from In These Times:
Features » September 27, 2010
Big High Country
Medical marijuana foments culture war in Montana.By Beau Hodai
— 9-1-1 emergency dispatch, Billings, Montana:
“Billings 9-1-1.”— Caller:
“Ah yes, I’d like to report the start of a building fire, please.”— Dispatch:
“Shoot, where at?”— Caller:
“2109 Grand. I just drove by it. Looks like it’s been broken into. There’s a fire starting inside the building.”— Dispatch:
“Okay, do you know what the name of the building is?”— Caller:
“No, I don’t…”— Dispatch:
“… All right, they’re sendin’ someone over there.”Billings Fire Department personnel responded to this call, made by a local woman on her way to the gym in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, May 10. The call was made about 14 hours before the Billings City Council was set to kick off a meeting anticipated to set restrictions on medical marijuana caregivers within the city’s limits—if not ban them entirely.
Arriving at the scene of the fire, the small storefront of local medical marijuana caregiver Montana Therapeutics, BFD responders noted that the front door had been “busted out” and that a fire emanating from a small object—later identified as a liquor bottle—was burning on the floor just inside the store.
Responders also noted the words “NOT IN OUR TOWN” spray-painted across the business storefront.
According to the BFD incident report, the fire was extinguished and the crime scene turned over to Billings Police Department, at which time officers informed the firemen that an identical firebombing had taken place at Big Sky Patient Care, another medical marijuana caregiver facility located in Billings, the previous morning. .............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6441/big_high_country
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