Pubdate: Fri, 03 May 2013
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2013 Star Tribune
Contact: http://www.startribunecompany.com/143
Website: http://www.startribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/266
Author: Jennifer Brooks

MEDICAL MARIJUANA SUPPORTERS PUSH FOR LEGALIZATION

It Won't Happen This Session, but Bipartisan Effort Looks to the Next.

Legislators are disagreeing on a lot of big issues, but they found a 
bit of common ground Thursday - medical marijuana.

It's too late to push a bill through this session, but about 40 
legislators in both parties, including more than a dozen committee 
chairmen, sent a strong signal that they want to add Minnesota to the 
18 states where marijuana can be legally prescribed.

Legislators passed the legalization of medical marijuana in 2009, but 
were stopped by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who vetoed the bill.

Now they're ready to try again, in part because of such Minnesotans 
as Joni Whiting, of Jordan. Whiting watched as her 26-year-old 
daughter, Stephanie Whiting Stradinger, endured surgeries for 
malignant melanoma that ate away her face and ultimately took her 
life. There was just one thing, Whiting said, that eased her 
daughter's suffering, and getting it meant her entire family had to 
break state law.

"They cut her face off, one inch at a time, until there was nothing 
left to cut," Whiting said at a Thursday news conference, holding up 
a picture of Stradinger, smiling and lovely. She then covered it with 
a later photo of her daughter, her face flayed open and raw from 
treatments for the melanoma that started to grow on her cheek during 
her third pregnancy.

"The pain she was experiencing was unimaginable and the nausea was so 
severe that it became difficult for her to eat," Whiting said. "That 
was when a doctor at the hospital pulled me aside and told me that 
Stephanie might benefit from using marijuana."

The legislation proposed Thursday would allow doctors or other 
medical professionals to write prescriptions for up to 2.5 ounces of 
marijuana for patients with "debilitating" medical conditions. Those 
conditions include cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and 
post-traumatic stress.

The marijuana would be available through licensed dispensaries that 
would grow the drug on site in locked greenhouses. Patients in remote 
areas could be licensed by the state to grow a small number of 
marijuana plants for their own use.

But is a state that doesn't allow wine sales in grocery stores ready 
to legalize marijuana dispensaries?

The issue is not one that breaks along party lines.

Like Pawlenty, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton opposes legalization, and for the 
same reason - law enforcement agencies are firmly against it.

Rep. Carly Melin, DFLHibbing, is a chief sponsor in the House, joined 
by Republican Rep. Tom Hackbarth, of Cedar. For Hackbarth, the cause 
is painfully personal. His wife is terminally ill.

"It's a matter of the quality of life in the final days for me," 
Hackbarth said. "We're introducing it now so we can gain support, 
talk to legislators and then really hit the ground running when the 
session starts next year."

But even if the House and Senate pass a bill to legalize medical 
marijuana next year, they face a formidable obstacle in the governor's office.

"The governor will not be able to support the legalization of medical 
marijuana as long as law enforcement is opposed," Dayton spokeswoman 
Katharine Tinucci said. "If advocates are able to reach an agreement 
with law enforcement, the governor would consider the measure."

Police officials remain deeply skeptical. Legal marijuana greenhouses 
won't make the job of clamping down on illegal drug use any easier, they warn.

"It is an absolute regulatory and enforcement nightmare," said Dennis 
Flaherty, executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace 
Officers Association. "We are not convinced that there really is a 
medicinal purpose to marijuana. ... We see marijuana as a harmful 
drug and a gateway drug."

But Whiting doesn't want the governor to wait until law enforcement 
officials are on board with medical marijuana. Smoking the drug, she 
said, was the only thing that gave her daughter relief before her 
death in 2003 at age 26.

"He's the governor and he should lead," she said. "It's his 
responsibility to lead, and then it's law enforcement's 
responsibility to do what he says."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom