Montana Medical Cannabis Comes of Age

From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

"Standing in an indoor-growing barn where hundreds of marijuana plants are becoming tall and lush under bright lights, partners Robert Carpenter and Blake Ogle know it looks like they've got a gold mine.

A Kinder Caregiver, one of the first medical marijuana businesses to obtain a Bozeman business license, has already grown to the point it has five partners, 15 employees and around 270 patients in Bozeman, Butte and Billings. Their Bozeman storefront on Griffin Drive is discreet, they said.

"Our payroll is almost $60,000 a month," Ogle said. "We're going to have health insurance and dental."

"And profit sharing," Carpenter said. "We're setting up a 401k" retirement plan.

Despite such success, anything from an infestation of spider mites to changes in state law or a power shift in Washington could put them out of business - or worse.

Ogle said he became interested in the marijuana business four years ago, after seeing his late father, Bill, dying of leukemia and suffering under standard medical care. "I started thinking there has to be a better way to treat this," Blake Ogle said. He found studies that show marijuana can be beneficial for patients with cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

But if the 2011 Legislature repeals the medical marijuana law, Ogle said, "We could be growing organically grown tomatoes."

They could end up "sipping toddies in Barbados, Carpenter said, with a wry smile, "or in a federal penitentiary."