This is a subject matter that I have wanted to blog about for quite some time now. Jury Nullification consists of a jury rendering a not-guilty plea even though there is evidence to show the defendant is guilty of the crime. A jury engaged in jury nullification is not disobeying or breaking any law, or doing anything morally incorrect, they are simply saying they do not wish to apply the law as it is written/interpreted in that specific instance.

Most folks don't really understand what a Jurys job truly is. A jury's true job is not to enforce law or judge another, it is a check in the checks and balances built into the judicial system by our forefathers to ensure that our government is not taking advantage of its citizens. Again, the primary focus of a jury is to ensure that the government is not overstepping their bounds when it comes to their attempts to prosecute a citizen of our great country for something considered law. A more detailed explaination of Jury Nullifcation can be found on Wikipedia, I highly recommend you educate your self outside of wikipedia as well regarding this an all subject matters.

The point I wanted to make with regards to jury nullification and medicinal cannabis is rather simple. While we have a medical cannabis law here in Montana it is vague and contains areas of debate. This "grayness" of the act as some like to refer to it creates confusion for all parties involved. Therefore it is assumed that all parties will stumble and make mistakes during the initial period of growth. When a caregiver stumbles the police are ready and waiting, occassionally those arrests are not valid or have legitimate reasons. In these situations it is up to the jury to determine the validity of the reasons and if applicable find the defendant not-guilty even though there is overwhelming evidence against them. The simple fact is the law is vague and can be interpreted to either side of the line. The simple act of listening and applying compasion on the part of a jury is truly all it takes to discern if the defendant is worthy of the charges being brough upon them.

Know your rights, question authority and ALWAYS think for yourself, grapevine perception isn't all it is cracked up to be!

Google "cannabis jury nullification".

We have been busy preparing for our clinic tomorrow at our Patient Care & Education Center. The schedule is full, the medical records are ready, the patients are eager to take the first step to becoming a legal cannabis user.

We'll by running like crazy tomorrow but it is all worth it!

Check back Friday for an update on how the clinic went!

Until then :)

I must say the last few days I have heard some serious HORROR stories from patients looking for, rather, in dire need of, a quality caregiver. It appears that more and more patients are finding that having their buddy or pre-MMMP card black market dealer as their caregiver is a HUGE mistake and in the end only hurts the patient.

For instance I had a fellow tell me his current caregiver told him he was allowed six plants in each stage of growth. I was absolutely taken back and damn near fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe that a caregiver would put that patient in harms way by having 12 plants too many. I told him the law states six plants total and makes no designation as to what stage of growth the plants are in. He almost lost it, he was an elderly gentleman that had property, a pension, family responsibilities, etc... and he was unknowingly committing a SERIOUS felony. He has obviously since remedy the situation and destroyed the overage plants but the simple fact that the person this patient put his trust into would do such a thing is just horrendous and appalling.

Another story I was told by another patient pertained to the number of bags the caregiver was allowed to dispense to the patient at a time. This patient was told by their caregiver that they were only allowed to dispense one (1) bag with up to one (1) ounce of cannabis in it. He was not allowed by the Montana Medical Marijuana Act to dispense mutliple bags and thus he could only dispense one strain at a time to the patient.

I just sat there in shock and awe shaking my head in disbelief. I pulled the law up and walked through it section by section with this patient and afterwards asked him, did you see anywhere in there that says anything at all about "bags". He was convinced he was being dupped and it was saddening because this persons c/g was his 25 year friend. Just plain sad.

Folks, caregivers are a dime a dozen but the Montana Medical Marijuana Act has safeguards built into it to ensure your the one that is the center of this specific universe - the Change Request Form.

If you have a caregiver that is decietful, shady, inconsistent, price flucuating, or one of the many other bs tactics being deployed by the black market caregivers, give us a call. We take pride in being the best in Montana and we'll prove it to you time and time again just a dedicated caregiver should for each of their deserving patients.

 

There has been a lot of information going around about the need for legislative changes that would enforce some sort of oversight on caregivers. The quandary is who is best suited to be ones to do the overseeing??...???

