Israel, Professor Raphael Mechoulam, the father of modern cannabis research, will be the keynote speaker and will review the major research findings beginning with his isolation of THC in 1964 to the new discoveries about the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The conference is co-sponsored by the University of California San Francisco's School of Medicine and will provide continuing education units for health care professionals. This conference will provide evidence-based research that supports the efficacy of cannabis.
Also of interest at this conference will be an organizational meeting of the newly created American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine and a founding meeting of the American Cannabis Nurses Association.
For those unable to attend the conference, you can find the 2006 and 2008 conference proceedings available for continuing education through UCSF School of Medicine's online continuing education website via a link on www.medicalcannabis.com. Its way past time for cannabis to re-enter mainstream medicine and for health care professionals to learn about the efficacy of this herbal medicine. And its way past time to end the "reefer madness" lies and myths about this plant. Sincerely, Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, MSN, CARN, President and Co-fonder of Patients Out of Time.
Yo Matthew, Why no full disclosure about how much the Independent is taking in from this "Green Rush"? Every damn page seems to have an ad from care givers these days...and thoes ads are not cheap. Looks like the "Green Rush" is paying your bills too. Come on man, thought you were a "journalist"?
Thanks for the comment, Smokey. I think you’d be in better position to question my journalistic integrity if we chose not to write the story at all. Sources in the story are clearly critical of some organizations fueling the “green rush,” some of which happen to be Independent advertisers. We pulled no punches to protect those relationships, about which I have as much knowledge as you. I think most of our readers know there's a strict line between advertising and editorial at the Indy, and that this story wasn’t influenced by advertisers. I, for one, know it wasn’t.
I believe the state should have set up a Dr. in every county. An honest DR. not one like most social security Dr's. Than a patient would have had a Dr. to go see, than the state would have had an honest Dr. doing the interviews instead of a Dr. that was out for the profit
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