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US: Drug case behind him, Daubert to end activism
Great Falls Tribune Wednesday 24 Oct 2012 With more than 20 years’ experience as a lobbyist, Daubert was recruited by medical marijuana proponents to help with the passage of Initiative 148 in 2004. The issue has mapped much of his life since then. But Daubert, who traveled to Great Falls on Wednesday for a showing of the documentary “Code of the West,” which tracks the medical marijuana issue during the 2011 Montana legislative session, remains philosophical on the conviction. The experience, what he calls “an 18-month hike through the so-called criminal so-called justice system,” has been interesting. “I’m fortunate I’m the type of person who finds everything interesting,” he said with a smile but not a little irony. And while Daubert was at the showing, he said his days of political activism are over. He said he came to Great Falls more to see friends than to forward a political agenda. In 2004, when the medical marijuana law was still a ballot issue, there were few people in Montana who were capable of or interested in speaking on behalf of a humane medical marijuana law, he said. That isn’t the case now, and Daubert is ready for the next group of activists to step forward and take the mantle. Daubert came to the issue of medical marijuana not because of any personal passion, but the issue soon became important to him. Patients who needed cannabis became his friends. “I was seeing with my own eyes” patients and how they responded to cannabis, he said. But soon after the law passed in 2004, Daubert and others realized there were problems with it. During the 2009 legislative session, Daubert heard concerns of some law enforcement officials, and he learned the concerns of patients and law enforcement were not necessarily mutually exclusive. “Patients who suffer and benefit medically… have no need for a flashy dispensary with advertising,” he said. Dispensaries near schools became a problem as well, but Daubert insists horror stories of school children prostituting themselves for the drug, for example, are fabrications. But he also insists abuses of the 2004 law were not being perpetrated by genuine patients, who benefited greatly from the law. Patients were able to get quality tested cannabis, for example. Two labs in the state were set up to test cannabis for active cannabinoids, of which there are 64. Patients respond differently to the various strains of cannabis, he said, and some respond differently based on the method of ingestion. But the 2004 law is fixable, if the state Legislature is willing to fix it, he said. However, IR 124, which is on the Nov. 6 ballot, would repeal the 2004 law and enacts a new program. “IR 124 gives voters the chance to require the Legislature to try (fixing the law) again. They won’t unless they’re forced to,” he said. After the 2011 legislative session providers are limited by the number of patients they can supply cannabis to, and they cannot charge for their services. “The law requires the person providing (cannabis) to do it for free and that’s not practical,” Daubert said. Growing cannabis takes expertise and is expensive. Because of this, he is concerned patients are unable to get their medication. Daubert said he began Montana Cannabis, the company that was eventually raided in March 2011, to provide law enforcement and legislators with a model for what the 2004 law required. He gave tours to interested lawmakers and law enforcement officials. “I did this with the knowledge and tacit oversight of local and state officials,” he said. So when federal agents raided the business, Daubert was shocked but knew, even though he was no longer legally associated with it, that he would be one of the people charged in connection with its operation. Daubert is relatively lucky. His friend, Richard Flor, who was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement with Montana Cannabis, died in a Nevada facility in August. Daubert said Flor had several medical problems and was not treated properly during his time at Crossroads Correctional Facility in Shelby. For broken bones he received a “ration of ibuprofen.” “Rich was a good friend of mine. He was a gentle, kind person and the system let him down egregiously,” he said. That he and others can be following state law while simultaneously breaking federal law is part of the problem with the medical marijuana issue, Daubert said. That many people are ignorant about the medicinal qualities of marijuana is another. While Daubert wishes, with benefit of hindsight, he had turned his energy to lobbying for medical marijuana legality at the federal level after 2004, he says he doesn’t regret the actions he took. “I would prefer not to have a criminal record but everything I did, I did for honorable, charitable reasons,” he said, adding later, “I take full responsibility for my actions.” http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20121024/NEWS01/310240028/Drug-case-behind-him-Daubert-end-activism?nclick_check=1
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