Department of Agriculture wants to get involved for caregivers that have nursery size grow operations. They have a lot of leeway as well as they can inspect operations and things along those lines.  I just hope that they understand cannabis is not the same as hay or grain and thus their books may need some overhauling to become current. I also believe they just want to get their piece of the pie via their nursery licenses, everyone wants some green and everyone wants control.

DPHHS is the obvious choice I personally think that they should create a task force that could inspect ops and ensure they are up to code and operating in a safe fashion. As I understand it they already have task force units in the DPHHS that go around doing inspections and quality assurance in day cares. Anyone have the exact details on this please use the comments section to accurately enlighten us all.

The one that should ABSOLUTELY NOT be in charge of overseeing cannabis caregiver operations is the law enforcement agencies. They have screamed for dozens of years that cannabis has NO MEDICAL value, with that said they can NEVER be the ones to control and oversee medical cannabis, they themselves have said that medical and cannabis do not go together as cannabis has no medicinal values. That simple belief would completely hinder their ability to be unbiased and subjective to the operations they would be overseeing. I don't mean that in a manner that they would not overlook certain things, I mean in the fashion that they always be looking for the illegal aspects and not the aspects that truly need overseeing, such as the operations nutrients and pest control applications. The inspecting entity doesn't need to have a "I want to arrest you" attitude, they need to take the approach of helping ensure that the patients are getting quality medicine.

Do we see police officers going into Madison Foods in Ennis and arresting them because of outdated cheese or veggies that are really fuzzy and they're not supposed to be? Don't think so... betcha if we made the grocers have to pay a fine to the police stations that the LEO's would be in there writing tickets left and right. With that said, I ask you, is that want we need for medicinal cannabis???..??

The wheels are churning on how they can "control" cannabis, make sure you contact your local officials and be heard about how the best way to ensure caregivers are providing safe medicine, but not in a fashion that is meant to scare and intimidate.

Well it has been a while since i have had time to sit down and add entries to our blog. A lot of driving for patient deliveries and setting up our physician clinic in Ennis this coming Thursday.

In the time I've been preoccupied a lot as been brewing in the news about cannabis, specifically the report that Tom Berry out of Round Up is going to be introducing legislation in the upcoming session which would only result in more restrictions on patients access to their medicine. There is some talk of limiting a caregiver to 5 patients under the guise of some thought that if you really are caregiving you can only focus on 5 or less patients. Well my rebuttal to that would be that a good caregiver is EXTREMELY hard to find and if a good one is available and has 300 patients, then so be it. The patients DESERVE the right to quality medicine through their caregiver as per the Montana Medical Marijuana Act.

The simple fact is that the MMMA was written and voted for because of the many thousands of patients in Montana that have debilitating conditions that get relief when using cannabis to treat their conditions.

Tom doesn't seem to understand that the law was written in a fashion that it would be self-maintaining in regards to caregivers. Patients are the absolute center of the law, a patient can change their designated caregiver with a simple form that cost nothing to submit. This simple process is the safety that was built into the law to ensure that patients are taken seriously and kept in the forefront of the law and its implementation with out state. Caregivers that are worth their weight in salt understand that a patient is the center point and that the caregiver is simply an assest available to the patient to ensure their easy access to their medicine while following the letter of the law. A quality caregiver is VERY HARD TO FIND, darn near impossible in some areas of our great state, why in the world would we want to limit access to the quality caregivers and force patients into having to designate a subpar caregiver?? It doesn't make logical sense to me. We strive to be the absolute best caregivers in the state of Montana all the while understanding and focusing our efforts on our patients and nothing else. Would punishing the patients on our waiting list because we are a quality caregiver service and have more then 5 patients really be benefiting the patients???..??!!! I highly doubt so.

