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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.

The Hauser family’s media ride climaxes with … a ride home, provided by the media. Las Vegas-based Asgaard Media got Colleen Hauser and her cancer-stricken son Daniel off the lam, onto a chartered red-eye flight and home to Sleepy Eye, Minn., by 3 a.m. Monday. The film company distributed a video interview with the pair, who had fled Minnesota for California, Mexico or parts unknown to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy. The boy saw doctors in the Twin Cities yesterday and a Brown County judge reviews his case today.

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines today … 

RED WING:  Ex-coach, a suspect in town hall fire, may have killed self. A former high school teacher and coach, 45 and beset with Parkinson’s disease, was found dead after going missing from foster care and possibly setting fire to the Midway Town Hall; brain surgery set for June would have reduced his reliance on a drug that made him erratic. [Red Wing Republican Eagle]

RED WING: 45-foot boat + 60 mph = 13 wet and injured. Drink wasn’t a factor — but the watercraft’s stern losing contact with the Mississippi River may have been. [Red Wing Republican Eagle]

TWIN CITIES: Damn the dams – make the metro Mississippi wild again. The departing Ford Motor Company doesn’t need its St. Paul dam, and barge traffic’s dropping, so some advocate returning the river to rapids. [MinnPost]

NORTHFIELD: At St. Olaf, Paulsen protest not apparent. U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s college graduation speech was “pure chloroform,” according to one critic. [Gavin Sullivan]

STATEWIDE: Minnesota pols take to Twitter. The mass-messaging medium has 30 Minnesota lawmakers in its grip, including Paulsen, who says it’s “a mistake” to resist what one of his colleagues calls “The Twitter.” [St. Paul Pioneer Press; Politico]

BEMIDJI: Sales tax to help kids learn native languages. The state will spend $1.25 million in new Legacy Act funds on an “emergency-type situation” — creating new Ojibwe and Dakota speakers. [Bemidji Pioneer]