SafeMontana wants all marijuana illegal in state

1 hour 39 minutes ago by DAVID JAY – BILLINGS

BILLINGS – A Billings group called SafeMontana wants to make marijuana illegal in Montana.

The Secretary of State’s office approved a petition on Thursday that would take Initiative 174 to the voters in November.

SafeMontana started its signature drive on Saturday, meeting at Mercedes Benz of Billings before heading to Centennial Park.

Initiative 174, if approved by voters, would “establish that drugs on Schedule One of the Federal Controlled Substances Act would be illegal in Montana.”

“If there’s anything good about a Schedule One drug, whether it be marijuana or one of the other ones, then we need to take it to the FDA and get it switched,” said Steve Zabawa, sponsor of the initiative and of SafeMontana.

He says I-174 would eliminate Montnaa Senate Bill 423, passed in 2011, that repealed the medical marijuana law and put in new regulations.

“No illegal drugs in Montana,” Zabawa said. “We don’t want to be legalizing any illegal drugs.”

“I think Montanans, generally speaking, want to see a safe delivery mechanism for all medicines,” said David Lewis, a volunteer with SafeMontana.

Lewis helped with a similar petition drive in 2010 that failed to get enough signatures. He says medicine should come from a pharmacy and follow FDA regulations.

“There’s a certain level of hypocrisy in defining something as medicine and not following the processes and procedures necessary to create true medicine,” Lewis said.

“The whole idea with this initiative is whatever is legal federally is legal in Montana,” Zabawa said. “Whatever is illegal federally is illegal in Montana. We don’t want any contradiction.”

SafeMontana will need to collect more than 24,000 and signatures to get I-174 on the November ballot.

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(May 30, 2014) A ballot initiative that would end Montana’s medical marijuana program has been found “legally sufficient” by the Montana Attorney General, setting the stage for sponsors of the measure to gather signatures.

If approved by voters in November, I-174 would mandate that any drug listed as “Schedule 1″ under the federal Controlled Substances Act would also be illegal in Montana.

Marijuana is listed under that schedule — meaning that the federal government recognizes no medical benefit or other legitimate use of the substance.

Montana’s medical marijuana program was first approved by voters in 2004.

After the number of participants swelled to more than 30,000, the Legislature in 2011 scaled the program back, reducing the number of participants to fewer than 10,000.

To reach the statewide November ballot, the sponsors will need signatures of 5% of the voters in 34 legislative districts — a total of at least 24,175 signatures.

Here is the complete text of I-174:

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SafeMontana wants all marijuana illegal in state