The simplest analogy I can come up with would be, do we restrict the number of patients the manufacturer of hydrocodone is allowed to dispense their medicine too?...??..??? ABSOLUTELY NOT, it is made available in many locations and very easy to obtain. Why would someone be so callus as to introduce changes to the law that would limit their access to their medicine? It doesn't make sense if they are in fact understanding of the fact that cannabis is a viable treatment for many hundreds, if not thousands of ailments common to humans. Tom Berry received a brief but poignant email from me today stating something similar to this blog posting, I hope he will really take the time to reconsider his view on medicinal cannabis and its accessibility to the patients that need it before introducing legislation that is simply anti-cannabis (like his previous bills he has attempted to and/or submitted).

I call to action all Montanans and citizens of our great country that believe law is what We the people say it is, period and not something to be construed and twisted by ideologic elected officials. Remember Tom, you're only where you are to be a puppet for the constituents that put you into that office so you had better go out and listen to them, they want accessible cannabis under the law. Do not make it more difficult for them to obtain from a reliable, dedicated caregiver.

Don't have a lot of time as of late so the blog entries are in slow motion, but I was reading this and wanted to pass it along.

Check it out!

http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/medicalmarijuana/mmpregistryinformation.pdf

 

 

 

 

We bagged and tagged the harvested cannabis and will let it sit in the brown paper bags another 24 hours or so and then the curing process can begin. We took a little different approach to the trimming this go round by taking almost EVERYTHING off when we harvested and thus only have to do a little touch-up trimming once they are just about finished curing.

We have deliveries in Missoula today, so it will be a long day!

Wishes to everyone for a wonderful Thursday, and an even better Friday!

Hi All, I hope every ones 2010 has been stellar thus far.

This evening we harvested a few mature plants. JTR, NL & BB. We are very much looking forward to our seeds arriving so that we may begin that process. It is not unheard of for the process to take 6 months depending on many different factors ranging from genetics to environment through out the process.

We are going to mature any males we get and save the pollen, we are in the midst of planning and building a "male room" to accommodate this process. I can't wait to have a freezer full of pollen and live seeds of which I personally know the genetics. Maybe some Madison Valley Chronic will grow from this breeding endeavor :)

Well fingers are still mega-sticky so I had better go scrub them again with mechanic's goo :)

Just finished a three, that's right 3 hour maintenance session in the operation with the wife. We drained all the reservoirs, cleaned them, their lids and the submersible pumps and reassembled. We filled w/fresh water and set the nutrients to the appropriate level, added some stress zyme and finally, set the ph to 5.8. Right now the ph down is in demand, out of the well our ph is 7.4. After we add appropriate nutes, we're around 6.3-6.5. Right now we are still running our Botanicare nutrients with molassas & Advanced Nutrients Hammerhead PK 9/18 in the flower units. The stress zyme is a cheaper alternative to the hygrozyme and other botanical solutions, albeit the stress zyme isn't cheap at Petsmart, but well worth what it does cost.

We recently started using the black mixing pan from Lowes, or rather, "High Density Polyethylene Large Black Mixing Tub", to hold all our reservoirs and they are working out great!! They keep any dripping water contained for easy clean up, the dripping can also be overcome by using contractor bags, but we prefer to capture the little that did leak using these tubs. Before we started using these, I hated walking in and the floor had a puddle. Water and all that light equates to algae, something we don't want or need in our op. All in all I am pretty happy with the set up these reservoirs & tubs. We planned things out from the get go and one of the primary things we spent a lot of time thinking about is WATER. The real, and only in our opinion, downside to hydro. There are many stories online, and I have heard a few from other patients/caregivrs, telling the tale of moldy carpet, ruined subfloors and structural framing from leaking hydro set ups. It is well worth it to plan it out and think it through before taking on a hydroponics grow!

Curing meds look good, still quite wet after 24 hours in the sealed mason jars. We let them air out for 20 minutes this evening and resealed them. The JTR is SOOOOO stinky, and in such a good way :)

 

Hygrozyme & Hammerhead PK 9/18, From Local Hydro Shop or online. Planet Natural is my local hydro shop, they ROCK!

Stress Zyme, From Petsmart, in aquarium department. 

High Density Polyethylene Large Black Mixing Tub from Lowes, < $12 bucks now, they were $13.xx, price mark down - Yipee (I bough two (2) today, so I know).

