Medical marijuana use, with fits and starts, has been legal in Montana since 2004. Enacted in May 2021, Montana’s HB 701 now allows for recreational marijuana sales, starting January 1, 2022, in counties where voters approved Initiative I-190 in November 2020. Other counties will have to vote again to opt in and existing counties can also vote to opt out.
In May 2021, Montana enacted HB 701, a recreational marijuana measure aimed to head off full implementation of the voter-approved initiative I-190, which is still under court challenge. HB 701 allows the sale of recreational marijuana in those counties that approved I-190 beginning on January 1, 2022.
The Montana Legislature has not had its say on Montana’s marijuana laws. House Bill 701 passed on April 27 and is in the process of being delivered to Governor Gianforte for signature. There is no reason to expect the Governor to veto the bill. With HB 701 about to become law, I offer this analysis:
I am an attorney in Bozeman. I have been practicing law in Montana since 2014 when I decided I had had enough of the East Coast and came back home to where I was raised. After passing my third bar exam here in Montana, I began to cultivate (pun intended) a practice in medical marijuana compliance.
There are several competing and overlapping bills that have been introduced in Congress in the last two years. Although each will need to be reintroduced in the new Congress, chances are better than ever for marijuana reform. That said, however, the Biden Administration has higher priorities and it may be months before any of these bills become law
On November 3, 2020, the people of Montana overwhelmingly passed the Adult Use, or recreational, marijuana initiative I190 and the companion Constitutional Resolution CR118.
First things first: Marijuana is illegal under federal law. Although the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment restricts the federal Department of Justice from prosecuting marijuana providers who are in compliance with state medical marijuana laws (it does not apply to recreational, or “adult use” marijuana), until marijuana is removed from the Schedule I list of substance under the Controlled Substances Act, there will be inherent risk to all who operate in this industry.