State MMJ Program loopholes offer possible protection to Wisconsin patients

MADISON: When the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act failed to pass, it meant that Wisconsin patients would have to continue their long wait for a state medical marijuana program. The JRMMA would would have created a state registry program like those in place in most medical marijuana states including Colorado, Rhode Island, Maine, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska and others.

But, recently revealed loopholes in the Oregon and Montana medical marijuana programs allow out of state residents, including Wisconsinites, to obtain state medical marijuana cards.

While the card does not explicitly apply in Wisconsin, prior cases suggest it may offer a level of protection for state patients that they would not otherwise have.

Steve Elliott, in an article for News Junkie Post, “Two Medical Pot States Don’t Require Residency” discusses the Montana loophole:

With the discovery of a loophole in Montana’s medical marijuana law, the Big Sky State joins Oregon in no longer requiring residency to obtain legal authorization to use medicinal cannabis.

Montana health officials said Friday that patients don’t have to live in Montana to receive medical cards from the state after the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The discovery was made after reviewing plans to require medical marijuana applicants to have a Montana driver’s license or state-issued identification, according to department spokesman Chuck Council.

He also lays out the current Oregon program position:

Oregon, like Montana, may no longer require residency as part of its medical marijuana permit application process.

Oregon applicants formerly needed to supply proof of residency as well as Oregon identification as part of their application. However, the Beaver State shaved its residency requirement after it was informed by the state Department of Justice that such a requirement was inconsistent with the language of the bill.

Tawana Nichols, Oregon Medical Marijuana Program manager, said while the program was created with the intent of specifically benefiting Oregonians, there was no requirement of Oregon residency written into the bill, so they could not lawfully require it.

Elliott goes on to caution that "even though anyone with a qualifying medical condition can get a medical marijuana card in Montana and Oregon, those cards provide legal protection only the state which issued them with four exceptions." The exceptions arise from the reciprocity clauses in Maine, Michigan, Rhode Island and Montana’s medical marijuana laws which accept medical cannabis authorizations from other states. (A reciprocity clause was included as a proposed provision of the JRMMA),

In December 2004, a Sauk County judge dismissed a marijuana possession case because the defendant, Cheryl Lam, had a California authorization to possess cannabis for medical reasons. This was one of the first Wisconsin cases where an out of state recommendation came into play.

Lam had a California recommendation from the late Dr. Tod Mikuriya, a pioneer and expert in cannabis medicine. Dr. Mikuriya spoke at Harvest Fest 35 in 2005 in Madison.

The current prohibition of the cannabis plant forces patients who need cannabis to make extreme adjustments just to have a little medicine, dignity and quality of life. How can those who ask us to elect them to lead us continue leading us away from legal access to medical cannabis and trapping us in some time warp where the freedoms people take for granted in 14 states and Washington DC seem so distant and out of reach here in Wisconsin?