 

I just wanted to take a moment this Friday, January 1, 2010 to wish everyone a wonderful 2010. Here at HCoM we are looking forward to a stellar 2010. We have spent the last year preparing and planning and now it is time for action.

We have a lot in store for this coming year and we look forward to sharing it with our patients, friends, guests & family. A few things we've got going out of the gate this year are:

• Bubble Hash How-To
• Cannabutter How-To
• New strains
• Breeding & Genetics
  

Stay Tuned!

From here at HCoM we wish you a happy new year!!

I was talking with a Montana licensed physician today regarding medical cannabis and had said the word "trichome", we all know what trichomes are and that they are not only relevant to cannabis as they exist through out botany. Well when I pronounced it, he was taken back and didn't quite understand what I had said and thought I had mispronounced it. I had told him that for the longest time I pronounced it tri-chome and sometimes even tri-chrome, adding the erroneous 'r', but a while back had discovered on reference.com that I was mispronouncing it and that it was actually pronounced trik-ohm. The doctor went to the website and listened to it being annunciated online and was pleasantly surprised and appreciative for the knowledge.

An interesting point about anything cannabis related, if you don't educate yourself, you'll end up knowing nothing or nothing but grapevine perception.

Check it out yourself.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/trichome

Load the web page from the link above, then click the gray speaker icon next to the word as shown in the image below. It will highlight blue when you mouse over/click it.
*Make sure your speakers are turned on*

I was talking to a patient today and was told that they truly felt thankful to have cannabis in their life. They said their family had noticed a tremendous difference in their overall well being and general mood since incorporating cannabis into their medical regiment. They had reduced their opioid intake by 50% to date and that may continue to decrease as we continue working together to find the right strains that work for this specific patients physiology.

The last strain I had dispensed was a nice dense trichome covered Blueberry strain harvested at about 5-10% amber trichome coverage. This coverage of amber trichomes provides a more cerebral head high. If I had let the amber trichome percentage increase to 50-60% at harvest it would have produced a more couch lock, body high. Which we do at times as well.

The patient really enjoyed the Blueberry and we're now testing a couple other sativa/early harvested strains to lock in the ones that suit them best for their day-time usage.

It is truly wonderful to hear from patients the benefits they receive from cannabis.

We are just finishing up the details of our Hope Caregiver franchise opportunities and will be releasing them via the blog and website in the next few days.

Stay tuned, we have been at the forefront of medical cannabis in Montana for over a year now with regards to integrating patients, medicine, technology & caregiving so our franchise opportunities are sure to make a big splash :)

Hi all, hope everyone is doing well this evening.

The mrs and I just finished straining a batch of butter, so far things are looking nice. We added 4 ounces of button buds from JTR and Blueberry to a little over one pound of butter. We had simmered it for 8 hours last night and let it slow cool today in the crock pot then lightly reheated it so it was fluid enough to pour again for the straining. Boy oh boy, no matter how many times you've done this, the aweful smell of the cooking cannabis & butter is just horrendous, thank goodness we have a well ventilated room to do it in, PEEEWWWWW~!

 

 

 

 

We got the recipe from a forum friend over at Smokapelli.com, a Montana Marijuana Patient & Caregiver Only Forum, and was told it is a rather potent one and to inform all patients that want to try it to be cautious and go slow. The recommended dosage was a one (1) teaspoon for a 160 pound person, so adjust accordingly for your body weight.

It can take a little while to kick in for some folks, so truly do take it slow and give it time. A lot of patients I talk to state they usually get impatient waiting for it to kick in and end up smoking/vaping instead. With edibles, patients is a virtue :) Eat a cookie, brownie, muffin and wait, and don't worry if you wait 30-45 minutes, give it some time before munching another. Remember, each of us are different and the way that THC effects us each is different, so it may take your fellow patient 20 minutes to feel the effects and it could take you 45 to feel them.

Relax, enjoy and be patient.

Another word of wisdom if you're not familiar with edibles, plan out your time before munching down on anything with cannabis in it. Consuming cannabis via edibles can be much, much more intense then smoking or vaping you'll need to take this into account and make sure you don't have to be anywhere for 4-5 hours in the least, preferably the rest of the day/night Safety first!!

