Image: Wikipedia

Image: Wikipedia

Two Minnesota headlines have collided this week. Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a medical marijuana bill citing concerns by law enforcement who say the bill would increase marijuana use throughout the state. And 13-year-old Daniel Hauser is court ordered to receive chemotherapy against his will and that of his parents.

Radley Balko of Reason Magazine points to some interesting parallels between the two events: Minnesota government thinks it knows what is best for patients.

It would at first appear that the two stories are inconsistent: The state of Minnesota is forcing Daniel Hauser into chemo because he isn’t old enough to decide his own course of treatment, and because his parents’ claimed moral opposition to chemotherapy is irrational. Yet at the same time, the state will forbid Hauser from smoking marijuana to offset the effects of said chemo because, despite research showing marijuana’s clear benefits in that area, the state has a moral obligation to prevent people from smoking marijuana. Science should trump belief. Except when it doesn’t.

But the two positions are consistent in one important way—perhaps the only way that really matters: The government, not sick people or their parents, gets to make the decision.