Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jun 2015
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154

LONG DRIVES, HIGH COSTS LIKELY IN LATEST MEDICAL POT PROGRAM

(AP) - There will be no baggies of pot awaiting patients this week 
when Minnesota joins 21 other states in offering medical marijuana. 
Instead, the nation's latest medical marijuana program is a world of 
pill bottles and vials of marijuana-infused oil.

For the qualifying patients seeking relief from pain, medical 
marijuana advocates and some lawmakers, Wednesday isn't the finish 
line, but the first step. The state's restrictive approach, unseen in 
the industry, is expected to mean high costs, long drives and 
reluctant doctors.

Minnesota's medical marijuana advocates snatched an unlikely victory 
from the Legislature last year after years of failed efforts, but 
there was little celebration. What emerged was a program designed to 
assuage skeptical law enforcement lobbyists.

Smoking the plant is forbidden. Pills, oils and vapors are available 
only to patients suffering from severe conditions, such as cancer, 
AIDS and epilepsy. And the medicine can be sold in only eight 
locations, hundreds of miles away from some in Minnesota's rural expanses.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom