The Missoula lawmaker said she has heard from thousands of people who support medical marijuana but want the Legislature to enact some sideboards to the bill. She urged lawmakers to instead consider the bipartisan measure approved by a legislative interim committee, House Bill 68, by Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, which would add regulations.

"They don't think the current law is what people voted for," she said. "They voted for safe access to medical marijuana. They want us to put some training wheels on."

Afterward, Tom Daubert, an author and campaign manager for the 2004 initiative, criticized the committee action.

"For legislators who rejected proposals to improve the law in '07 and '09 to now rush to repeal rather than to fix a compassionate policy passed by the people in record numbers is a tragedy for patients and an insult to the Montana values of freedom and democracy," said Daubert, who heads a group called Patients & Families United. "Consensus solutions to the law's problems exist. But redefining thousands of suffering Montanans as criminals is not a solution, nor is it morally justifiable."