Law enforcement finds challenges with medical marijuana

Medical marijuana has put law-enforcement agencies in a sticky situation – and Libby is no exception.

Libby Police Chief Jim Smith told the city council Monday that since the number of local licensed marijuana users and providers has grown, he has seen an upward trend in illegal use among minors.

Libby Police arrested 11 juveniles in January and February, he said, and the majority were high school students in possession of marijuana.

“The intelligence we’re getting is these juveniles are buying their marijuana from medical marijuana providers,” Smith said.

State law allows a licensed user or the user’s licensed caregiver, or provider, to grow up to six plants per user. The provider, the law says, may receive reasonable compensation for the service. Smith explained to the council that providers accumulate a surplus and profit by selling it illegally.

Smith said he suspects two state-licensed medical marijuana providers within the city limits of selling illegally. In addition, they don’t have city business licenses and are working out of residential neighborhoods, he said.

He implored the city to consider creating ordinances to regulate providers because he believes state statutes don’t address a myriad of issues.

“The state did a knee-jerk reaction when they passed this,” Smith said. “… The state didn’t regulate it in the law, so the cities are by business licenses.”

Smith suggested refusing to grant business licenses to providers to push them out of the city and into the county.

The council agreed to consult with City Attorney Heather McDougall to determine if state law allows the city to require providers to obtain a business license. The state exempts certain professionals, such as doctors, from needing city licenses. 

Mayor Doug Roll told Smith to hold off writing any business license violation tickets until the matter can be looked into further.

Councilmember Vicky Lawrence told Smith that providers are obviously not following zoning laws if they are conducting business in residential areas.

Smith pointed out that because of strong federal regulations that protect private health information, the state does not give out names of registered users or providers. The city must first know who providers are, he said, before they can determine whether they are following zoning laws.

“Our hands are basically tied by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act),” he said.

When the state Medical Marijuana Act passed in 2004, there was no infrastructure in place for law enforcement to verify user and provider licenses, Smith said. Within the last year, a state hotline was set up, but it is only available during business hours and doesn’t provide enough information, he said.

For example, an officer can verify that a provider’s medical marijuana license is valid, but can’t verify how many patients the provider has and, therefore, can’t verify how many plants the provider can legally grow.

“There is no checks and balances,” Smith said.

Medical marijuana growers are “flooding the schools” with the drug, Smith said, and causing its price to go down.

“School kids with lunch money can now afford to buy a bag that will last them a week,” he said.

In other news at Monday’s meeting:

• The council voted to begin the process of establishing an ordinance that would require all bicyclists in the business district to obey traffic laws.

• The agenda item concerning placing surveillance cameras on Mineral Avenue was skipped and is planned to be discussed at the next meeting.

• The council unanimously passed a motion to place a crosswalk on Montana Avenue at East First Street to provide safer passage for group home residents who walk to Achievements for work.