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Saturday marks a new chapter in the history of medical marijuana in Montana.

At midnight, Senate Bill 423, the Montana Marijuana Act, passed into law after Governor Brian Schweitzer decided not to sign it and not to veto the bill.

On July 1st, caregivers will no longer be able to sell medical marijuana to patients. Also, stricter guidelines will be in place for people seeking medical marijuana cards, namely for those who had a card under the chronic pain term. That change will take place on June 20th.

However, that concerns the bill's sponsor and Billings lawmaker, Senator Jeff Essman, who says he wants to see the new standards take effect before the current deadline the Department of Health and Human Services is prepared to operate under.

"There's simply no basis in the law for the department to do that, and I call on the governor to enforce the law in Montana and start issuing cards, and have the department issue the cards by the new stricter standards beginning June 1," said Essman.

Cities across the state now have some guidelines on how to deal with the industry.