ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- A key Minnesota lawmaker said Tuesday she doesn't see a path forward for legalizing medical marijuana after talks with law enforcement hit a standstill.

Rep. Carly Melin said she had conceded to virtually all demands from law enforcement over the weekend but was still unable to get their support for her bill. Melin said she had no choice but to postpone a House committee hearing that would have been lawmakers' second look at the issue.

"Law enforcement won't support any bill that would result in helping any patients," Melin, DFL-Hibbing, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The governor has to get involved."

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ST. PAUL --There's no one view among doctors about whether Minnesota should legalize medical marijuana.

In one camp, there are physicians like Dr. Jacob Mirman, a primary care doctor in St. Louis Park who says a few patients have told him they use marijuana to cope with medical conditions.

Mirman hasn't personally recommended that patients use it, and doesn't take a position on the specifics of a bill currently advancing at the Capitol. But he supports the idea of making medical marijuana legal - in part because the risks seem small compared to those with some prescription painkillers.

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During this short session of the Minnesota Legislature there is one bill citizens of the state should be urging their senators and representatives to approve: The legalization of medical marijuana.

What we are talking about is a marijuana plant from which the beneficial chemicals within the plant can be harvested and synthesized into pill or liquid form to be given to people suffering from a variety of debilitating diseases or conditions.

One of those people who would benefit from passage of the law is Greta Botker. She's a smiley little seven-year-old girl suffering from a rare condition that for most of her life have caused her to have 12 to 15 seizures a day. Multiple drug regimens and a frightening brain surgery have done little to change her condition, her mother Maria (Boone) Botker says. Then news began to spread of a drug called "Charlotte's Web", which was derived from a specially designed marijuana plant.

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Duluth Mayor Don Ness today expressed support for allowing Minnesotans to use marijuana to help treat painful illnesses, but stopped short of endorsing a bill making its way through the state Legislature.

"I've never smoked pot, but I support providing a legal option for Minnesotans to use it to help treat painful illness," Ness wrote on his Twitter account.

A Minnesota House committee earlier this week approved the use of marijuana to help suffering patients after hearings that included emotional testimony about a 7-year-old girl who suffers multiple daily seizures, and whose parents believe the drug may help their child. A similar bill still awaits Senate committee action.

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Is marijuana an effective treatment for pain, illness and disease?

It's a question many Minnesota physicians are pondering as the Legislature prepares to debate a measure that would allow doctors to prescribe some form of the drug.

Mayo Clinic psychiatrist Michael Bostwick reviewed more than 100 medical studies and reports on the possible benefits and risks of marijuana. He published his findings in February 2012 in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Bostwick said most marijuana studies are not high-quality because they're not randomized, controlled studies -- the kind the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires to approve any new medication.

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ST. PAUL -- A Minnesota House committee approved the use of marijuana to help suffering patients after 7-year-old Amelia Beaver provided an example Tuesday night of why some want the practice legalized. Advertisement

The girl suffered a seizure, one of 30 she suffers a day, while her mother told the Minnesota House Health and Human Services Policy Committee on Tuesday that marijuana could help her daughter.

"It would be the best day of my life if I could hear my daughter say 'momma' again," Angie Beaver of Hibbing said, adding that there is evidence that marijuana can help some patients regain speech and reduce seizures.

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ST. PAUL -- Mothers tearfully described how their babies suffered as many as 100 seizures a day before receiving marijuana treatment as they begged lawmakers late Tuesday to legalize the drug for medical use in Minnesota.

Others told a state House committee how the drug helped alleviate pain and different ailments from suffered from cancer and glaucoma. One mother described watching her daughter's face disappear inch by inch as surgeons removed malignant melanoma, saying her child's pain and lost appetite was relieved only by medicinal marijuana. About half a dozen others said it helped their children's seizures.

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A Bill Legalizing Medical Marijuana Had Its First Committee Hearing Tuesday.

The discussion of whether to allow medical marijuana in Minnesota kicked off in the state Legislature on Tuesday, marking the proposal's first step in the legislative process.

The House's Health and Human Services Policy Committee weighed the pros and cons of legalization in front of a packed hearing punctuated by emotional testimony.

Authored by Rep. Carly Melin, DFL-Hibbing, the measure would allow people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer or HIV to use marijuana based on a doctor's recommendation. If it passes, individuals with state-issued medical marijuana identification cards could purchase or grow up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana.

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Is marijuana an effective treatment for pain, illness and disease?

It's a question many Minnesota physicians are pondering as the Legislature prepares to debate a measure that would allow doctors to prescribe some form of the drug.

Mayo Clinic psychiatrist Michael Bostwick reviewed more than 100 medical studies and reports on the possible benefits and risks of marijuana. He published his findings in February 2012 in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Bostwick said most marijuana studies are not high-quality because they're not randomized, controlled studies -- the kind the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires to approve any new medication.

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The reason for writing this letter is to express a few thoughts pertaining to Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay's views on medical marijuana, as reported in the News Tribune's Jan. 19 editorial (Our View: "Medical marijuana measure not yet right for Minnesota").

The editorial made a strong argument that was very credibly based, including on Chief Ramsay's experience in the police force. Be that as it may, there was no question that many statements presented proved the editorial was biased.

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The latest Minnesota Poll conducted by the Star Tribune indicated that a bare majority -- 51 percent -- of Minnesotans favor the legalization of marijuana for medical uses.

We've always wondered -- what exactly are the medical properties of marijuana? We have heard that it helps control pain and nausea for those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, that it does something for glaucoma sufferers and that it calms some people suffering from mental disorders.