Welp, we intend to take pictures of the process the next time we do it so that we can post directions on our website/blog. Shouldn't be too long before we get back to it again.

Have a good night!

PS - Billings deliveries tomorrow!

This is a call to action for all physicians as defined by Title 37, Chapter 3 of the Montana Code Annotated¹ to stand up and find a way to become more accessible to the patients of Montana that have conditions that could qualify them for acceptance into the Montana Medical Marijuana Program. The law is clear as to what a debilitating condition is, so why is it so difficult for patients to find a doctor willing to sign the recommendation? The norm is that patients have to go outside their own primary care doctors and find an alternative means to get the signed recommendation.

Montana is not a highly taxed state or a state where the majority of the residents have a lot of capital at their disposal thus economics plays a large role in health care in our great state.

Cannabis is a viable, relatively inexpensive alternative to pharmaceuticals that they are comfortable administering themselves. Patients know when they are sufficiently medicated without having to pay for repeated visits to the doctor to have their dosages monitor. A lot of the news I am reading as of late appears to be heading down a road of "we can't control legal cannabis, so lets control the process by which a patient gains access to it, the doctors recommendation and forcing rules upon it".

This is blatantly wrong in our opinion. A doctor/patient relationship is not something that should be governed or maintained in a fashion that is destructive to the patient just because of the unjust attitude towards this miracle plant. We have to remember that this is not about control or money, it is about the well being of the patients that are benefiting from the medicinal uses of cannabis.

We tend to get side tracked nowadays when we discuss topics of contention, but the fact of the matter is that we have to recognize the reason the law exists and look at it from that sole perspective, not the perspective of our political party or our religious affiliations or anything else. The medical marijuana laws in the states that have them are for the sole benefit of the patient. Lets remember that and start making it more accessible to the patients that can so they can live their lives to the fullest.

Patients are actively seeking doctors willing to do consultation reviews for medical cannabis recommendations, not for another primary care physician, and we get daily calls for the names and numbers of doctors offering this service from all over the state. If you're a doctor interested in learning more about the Montana Medical Marijuana Program and how you can be an active part of it and the financial benefits associated with it, contact us today!

¹ "Physician" means a person who holds a degree as a doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy and who has a valid license to practice medicine or osteopathic medicine in this state. Reference: Montana Code Annoted http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/mca/37/3/37-3-102.htm

We'll just finished harvesting the newly named #4 rack, all but the NL#5 looked nice and ready in the Jakks eyeclops scope :) We harvested 2 Jack the Rippers, 3 blueberries and 2 mental floss. For the cultivation system we use, one of the JTR's got as big as a soil grown one would have, just amazing.

Trimmed/pulled all the large fan leaves off and hung them to dry whole. We have such low humidity here in SW MT that I normally have to have my humidifier on high to keep my relative humidity between 46-55% but with winter I don't have to run it as often so there is no chance of drying to fast with these ladies.

Tomorrow I'll check the NL#5 again with the scope and see what the trichomes look like then.

We'll post some pictures tomorrow as well.

Until then - :)

We are very proud to be listed in the Grown in Montana directory and take great pride in growing our cannabis in Montana for Montanans. We utilize local retailers for our cultivation needs and enjoy knowing the money we are circulating back into the economy is more likely to stay local with our efforts.

The Made in Montana/Grown in Montana directory is a Montana Department of Commerce program that showcases products that adhere to their guidelines for being manufactured or cultivated in our great state.

The directory serves as an excellent resource for folks interested in helping to support our fellow Montanans, something we all should take into consideration when we are spending our hard earned money.

Our listing can be found here:
http://www.madeinmontanausa.com/prod.asp?Type=Detail&RecordID=1560&WebReferer=hopecaregiversofmontana.com

We are listed under the Health/Medical Supplies category.

We take great pride in providing a Montana grown product, we politely ask you to do the same!

