While the northern and southern parts of Minnesota have seen a spike in heroin-related criminal cases, Central Minnesota's drug of choice among criminals remains methamphetamine, according to local law enforcement.

Stearns County saw a 35 percent increase in the number of felony drug cases filed from 2012 to 2013. Of the combined 560 adult felony drug cases filed in those two years, 11 involved heroin -- about 2 percent, according to Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall.

By contrast, 214 cases, or 38 percent of the 560 total cases, involved meth, Kendall said.

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The health condition isn't specified in Minnesota's new law, but it could be added in the future.

A group of University of Minnesota researchers is testing to see if medical marijuana can help treat chronic pain caused by sickle cell disease, but state law is putting a hitch in their study.

As researchers continue with the study's next step - conducting human trials - they're heading to California, as Minnesota doesn't allow testing cannabis on people. The state's recently passed medical marijuana law also doesn't include sickle cell disease as a qualifying medical condition, but the University's current research could play a role in how that law changes in the future.

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The caramel-chocolate-flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child.

Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop.

What could go wrong with a bite or two?

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Entrepreneur Behind Proposal Driven by Child's Urgent Need

MONTEVIDEO -- No sooner had Governor Mark Dayton signed the bill legalizing medical marijuana in Minnesota than Jeremy Pauling was lining up support to build the first facility to produce it in Montevideo.

"I was brought up not to sit on my hands," said Pauling.

There's another reason for his urgency. His seven year-old-daughter Katelyn suffers chronic seizures due to Batten Disease. It's an inherited and fatal neurological disease.

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A local marijuana activist is looking to get the city of Austin to bid on hosting one of eight medical marijuana dispensaries under Minnesota's new medical marijuana law.

Deanna Ryther asked the Austin City Council during its public meeting Monday to put together a committee to ask the state Department of Health to build a dispensary in Austin, citing her own need for medical marijuana as well as the high demand around the state.

"It's in our best interest to look at Austin as one of those cities," she said.

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The public senses - correctly - that marijuana poses fewer risks to society than alcohol does.

America is rushing headlong toward legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. A growing majority - 54 percent as of a Pew survey released just last month - favor legalization, and an even larger majority of millennials (69 percent) feels the same way. Colorado and Washington are the first states to move decisively in this direction, but they won't be the last. I basically think this is an OK development. Like Mark Kleiman, a public-policy professor at UCLA who is my guru on the regulation of controlled substances, I see full commercial legalization as a truly terrible idea, while I think noncommercial legalization, ideally via monopolies owned and operated by state governments, would be an improvement over the status quo. Regardless, marijuana legalization is coming, one way or another. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division via the New York Times A New York City police official watched agents pour liquor into a sewer following a raid during the Prohibition era, around 1921. We often forget that Prohibition was a response to problems with alcohol abuse in American culture.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota joined the ranks of 21 other states Thursday where marijuana is a legal medicine with a law that is one of the nation's most restrictive.

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton signed legislation that sets up a medical marijuana program with tight controls over qualifying conditions and the way it is administered. People won't be able to smoke marijuana legally or access it in leaf form.

"I pray it will bring to the victims of ravaging illnesses the relief they are hoping for," Dayton said in a written statement.

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Appeals Court Rules California Card for Pot Irrelevant in Minnesota.

A card that permits a person to use medical marijuana in another state can't make drug charges in Minnesota go up in smoke, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

In December 2011, Jeffrey Thiel was stopped by a state trooper in Itasca County for speeding. After the trooper smelled marijuana, two Mason jars containing the drug were found in his vehicle. Thiel was charged with fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance.

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Patients Who Lobbied for the New Law Won't Participate in Test Because of Plant Marijuana Prohibition.

Cassie Traun, a 24-year-old IT worker from St. Paul, went to the Capitol about a dozen times in April and May to lobby for medical marijuana.

She sat before committees of lawmakers, and even confessed to buying and using the drug illegally because she's convinced it effectively treats her Crohn's disease.

This week Gov. Mark Dayton is expected to sign a bill legalizing marijuana for about 5,000 Minnesotans, including sufferers of Crohn's, an inflammatory bowel disease.

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Minnesota Lawmakers Passed a Range of Bills This Spring That Affect University of Minnesota Students and the State.

The Minnesota Legislature finished its 2014 session May 16, passing a variety of bills ranging from a minimum wage increase to allocations for a $1.23 billion budget surplus.

The Minnesota Daily has compiled a roundup of passed legislation affecting the state and the University of Minnesota community.

Medical Marijuana

Lawmakers legalized medical marijuana after a lengthy and emotionally charged debate between the House and Senate over the bill's exact parameters.

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MINNEAPOLIS A year ago, University of Minnesota researchers received a $9.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study pain in patients with sickle cell disease.

