The Montana Supreme Court Monday delayed until Aug. 31 the effective date of medical-marijuana restrictions that it declared constitutional in February.
A majority of the court agreed with marijuana industry claims that imposing the restrictions immediately would cause “serious disruption” to a program that’s been operating now for almost five years under less-restrictive rules.
But the court rejected a request by the industry – and the Bullock administration – to delay the restrictions until 2017, to give the next Legislature a chance to modify them.
“To do so would interfere with the implementation of what we have held to be a valid act (to impose the restrictions),” Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote for the five-member majority. “Suspending a law that we have held to be constitutional until the Legislature revisits it would insert the judiciary into the legislative process and would violate the separation of powers.”
The 2011 Legislature enacted the restrictions, which included limiting medical-marijuana providers to three patients, banning providers from advertising and charging for their product, and requiring the Board of Medical Examiners to review any physician approving more than 25 patients for marijuana use.
Marijuana providers and patients challenged the restrictions in state court and the case took five years to resolve. A lower court had allowed growers and patients to operate without some of the restrictions, while the case continued.
The state has about 13,600 people registered with the state to use medical marijuana and nearly 500 marijuana providers.
Jim Goetz, the attorney representing the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, said a four-month delay is better than no delay – but that the three-patient limit is still going to make it difficult for providers to stay in business.
“I’m afraid we’re going to be in the same boat that we are now,” he said. “It’s just unfeasible to limit providers to three patients. That’s going to be pretty disruptive to patient care and the providers.”
He also said the industry is seriously considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
State Rep. Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, who sponsored the bill creating the 2011 restrictions, told MTN News Monday that he’s fine with delaying the effective date until Aug. 31.
However, he said he expects the 2017 Legislature to revisit the issue and possibly consider allowing a smaller-scale industry to exist, with a limited number of providers serving something more than three customers each.
“I think we’ll take a look at that type of approach,” he said.
The state Supreme Court on Monday also rejected a request by the industry to reconsider its Feb. 25 ruling.
John Barnes, a spokesman for Attorney General Tim Fox, who argued against the rehearing and to uphold the restrictions, said Monday it respects the latest decision and “thinks it’s fair.”
A spokesman for Gov. Bullock’s office said it is reviewing the Monday decision, and declined further comment.
The Supreme Court’s Feb. 25 decision upheld many of the 2011 restrictions, but struck down the ban on marijuana providers charging for their product.
The 2011 Legislature passed the restrictions in response to a huge increase in medical-marijuana use in Montana in 2009 and 2010. The marijuana industry challenged the restrictions as unconstitutional, shortly after the bill passed.
The amount of medical marijuana sellers and users dropped dramatically after the bill passed, but their numbers steadily increased once parts of the law were blocked from taking effect.
State health officials told the Montana Supreme Court that it would be “impossible” to implement the Feb. 25 decision immediately – and that 2016 ballot initiatives could change the marijuana legal landscape again.
Supreme Court Justice Mike Wheat, who was a one-person minority opposing the restrictions on Feb. 25, said Monday he would reconsider the case.
Justice Laurie McKinnon, who voted in February to uphold the restrictions, was the only justice on Monday who said she would not delay their effect.
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