Medical marijuana passes last House committee

[...] The Minnesota Independent. Share and [...]

Law enforcement should not have a voice in this debate at all, they WORK FOR US, they don’t get to decide policy. The police are acting more and more like an enemy occupying force, not our employees. The fact that law enforcement got the House to agree to a sunset date is ridiculous, that means these measures will only be in effect for a year and a half. Get the cops out of this. The bottom line is that pot should be legal. Mexico just legalized possession of small amounts of all drugs. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and their experience has been positive. Now if you are caught with a 10 day supply of your drug or less you face an administrative court, not a criminal court, but in practice they are just not arresting people. A group of 10,000 very serious policemen, prosecutors, attorneys and citizens have formed a group to legalize ALL drugs, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://leap.cc ) They see what happened when we legalized alcohol in 1932 as a good example of how drug legalization would work. This foolish war on drugs has lasted 37 years and cost us over a TRILLION dollars and we are not an inch closer to stopping drugs. How many millions of Americans are we going to lock up in prison for decades? Mark Montgomery boboberg@nyc.rr.com

The fact that Pawlenty is using the police to justify his position on this bill makes me very uneasy. He is essentially hiding behind them so to not gain negative press. He is just passing the responsibility to them and this is not what Mn elected him for. I see this a sign of weakness and he will do whatever to stay in office. Dont get me wrong police have a vote but they shouldn’t be given the power to veto and that is exactly the responsibility he is dumping on them. Of course they will oppose what they have fought against so long.

Bipartisan support. How many issues can you say that about in this legislative session?
This was already a very tightly written bill (despite what law enforcement has been stating.) It is now about as limited as medical marijuana laws get in this country. The sunset date is unfortunate, because we’ll have to be subjected to law enforcement’s exaggerations and misinformation once again when the sunset date arrives. However, no state which has passed a medical marijuana law has repealed it, and instead, many have expanded their programs. The “doomsday” prophecies by police just never materialize. Sick and dying people should not be the victims of political gamesmanship, GOVERNOR PAWLENTY. Stop listening to special interests (the police and prosecutors) and let science and doctors determine what is best for a patient’s condition. Please be sure to write your rep and urge their support for this bill. Thank you!

[...] the Minnesota Independent story on HF [...]

Just think of all the taxes they could charge if they just admitted that pot is no worse than alcohol or tobacco and legalized it. All the money that could be saved from not having to maintain jails. Or the fact that I could be a meth head, crack head, or severe alcoholic and get any job I want because these drugs only show up for 72 hours in most tests. Yet if I choose to smoke marijuana even once a month I could be not hired, fired, or denied insurance benefits because marijuana stays in your system for 20-40 days. Why label an entire potentially working segment of the population criminals when people on welfare and unemployment aren’t ever tested for drugs? When was the last time you heard about a person having a pot overdose? I’ve been around for a while and I bet there are plenty of Minnesota government employees that have smoked at least once. Police officers too. Who hasn’t ever known somebody that smoked? Been at a party back in college or high school where somebody smoked? Maybe heaven forbid even taken a toke themselves? Does that make us all dangerous criminals. Were the people in your life that have smoked really that bad? There are 4 sides to this issue, of course the smokers, people that think pot heads are dumb and lazy but don’t care, people that think pot heads are funny and watch hollywood movies about them and don’t care, and lastly people that think it’s a crime. I’m sure the first three groups out number the last and could care less if it was legalized. I think it’s time to end the war on our own citizens and use the stoners to balance the budget just like you want to do with tobacco and alcohol users you shameless tax spenders you!

Given approx. 80-percent of the U.S. supports access to Medical Cannabis and given Medical Cannabis’s broad medical support from top-notch health organizations, Governor Pawlenty’s threat to veto this sensible and compassionate piece of legislation is seriously misguided, ill-informed, and is likely to hurt his political future (remember how Bob Barr got skewered — and still hasn’t recovered — for his past ignorant actions and stances that helped to block medical access to Cannabis in Wash. D.C.?).

Too many people know the truth (and the numbers are getting larger by the minute) for Pawlenty to be hiding behind the same old, tired, fear-based propaganda regarding medical Cannabis. His advisers are definitely NOT reading the trends well on this subject. But there’s still time for Pawlenty to end the lies.