Normally, such an award would quickly launch a study, but lead researcher Kalpna Gupta is still waiting on a critical part of the research and moved the work to California to speed the process.

Gupta wants to see whether medical marijuana can treat pain.

Completing such a study involves so much red tape that Gupta has decided to collaborate with researchers in San Francisco who have experience threading the bureaucratic needle.

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ST. PAUL - Minnesota farmers are happy that lawmakers lowered some farm property taxes, but small businesses complain that a higher minimum wage and a bill giving them more legal exposure will hurt.

Dry southwestern Minnesotans think they may get Missouri River water, but some rural residents fear they will not have the access to medical marijuana of their big-city cousins.

In short, the story greater Minnesota residents heard from the 2014 Legislature was mixed.

Among the biggest accomplishments lawmakers and Gov. Mark Dayton proclaimed after the session ended was lowering property taxes for Minnesotans who live on their farms. It will not be enough to buy a new tractor, but supporters of the measure say the $200 farmers will save is good news.

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Supporting Medical Marijuana Is Right Choice for Politicians

America will witness more politicians doing what Gov. Mark Dayton has done - support medical use of cannabis (marijuana) for sick citizens. ("Election Day pushes Dayton's change of heart," Times Writers Group column, May 15.)

The overwhelming majority of citizens support medical use of cannabis, and politicians who don't will need to seek different employment.

Exactly what kind of politician thinks it's OK to cage sick people for using what God created and says is good on literally the very first page of the Bible? Opposing medical use of cannabis is unattractive, anti-Christian and vulgar.

As Dayton realized it's also unpopular.

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado

[end]

A PR Gimmick, It's Cluttered With Absurd Rules and Involves Police in Medical Care.

Publicity about the so-called "medical marijuana" bill calls it a compromise, but that's not what it is. It is a false step to reform, not a first step. Predicated more on residual "reefer madness" attitudes about people smoking cannabis for fun, instead of seriously seeking relief for suffering Minnesotans, this law repeats the mistakes of its predecessor, the 1980 THC Therapeutic Research Act, which was a dead letter as soon as it was passed.

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To the extent establishment Republicans are with the program now, it's purely accidental. They don't really get it.

Like the inexperienced thief who breaks into a home and steals the Xbox, ignoring the Picasso hanging on the wall, establishment Republicans have a hard time with the "get government out of the way" concept they looted from the Liberty Movement and the Tea Party factions of the GOP.

They steal the phrase to vaguely rail against "government regulation" and "government intervention" in our daily lives while ignoring more valuable illustrations of the principle.

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A PR gimmick, it's cluttered with absurd rules and involves police in medical care.

Publicity about the so-called "medical marijuana" bill calls it a compromise, but that's not what it is. It is a false step to reform, not a first step. Predicated more on residual "reefer madness" attitudes about people smoking cannabis for fun, instead of seriously seeking relief for suffering Minnesotans, this law repeats the mistakes of its predecessor, the 1980 THC Therapeutic Research Act, which was a dead letter as soon as it was passed.

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ST. PAUL -- Gov. Mark Dayton said early in the year that medical marijuana would not pass the Minnesota Legislature this year.

Dayton said there would not be enough time in a short legislative session (it began Feb. 25) to reach a compromise between law enforcement officers who oppose medical marijuana and those who support the concept.

Instead of legalizing it, Dayton proposed an extensive clinical study by the Mayo Clinic. He also wanted a report about how it is working in the 21 states that already allow medical marijuana.

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ST. PAUL -- Though originally touted as an "unsession" to focus on striking outdated laws from the books, the 2014 legislative session was anything but uneventful.

Shortly before lawmakers completed their work Friday, state Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, described 2014 as one of the most intense sessions he's been a part of, with action on several bills.

"It was a short session but I think we're going to come home and have a lot of good things to talk about," he said.

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ST. PAUL - Gov. Mark Dayton said early in the year that medical marijuana would not pass the Minnesota Legislature this year.

Dayton said there would not be enough time in a short legislative session (it began Feb. 25) to reach a compromise between law enforcement officers who oppose medical marijuana and those who support the concept.

Instead of legalizing it, Dayton proposed an extensive clinical study by the Mayo Clinic. He also wanted a report about how it is working in the 21 states that already allow medical marijuana.

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MONTEVIDEO -- Now that it appears medical cannabis will be legalized in Minnesota, Montevideo is aiming to be among the first communities to host a manufacturing and distribution center.

The Montevideo City Council will take up a resolution on Monday in support of the construction of a medical cannabis manufacturing and distribution facility within the city, according to information from City Manager Steve Jones.

"The city of Montevideo has the land and infrastructure in place and (is) 'shovel-ready' to support the construction of a manufacturing and distribution facility," according to the resolution.

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