By Matt Volz, Associated Press
Federal prosecutors pursuing drug charges against Montana medical marijuana operators want to keep jurors from hearing any evidence at trial about the state’s medical pot law or whether the operators were complying with it.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys have made motions in at least two cases stemming from federal raids on dozens of pot operations this spring, asking those judges to forbid any testimony or evidence at trial about medical marijuana or related issues involving state and federal laws.
“Montana’s medical marijuana laws have no relevance to the present prosecution, which consists of various charges the defendants violated federal law in relation to a marijuana manufacture and distribution scheme,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thaggard wrote in an August court filing.
The question will go unanswered in one case, after Ryan Blindheim and Evan Corum of the Black Pearl dispensary in Olney recently pleaded guilty – Blindheim to a charge of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and both to money laundering charges.
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