To listen to some proponents it is a golden elixir, a panacea that cures a number of ills. We never seem to hear about potential side effects. Most pharmaceutical ads include lengthy disclaimers about how the drug may cause this or that harmful condition. We would imagine smoking marijuana would have a large number of unhealthy side effects.

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Supporters of Legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Minnesota are considering a new approach for the 2014 session, and the potential changes are winning the backing of some law enforcement groups.

State Rep. Carly Melin, the chief author of the bill in the Minnesota House is working on a much narrower proposal that would allow only the use of some non-narcotic, marijuana-derived chemicals.

Medical marijuana advocates have faced unyielding opposition from the state's big law enforcement organizations, and Gov. Mark Dayton has repeatedly said he won't sign a bill that those groups oppose. But Melin, DFL-Hibbing, said law enforcement is now showing some interest in a compromise version of her bill, which she thinks the governor could eventually sign.

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ST. PAUL -- Supporters of Legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Minnesota are considering a new approach for the 2014 session, and the potential changes are winning the backing of some law enforcement groups.

State Rep. Carly Melin, the chief author of the bill in the Minnesota House is working on a much narrower proposal that would allow only the use of some non-narcotic, marijuana-derived chemicals.

Medical marijuana advocates have faced unyielding opposition from the state's big law enforcement organizations, and Gov. Mark Dayton has repeatedly said he won't sign a bill that those groups oppose. But Melin, DFL-Hibbing, said law enforcement is now showing some interest in a compromise version of her bill, which she thinks the governor could eventually sign.

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Consider the Track Record - the Times When the Question Has Been Directly Put to Voters.

Critics have questioned the accuracy of Star Tribune opinion polls for quite a few years now, and the latest results should reinforce their doubts ("Majority back medical marijuana," Feb. 18). The results should be called "outliers," as they record far less support for cannabis law reform than other nonpartisan polls have in recent years and months.

But the polls that really matter are the elections where people actually cast their votes. Since 1996, voters in 11 states and the District of Columbia have voted directly in favor of medicinal cannabis ballot measures, and only two states have turned it down. In Michigan, which is very comparable demographically and geographically to Minnesota, medical cannabis carried every single one of the state's 83 counties. Therapeutic cannabis beat the past three presidents in their political strongholds -- polling better than Clinton in California in 1996, better than Bush in Montana in 2004 and better than Obama in Michigan in 2008.

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Public officials have been working to curtail smoking and smoking-related deaths for several decades. Cigarette taxes have caused prices to triple in the past 20 years; tobacco companies can no longer sponsor sporting events; and their internal documents are now publically available.

Thanks to these and other legal changes, the adult smoking rate has dropped to 18 percent, about half as many as were reported only 30 years ago. The percentage of young adults, ages 18 to 29, who smoke has dropped by 9 percent since 2001.

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Regarding Tony Mancuso's thoughtful Feb. 5 op-ed (Local View: "Facts support medical marijuana"), while there have been studies showing that marijuana can shrink cancerous tumors, medical marijuana is essentially a palliative drug. If a doctor recommends marijuana to a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy, and it helps that patient feel better, then it's working. In the end, medical marijuana is a quality-of-life decision best left to patients and their doctors.

Drug warriors waging war on non-corporate drugs contend that organic marijuana is not an effective health intervention. Their prescribed intervention for medical marijuana patients is handcuffs, jail cells and criminal records. This heavy-handed approach suggests that drug warriors should not be dictating health care decisions.

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I'm writing about Mike Holst's not-so-thoughtful letter: "Legalizing marijuana" (2-5-14).

The cannabis legalization issue is not whether cannabis is completely safe for everybody, including children and adolescents, it is not. The issue is freedom of choice for adults. Children have died from eating peanuts and peanut butter but we don't cage peanut growers, sellers or consumers.

And the voters of Colorado and Washington state have decided that we should not cage cannabis growers, sellers or consumers.

Minnesota adults have the freedom of choice of whether or not to buy and consume legal alcohol. Shouldn't they have the same freedom of choice regarding legal cannabis?

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

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I want to join in the discussions on legalizing pot. The other day our president said, "It's no worse than alcohol." Reading between the lines he is saying, "Yes alcohol is a problem, but we tolerate it, so what the heck, lets add another problem to the mix." We like to listen to the minority in this country. Medical marijuana would help very few people and I don't think that anybody has any real hang-ups with putting it in a pill and having it as a prescription drug. But that is not the intent here of those who want it legal. They realize that this is the first step towards legalization.

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I applaud Rep. Carly Melin for introducing House File 1818 to legalize medical marijuana in Minnesota.

As a parent of a son with a debilitating seizure disorder, this treatment might just be the successful treatment after more than 27 years of suffering. My son had a severe reaction to his infant vaccine (DPT, a legal drug) at 3 months old, and no medication to date successfully has curbed his seizure activity. He has suffered an average of dozens of seizures per day his whole life. He has had two brain surgeries, been the subject of several drug trials, and has ingested tens of thousands of pills and potions, none of which have worked and all of which have damaged his liver and will significantly shorten his life.

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Medical Marijuana Debate Comes to Minnesota Once Again

Legislators, law enforcement and local residents will look to the state Capitol in a few weeks as yet another medical marijuana bill comes to attention.

Medical marijuana, and marijuana in general, are issues getting renewed state and national attention after Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana use last year. There are 20 states which allow medical marijuana in some form, and bipartisan supporters are urging lawmakers to make Minnesota the 21st state to allow medical marijuana.

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