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Montana has Nearly 18K Medical Marijuana Patients

State has added an average of 1,300 registered patients each month so far this year

By Dillon Tabish

BILLINGS — Montana has registered 10,000 medical marijuana patients since voters approved a ballot initiative that repealed a law that limited each provider to three patients.

The Billings Gazette reports the state has added an average of 1,300 registered patients each month so far this year and the Department of Public Health and Human Services now has more than 17,800 patients registered.

Montana voters initially approved medicinal use of marijuana in 2004. The state had more than 30,000 patients registered in June 2011, just as the legislature passed a bill intended to curb perceived abuses in the system. Large, commercial producers were raided that year and the new legislation limited providers to just three patients.

The number of registered patients fell to as few as 7,500 by November 2016.