Appearing in Cannon Falls, Minn., yesterday, President Barack Obama was asked about legalizing medical marijuana. His answer was beyond vague and not entirely supportive.

From Rawstory.com:

“If you can’t legalize marijuana, why can’t you just legalize medical marijuana?” a woman asked the president.

“A lot of states are making decisions about medical marijuana,” Obama explained. “As a controlled substance, the issue is then that is it being prescribed by a doctor as opposed to… you know, well, I’ll leave it at that.”

Watch the video from C-SPAN, broadcast Aug. 15, 2011.

Here is an interview with Obama shortly after he became president. In this one he supports medical marijuana when prescribed by a doctor for a medical condition, which may be what he was trying to say Monday, or not.

Photo by Neeta Lind

Advocates of legalizing medical marijuana for chronically and terminally ill patients have decided to scale back their campaign to pass such legislation this year because of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto pen. In 2009, both chambers at the Capitol passed medical marijuana legislation with bipartisan support — only to see Pawlenty veto the legislation. Medical marijuana advocates had hinted at a constitutional amendment this session to bypass Pawlenty, but that won’t be the plan for 2010.

“Because Governor Pawlenty has announced that he is not seeking re-election in 2010, and because we don’t want to give him the ‘pleasure’ of vetoing another bill to help seriously ill Minnesotans, our focus has shifted to 2011,” read a statement from Minnesotans for Compassionate Care. “We intend to do everything in our power to ensure that a supportive gubernatorial candidate is in office when the next legislative session begins in January 2011.”

The group says it will continue to work with the law enforcement lobby to see if they can reach a compromise this session.

“MCC is meeting with law enforcement to answer their questions and learn about their objections,” the group wrote. “If law enforcement works with us in good faith, we may be able to introduce a bill that Governor Pawlenty will sign.”

In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai’s brother is getting CIA payments while also being involved in the heroin trade, Ventura writes. And while Obama has said the drug problem needs to be looked at from a public health perspective, his “drug war” budget directs twice as much money to the criminal justice system than to treatment and prevention, he writes. He then criticizes Obama for nominating Michele Leonhart, a Bush-era appointee, as DEA director.

“She has a history of cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries, and most recently denying the research application of a University of Massachusetts botanist, he writes. “This is a ludicrous appointment, since Attorney General Eric Holder has already ordered federal agents not to go after medical marijuana outlets. So is the administration talking out of both sides of its mouth?”

Ventura concludes with an excerpt from his book, which comes out March 8. In part, it reads:

…One hundred million Americans have sampled marijuana, and that includes almost half of all the seniors in high school. More than 35 million Americans have tried cocaine at some point, and almost as many have taken LSD or other hallucinogenic drugs. Meantime, we’ve got “grows” or “gardens” of pot springing up all across our western states on public lands–and that includes almost40 percent of national forests. About 3.1 million marijuana plants were confiscated in national forests over a one-year period, September 2007 to September 2008, carrying a street value calculated at $12.4 billion.

I mean, how stupid are we? Go back to Chicago and Prohibition, when Al Capone became more powerful than the government because we’d outlawed the selling of liquor. Legalize marijuana, and you put the cartels out of business! [...]

Photo: Wikipedia

A bipartisan bill introduced in the Minnesota House on Monday could give the state’s agricultural sector a boost in the form of a new cash crop: medical marijuana. Gov. Tim Pawlenty last year vetoed an effort to legalize medical cannibis, but this measure has a different aim — to give farmers the OK to grow pot for export to states where its medicinal use is legal.

The Medical Marijuana Production and Export Act is sponsored by DFL Reps. Phyllis Kahn, Tom Rukavina, Al Juhnke, Tom Huntley and Frank Hornstein, joined by Republican Rep. Jim Abeler.

The Minnesota Independent’s requests for comment from the bill’s sponsors weren’t returned on Wednesday, but the bill spells out its aim:

The purpose of the Medical Marijuana Production and Export Act is to strengthen the state economy and its agricultural sectors by authorizing the development of a regulated medical marijuana production and export industry while maintaining strict control of marijuana.

Currently 14 states allow for the use of medical marijuana, although none are neighbors to Minnesota: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Photo: Ryan Bushby, Wikimedia Commons

Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Winona, has been the chief backer of a bill to allow medical marijuana for seriously ill patients, but he’s not sure whether there will be a push for it this session. To make matters worse for medical marijuana backers, Murphy is retiring at the end of the session.

“For right now, it looks a little discouraging,” Murphy told the Minnesota Daily. “I don’t know any high-jumper that’s going to get over the bar that [Gov. Tim Pawlenty]‘s setting. Adrian Peterson couldn’t jump over that thing.”

