Libby tackles concerns with medical marijuana providers

Current city ordinances prohibit medical marijuana providers from working within Libby, Mayor Doug Roll told councilmembers at Monday’s meeting.

“Medical marijuana will not be allowed (to be sold) in the city because we can’t license them,” Roll said.

Those who provide a product or service within Libby are required to obtain a business license. According to the corresponding city ordinance, a business license can’t license products or services that are already prohibited by federal, state or local laws.

Though Montana legalized medical marijuana in 2004, federal law doesn’t recognize its medicinal use and continues to classify the drug as a controlled substance. 

Roll suggested giving medical marijuana providers 60 days to stop serving clients. 

Councilmembers D.C. Orr and Bill Bischoff had questions about the city’s liability.

“The providers, or caregivers, are quite organized,” Orr said. “Can we expect to be sued for this?”

It’s unknown whether Roll’s position is defendable, City Attorney Heather McDougall said, because there is no case law. 

“My chief concern is we’ll be the test legal case,” Orr said.

McDougall said an attorney for a medical marijuana group mentioned to her that he’s in the process of creating a model ordinance for municipals to adopt to fill in some of the holes left by the state Medical Marijuana Act.

The law licenses caregivers to grow up to six plants per patient, but operations can’t be easily regulated for legality, zoning and other issues because municipals aren’t aware of where the caregivers are setting up shop.

“There’s more concern than just the traffic (in residential areas) so I assume the model law will address that,” McDougall said.

There have also been mold and fire hazard concerns. Roll said an electrician was recently called to a caregiver’s residence a few miles outside Libby because his lights were flickering. Grow lights and heaters maxed out the electrical system, which could have caused a fire, Roll said. 

Councilmember Peggy Williams believes that instead of banning medical marijuana operations, the city should create long-term ordinances to regulate them.

The instances of medical marijuana caregivers selling the drug for non-medical use would be reduced, Williams said, if caregivers had to conduct business in the open.   

“When it’s underground in the shadows, that’s when the illegality of it flourishes,” Williams said. 

The council made no decisions Monday and will discuss the matter further at its April 5 meeting. 

In other news at the meeting:

• The council discussed the pros and cons of changing some criminal misdemeanor charges, such as parking violations, tall weeds ordinance violations and business license violations, into civil municipal infractions.

• The public spoke for and against the proposed bicycle ordinance that would require all bicyclists in the business district to obey traffic laws.

• The public spoke against putting up surveillance cameras on Mineral Avenue. The item was not on the agenda, but will be discussed at the April 5 meeting, Roll said.

• Ryan Jones of Morrison-Maierle discussed the city’s options in replacing the wastewater treatment plant’s press, machinery that pushes liquid out of the sludge. It stopped working and is too old to find replacement parts.

• Jones announced that work on the Cabinet Heights sewer project was to resume Wednesday.

• Williams presented some new rules for renting the Fred Brown Pavilion.