For Gallatin Electric, a six-employee company founded by Mr. Schmidtâs father, Richard, as for other businesses in this corner of south-central Montana, medical marijuana has been central to surviving hard times as the construction industry and the second-home market collapsed. Not the smoking of it, the growing of it or even the selling of it, but the fully legal, taxable revenues being collected from the industryâs new, emerging class of entrepreneurs. Three of the four electricians on staff at Gallatin, Mr. Schmidt said, are there only because of the work building indoor marijuana factories.
Questions about who really benefits from medical marijuana are now gripping Montana. In the Legislature, a resurgent Republican majority elected last fall is leading a drive to repeal the six-year-old voter-approved statute permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes, which opponents argue is promoting recreational use and crime.
If repeal forces succeedâthe House last month voted strongly for repeal, and the Senate is now considering itâMontana would be the first to recant among the 15 states and the District of Columbia that have such laws.
The article doesn't go into whether Montana's voter-approved, GOP-attacked medical marijuana lawâso much for the wisdom of the 'merkin peopleâis actually "promoting" crime or leading to more recreational use of pot (not that I think the latter is a bad thing necessarily). It would be helpful to know if either of those charges are true.
