January 2, 2012
Jason Christ, the Missoula businessman who recruited thousands of Montana residents for medical marijuana cards through his “cannabis caravans,” filed a lawsuit challenging the 2011 Montana law that makes it a bit difficult to get medical pot.
Christ, the owner of the Montana Caregivers Network, filed the suit last week in a state District Court in Missoula. Christ, acting as his own lawyer, asked the District court to declare the law as unconstitutional on a number of grounds and stop the state from implementing it.
Early this year, the Montana Cannabis Industry Association and others filed a lawsuit against the implementation of the same law in the District Court in Helena. In June, Judge Jim Reynolds blocked temporarily the implementation of some of the provisions of the new law. Christ was not a party to that lawsuit.
The office of the attorney general in Montana, which defended the measure, appealed some of Reynold’s ruling to the Supreme Court of Montana. The Cannabis Industry Association has already declared that it will also file a cross-appeal.
Jennifer McKee, the spokeswoman for the Montana Justice Department, on Tuesday said that the state has not been served yet in the lawsuit filed by Christ.
She said, “We have a copy of the complaint Mr. Christ filed and we will review it to decide the appropriate response in light of the pending appeal before the Montana Supreme Court and any new issues raised in the complaint.”
The law’s opponents were also able to gather enough signatures to put the measure to a referendum, allowing voters to decide whether to reject or retain the law.
