Ad urges Pawlenty to allow medical marijuana use
Ad urges Pawlenty to allow medical marijuana use
ST. PAUL - A new TV ad features a woman suffering from extreme back pain tearfully asking Governor Tim Pawlenty not to stand in the way of a medical marijuana bill.The Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project says it’s spending more than $100,000 to air the message statewide starting later this week.
A bill that would make Minnesota the 13th state to allow medical marijuana use is headed for a House vote. The Senate approved the legislation last year.
But Pawlenty says he stands with law enforcement in opposing the bill.
The woman in the ad, Lynn Rubenstein Nicholson of Minneapolis, says she’s tired of being a criminal.
Nicholson says she broke her back as a child and currently can’t use marijuana because she is required to take drug tests as a condition of receiving other pain medications.
As offensive as I find Gov. Pawlenty’s opposition to medical marijuana, I find it more offensive that patients in pain are required to take a drug test in order to receive care. The point is to avoid prescribing powerful pain meds to addicts, but what the effect has been is that doctors are severely under-treating pain in this country for fear of being locked up by the feds.
Lest you think that passing medical marijuana in Minnesota will help in that regard, think again. Here in Oregon, where we’ve had medical marijuana for ten years, we have a major health care provider that is threatening not to provide any prescriptions for pain medications if a person is a medical marijuana patients. Once again, it’s that underlying prejudice that somehow the pot patients are just addicts with an excuse.
Our opponents wish to take away our medical marijuana patients’ right to work, to drive, to take pain medications, to teach, to run for office, or to work in government. It’s a modern shunning - if you won’t take the pharma drugs like a good citizen, then you’re just another pothead…
(By the way, check out the review of the video out at Wonkette entitled “Medical Marijuana Ads Featuring Tragically Ill People Bum Everybody Out”. Most tellingly, read the comments of those insensitive people who are dismissing this disabled woman because of her weight. You know, people, being confined to a wheelchair since childhood might just lead to some weight gain.)