Pawlenty vetoed the medical marijuana bill last session citing law enforcement concerns. Even though the bill would have created the strictest medical marijuana law in the nation, law enforcement wouldn’t budge last year.

When asked by the Minnesota Independent whether a constitutional amendment will be a possibility this session, Murphy simply said, “I do not have information at this time regarding the possibility of an amendment regarding medical marijuana in the upcoming session.”

While Murphy announced recently that the 2010 session will be his last, medical marijuana advocates told the Minnesota Independent that they will continue to push for it — even if it means putting the issue to a vote of the people.

Photo: Wikipedia

When Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill last spring that would’ve allowed chronically ill patients to use marijuana medicinally, advocates vowed to take the issue to the people in the form of a constitutional amendment. But as the 2010 legislative session nears, medical marijuana groups say they’ll take a more measured approach and work with law enforcement and the governor one last time.

“Minnesotans for Compassionate Care will continue to be involved in efforts to make medical marijuana legal for patients in Minnesota,” Heather Azzi, spokesperson for that group, told the Minnesota Independent.

“A constitutional amendment is certainly an option. We will also be exploring the possibility of legislation acceptable to Governor Pawlenty.”

Last year, the Minnesota Legislature passed a medical marijuana bill that is much more stringent than other laws around the country, including stricter limits on who could access marijuana and harsh penalties on those who abuse the system. But Pawlenty still vetoed the bill.

Azzi says that the legislature has shown its intention to make the bill law; before advocates push for an amendment, they are giving law enforcement one last chance to help shape a bill all parties can agree with.

“Now that we have demonstrated to law enforcement that we do in fact have the votes in the House and in the Senate, we are hopeful that law enforcement will recognize that this may very well be their last opportunity to come to the table and work with us on the bill,” said Azzi.

“We are being very open minded at this point about our plan for the remainder of the session. Governor Pawlenty has stated that he will sign a medical marijuana bill if law enforcement does not oppose the bill.”

Minnesotans for Compassionate Care will also be looking for commitments on the issue from candidates for governor.

“We do not have a timeline for getting the commitments from the candidates yet,” said Azzi, because the group is hopeful that medical marijuana will be law this year.

Photo: Wikipedia

Although medical marijuana use is still illegal on the federal level, the Obama administration said today that it won’t go after patients or their providers in states where it is legal.

“It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement to federal prosecutors this morning. “This balanced policy formalizes a sensible approach that the Department has been following since January: effectively focus our resources on serious drug traffickers while taking into account state and local laws.”

The memo, penned by David W. Ogden, Deputy Attorney General, says:

As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana. For example, prosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources.

In Minnesota, medical marijuana remains illegal. In 2009, the Minnesota Legislature passed a tightly-worded bill that would allow some medical marijuana in the state, but that measure was vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Advocates say they will take their battle to the people, and and constitutional amendment legislation is planned for the 2010 legislative session.

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.

“While I am sympathetic to those dealing with end-of-life illnesses and accompanying pain, I stand with law enforcement in opposition to this legislation,” Pawlenty said in his veto letter.

“I’m disappointed in the governor’s action, but I’m not giving up,” Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said in a press release. “This would have been the narrowest, strictest medical marijuana law in the country, but the bottom line remains that there are patients suffering terribly who need protection, and I won’t stop till they are protected.”

Joni Whiting, whose testimony of finding marijuana for her dying daughter brought tears to many legislators’ eyes, had harsh words for Pawlenty.

“The governor thinks I’m a criminal for allowing my daughter some comfort during the last months of her life,” she said. “I don’t know how he sleeps at night, but I do know I’m not giving up until others in my daughter’s situation are protected.”

Polls show the issue is popular with voters with popular support at over 60 percent for more than a decade.

“Since the governor has refused to listen to reason or to the overwhelming majority of Minnesotans, we have no choice but to bypass him and take this directly to the people through a constitutional amendment,” said Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing.

Delaforest, a conservative Republican, lent his ideological bent to the raging debate over the medical use of marijuana. “To me, this is the ultimate conservative issue,” he told the Star Tribune in 2008. “It’s about keeping the government out of the doctor-patient relationship.”

A bill to allow medical marijuana in Minnesota passed the legislature for the first time after decades of effort. Pawlenty is expected to veto the bill.

While Delaforest and Pawlenty fundamentally disagree on medical marijuana, MPR’s Bob Collins notes that the issue is the only place the two seem to disagree. On abortion, same-sex marriage, voting, gambling and health care, the two have been in lock-step.