Here’s a small list of health organizations supporting access to Medical Cannabis, NOW (if there are any questions about a specific group’s endorsement, let me know and I’ll try to find the actual position statement or at least the supportive comments). Let’s bury the “no medical support” myth once and for all and please urge Gov. Pawlenty to listen to the real experts:

American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, American Medical Student Association, American Nurses Association, American Preventive Medical Association, American Public Health Association, American Society of Addiction Medicine, Arthritis Research Campaign (United Kingdom), Australian Medical Association (New South Wales), Limited Australian National Task Force on Cannabis, Belgian Ministry of Health, British House of Lords Select Committee On Science and Technology (First & Second Report), British Medical Association, Canadian AIDS Society, Canadian Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs, Dr. Dean Edell (surgeon and nationally syndicated radio host), Health Canada, Kaiser Permanente, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Lymphoma Foundation of America, The Montel Williams MS Foundation, Multiple Sclerosis Society (Canada), The Multiple Sclerosis Society (United Kingdom), National Association for Public Health Policy, National Nurses Society on Addictions, Netherlands Ministry of Health, New South Wales (Australia), New England Journal of Medicine, AIDS Action Council, AIDS Treatment News, Parliamentary Working Party on the Use of Cannabis for Medical Purposes, Dr. Andrew Weil, Alaska Nurses Association, Being Alive: People With HIV/AIDS Action Committee (San Diego, CA), California Academy of Family Physicians, California Nurses Association, California Pharmacists, Colorado Nurses Association, Connecticut Nurses Association, Florida Governor’s Red Ribbon Panel on AIDS, Florida Medical Association, Hawaii Nurses Association, Illinois Nurses Association, Life Extension Foundation, Medical Society of the State of New York, the Minnesota AIDS Council, Mississippi Nurses Association, New Jersey State Nurses Association, New Mexico Medical Society, New Mexico Nurses Association, New York County Medical Society, New York State Nurses Association, North Carolina Nurses Association, Rhode Island Medical Society, Rhode Island State Nurses Association, San Francisco Mayor’s Summit on AIDS and HIV, San Francisco Medical Society, Vermont Medical Marijuana Study Committee, Virginia Nurses Association, Whitman-Walker Clinic (Washington, DC), Wisconsin Nurses Association, etc…

And that’s just a small sampling of the overall medical support. Please help end the lies.

“Several major changes were made to the bill to appease law enforcement.”
THAT IS COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS!

Our representatives are supposed to represent ALL of us, not give undue attention to small portions of the population like huge businesses who profit from laws and law enforcement employees who also rely on unjust laws to keep their jobs. This is called “corruption” or “selling out”.

Just calling them like I see them… but I applaud those who are moving in the right direction by legalizing (even some) marijuana. The amount of money we spend on imprisoning productive members of society is obscene and unconscionable, and this is a good first step to correcting the errors of the recent past.

“The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, DEPRIVING THE SICK OF NEEDED HELP, and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents… Narcotics police are an enormous, corrupt international bureaucracy … and now fund a coterie of researchers who provide them with ’scientific support’ … fanatics who distort the legitimate research of others”

– William F. Buckley, Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495

How much money does Tim get from the police unions and other law enforcement and corrections agencies?

Tim is just trying to look “ultra-conservative” to win over the GOP nomination for VP in 2012, plus keep the for-profit prisons humming along.

It’s another reason he refuses to seat Franken. He’s siding with the GOP in hopes of his VP run. He doesn’t care that we’re not properly represented. It helps him politically.

He couldn’t give a rats ass about the citizens.

Caffeine is a “gateway drug!!”

Voting against were DFL Reps. Kate Knuth, Gene Pelowski, Jr., and Nora Slawik. They were joined by Republican Reps. Ron Shimanski, Mary Kiffmeyer and Tom Emmer.

There’s three DFLers that need to targeted for defeat. Look up “airhead” in the dictionary and you’ll find Nora Slawik’s picture.

The only cops you should be listening to are LEAP officers. LEAP, http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php is dedicated to the truth about our drug laws.

[...] Legislation to legalize the medicinal use of cannabis has been approved by the state Senate and now awaits action from the House. At this time, the bill’s primary hurdle appears to be Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has [...]

why do we keep all the money we spend underground when we should decriminalize and put that money back into the economy they we spend 100 billion a year lets get that money above ground and put it to use

I,ve come to the conclusion this wont pass,our leaders just do not represent us anymore,that is if they ever did.Commonsense is long gone,The drug war is ineffective but nobody has the balls to stand up for whats right anymore,call me negative but thats just how it is nowadays.

Listen.

I’m tired of hearing how the marijuana will help the nations economy.

Forget all that. It’s about us, the people, not the friggin money. I’m sick and tired of hearing about money and taxes and marijuana, WE AS PEOPLE are ALWAYS left out of the equation.

I hope they pass this, and ultimately make this plant legal for consumption. I dont hurt anyone, I dont disprespect.

I love Minnesota and all my neighbors here. Marijuana is great to me and I like to smoke it. I hate paying for it.

But, if it means better roads for us, a happier people, Im all for it.

Please make marijuana legal. I like it too much to let it go and it loves me too.

Pawlenty, dont worry brother, things will be just fine.