We have a patient dispensary in Ennis, we call it our patient care and education center as we utilize it for dispensing medicine to patients as well as educating those curious about cannabis from a medical and/or industrial perspective.

We realize that the patient center is a public, some what visible location and that some patients have an issue with coming to our location to pick up their medicine. We understand this and have always offered delivery service to anywhere our patients are comfortable to meet us.

Cannabis has been so poorly portrayed by our US government since the late 1930's it really does have a negative connotation about it. We realize this and understand and take on the responsibility of reeducating the masses to the scientific truth and not the propaganda that our government so desperately wants us to believe, so much so they arrest 3 individuals every minute for simple possession in our great country.

We truly believe the negative connotation is falsely personified as it is only exists because of the misinformation we have been forced upon us, with complete disregard for the scientific evidence along the way.

Medical cannabis is viable, it is legal and it is so desperately needed and desired by so many patients that are unwilling to cross the perceived threshold that is associated with its medicinal use. Did you know that most patients that begin a cannabis treatment regime will reduce their intake, and in some cases absolve the need for, the pharmaceutical drugs. That is just amazing if you really take the time to think about it and digest it accordingly.

Education coupled with the easy access for our Ennis and surrounding area patients is the reason we have our office and take pride in being available in it between 9 AM and 3 PM, Monday through Friday, by appointment only (simply call and give us 10 minutes notice so we can ensure the privacy of any patient that may be with us at any given time).

We are just north of True Value in the Greystone building, suite #9

Give us a call and we'll be more then happy to explain the law as it has been explained to us by our Montana attorneys dedicated to medical cannabis accessibility to patients with debilitating conditions as per the law.

We operate in strict accordance with the Montana Medical Marijuana Act as it is written and do not deviate for any reason. If your not comfortable with a caregiver service that is dedicated to following the law, you're not interested in our services. When we take on the very important responsibility of providing our caregiving service to our designated patients, we realize without a doubt that we can never jeopardize our patients access to their medicine. Staying within the law is a way to ensure just that!

We recently harvested a very petite purple urkel, two actually, but one is so petite I do not believe we will get more then a couple grams from it (a primary reason i am no longer carrying this strain).

We also harvest and just finished final trim on a nice Blueberry plant, very dense buds with a lot of trichomes (trich·ome pronounced: trik-ohm, trahy-kohm)

In the next few days we will harvest the remaining few plants in the #1 unit. The remaining plants include Jack the Ripper, Mental Floss, NL #5 and another Blueberry, her trichomes were not cloudy enough for me so she wasn't harvested with her sibling last week. The humidity this time of year is nice from the summer. I haven't had to run my 24 gallon humidifier at all in the last couple weeks as compared to filling it daily in the summer, I'll save that for another post :)

All in all this harvest is looking very nice, I will post pictures of the JTR when I harvest it, it is enormous, especially if you take into consideration my aeroponic/NFT cultivation system that utilizes no growing medium and just lets the roots grow into a root mat in the net pot rails. I'll blog about my specific operation shortly as well to educate folks interested in growing a perpetual supply for their own, or their patients, medicinal cannabis needs.

A dedicated caregiver stops at nothing in their attempts to grow perfect medicine, one grow at a time.

Trichomes, Sugar Coating, Coating, Powder, Sugar-Donut, whatever you call it, it is what matters most to the patient, as it contains the medicinal attributes of the cannabis plant.

 

Facebook was a private tool when it was first created, used in colleges and high schools and eventually the corporate world and finally the entire WWW. In our experiences the best use for this social networking tool from our cannabis caregiver service perspetive is for storing and sharing links to pertinent content amongst our friends and their friends and the friends we have we don't even know and have never even spoke too once; we just add them all when they request it.

We all understand that sharing knowledge is a truly generous gift we can bestow upon each other and with out it we can never achieve or exceed our goals. Facebook definitely delivers the vehicle to share that knowledge in a larger scale with no expense outside of an workstation & a internet connection.

With that said, we recommend that you take a peak if you haven't already and if you're already on FB, check out our FB page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Ennis-MT/Hope-Caregivers-of-Montana/134463537711?ref=ts