Medical marijuana patients hold rally in Helena

• TOM KUGLIN 
  
  At a Helena rally Wednesday, medical marijuana patients encouraged early voting and said the drug has helped them battle cancer, return to work with degenerative disk disease and find sleep for the first time in years.
  
  About 15 supporters of Initiative 182, which includes repealing some legislative restrictions on medical marijuana while requiring licensing for providers, participated in the rally at Hill Park.
  
  I-182 has become one of the most hotly debated ballot initiatives of this election season. In a Mason-Dixon statewide poll conducted Oct. 10-12, 51 percent of voters said they opposed I-182, 44 percent said they supported it and five percent said they were undecided.
  
  While criticizing a 2011 bill restricting providers and limiting patient access, several speakers at the rally offered their personal feelings on finding a working treatment only to then have it taken away when the bill took effect in August.
  
  Chelsia Rice was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2012 and underwent aggressive chemotherapy that left her debilitated.
  
  “Medical marijuana allowed me to be awake and engage with family members and take care of myself and participate in activities with my family and friends for the five months I was going through treatment,” she said.
  
  Rice has a medical marijuana prescription for persistent infections and associated pain, but she is unable to fill it because no providers are available.
  
  Barb Trego found herself paralyzed for six months due to degenerative disk disease. An opioid treatment left her unable to work, but after six months of medical marijuana use she regained mobility and now holds three jobs.
  
  “Medical marijuana has helped me more than I can say,” she said. “I would still be disabled, still unable to work, not be able to drive because I was on so much pain medication.”
  
  Mike McGuire was a dentist before hand tremors and a pinched nerve forced him to leave his practice. Ten years of numbness in his arms and insomnia were finally relieved in March, when he tried medical marijuana.
  
  “To be able to live pain free is just incredible,” he said.
  
  Former state legislator Bob Ream held the podium with his hands for balance as he spoke about his pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Chemo caused difficulty sleeping and a lack of feeling in his fingers and toes from neuropathy.
  
  “It came as a shock – we had lots of other plans and it changed our whole outlook and plans for the future,” he said of his diagnosis.
  
  Ream said medical marijuana has provided relief.
  
  Speakers pushed not only voting for I-182, but voting early.
  
  Early voting not only ensures that a last minute emergency doesn't keep voters from the polls, but allows election trackers to focus campaigning on those who have yet to cast a ballot, Ream said.
  
  “Don’t just let (your ballot) sit on your desk and wait to get it in – take it in now,” he said.
  In 2004, Montana voters passed an initiative allowing medical marijuana, which saw thousands register as patients and dispensaries pop up across the state.
  
  2011 legislation restricted providers to three patients each, prohibited advertising and reviewed doctors that recommended the drug to more than 25 patients. After five years of legal battles, the Montana Supreme Court eventually upheld the law that went into effect in August.
  
  If approved, I-182 would:
  • Lift the three-patient limit for caregivers;
  • Establish licensing fees to pay for administering the program;
  • Require yearly inspection of providers;
  • Include post-traumatic stress disorders among the conditions for which medicinal marijuana can be used.
  
  Jeff Kraus, treasurer for Montana Citizens for I-182, says the campaign is simply about getting patients the medicine they need.
  
  “For the 93 percent (of medical marijuana patients) that no longer have access … would you stand between them and finding relief?” he asked.
  
  Supporters of the initiative plan additional get-out-the-vote rallies around the state, he said.
  Steve Zabawa, founder of Safe Montana, the group opposing the initiative, says his organization is planning TV and newspaper advertisements as well as public speaking events up until the election.
  
  Opponents largely saw the aftermath of the 2004 initiative as de facto legalization in which providers and doctors were under few regulations.
  
  I-182 would not do enough to regulate medical marijuana, Zabawa says, and a state ballot initiative is an improper process of approving medicine.
  
  “The general public is not qualified to make medical decisions,” he wrote in an opinion piece published by The Billings Gazette. “It guarantees the failure of a program that may have potential success for patients who need medical marijuana under a doctor’s care and it ensures the accessibility of recreational marijuana to the rest of the population.”
  
  Both sides have filed campaign complaints in recent weeks, and Commissioner of Political Practices Johnathan Motl has ruled on a portion of those campaign finance allegations.
  
  Last week Motl found that Safe Montana failed to report about $20,000 in expenses and was improperly set up to both oppose and initiative while supporting its own ballot initiative I-176, which failed to achieve enough signatures to get on the ballot.
  
  Motl this week dismissed a claim that the I-182 ballot committee was improperly funded using dark money.