Man pleads innocent to marijuana charges

A 35-year-old Whitefish man has pleaded innocent to federal charges related to coordinated raids of medical marijuana dispensaries across Montana in March.

Ryan Giffod Blindheim, former owner of the Black Pearl dispensary in Olney, was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch on Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and money laundering.

His marijuana operation was among 26 raided by state and federal law enforcement officials in mid-March.

If convicted on all charges, he faces a mandatory five years of prison and a possible maximum sentence of 40 years.

Blindheim is the fifth Flathead County man hit with federal charges following the raids. Whitefish resident Evan James Corum, 25, and Kalispell residents Jonathan Janetski, 43, Michael Kassner, 24, and Tyler Roe, 29, were arraigned July 6 in U.S. District Court.

Blindheim was among a crowd of medical marijuana advocates who lined the streets near the Whitefish Performing Arts Center on May 5 to urge Gov. Brian Schweitzer to veto a bill that sharply restricted the state's medical marijuana industry.

"I was probably one of the biggest players in this industry," Blindheim told an Inter Lake reporter at the time.

Blindheim said he invested about $300,000 in the business, including the purchase of an 18,000-square-foot warehouse and advanced growing equipment and technology.

He said he effectively had been out of business since the raids.

Blindheim said he believes the state failed the industry by not adequately regulating it over the last few years.

"I'll be honest. This industry will attract a lot of people with bad intentions," he said. "We were let down by our own state ... We were asking, if not begging for guidelines. The bottom line is there are people out there who needed this."