HELENA — Montana is in the fifth year of a legal fight to ban commercial sales of medical marijuana, even as attitudes elsewhere appear to be shifting toward more tolerance for the drug.
State attorneys asked the Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday to lift a judge’s injunction that prevents the enforcement of a 2011 law banning medical marijuana sales.
The state also wants to end District Judge James Reynolds’ block of other provisions that ban advertising and trigger a review of doctors who recommend the drug for more than 25 patients.
Assistant Attorney General Stuart Segrest says Reynolds did not give the Legislature’s attempt to curb abuses of the drug the deference it deserved.
Marijuana advocates say a commercial ban would cut off access to very ill patients who can’t grow their own.