A Montana lobbyist and one of the drafters of Montana’s 2004 voter-approved medical marijuana law will not see jail time from pleading guilty on federal marijuana charges.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen sentenced Tom Daubert Thursday in Missoula to five years’ probation. Daubert had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to maintain a drug-involved premises, a charge that stems from the 2011 raid of a Montana Cannabis, the medical marijuana provider Daubert co-founded in 2009.

Christensen disregarded federal prosecutors’ recommendation for a prison sentence between 6 ½ and eight years.

Any time an activist and dispensary owner can escape jail time on federal marijuana charges, it’s a good thing.

At its peak, Montana Cannabis provided marijuana for more than 300 registered users from multiple locations across the state, and ran a massive grow operation in the old State Nursery outside Helena.

All that came crashing down in March 2011 when federal agents, backed by state and local law enforcement officials, raided multiple Montana Cannabis locations and the nursery among the 26 search warrants executed in a crackdown on what had become a booming pot industry.

The marijuana providers who ran those businesses, including Daubert, protested that they were following state laws and should not be prosecuted for violating the federal Controlled Substances Act. Federal prosecutors said their investigation targeted large-scale drug organizations, and that federal law prevails in any conflict with state laws.

More than two dozen people have been indicted as a result of the raids.

One day the federal government won’t bother states with medical marijuana and let them decide on their own what is best for their citizens. That day was supposed to arrive with the election of Barack Obama, but we all know how that went.

- Joe Klare

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