Yesterday the Minnesota House of Representatives adjourned for the year without bringing up the medical marijuana bill, HF655, for a vote on the House floor.
The bill had passed the Senate at the beginning of the session and was endorsed by the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Minnesota Public Health Association, the Minnesota AIDS Project, the Minnesota Senior Federation, and thousands of doctors and nurses who endorsed the measure. Recent polling showed more than 2-to-1 public support in the state.
However, a small but vocal group of law enforcement officials spread mistruths, exaggerations, and outright lies about the bill in an attempt to kill it — such as claiming that medical marijuana lacks support from the medical community and that medical marijuana laws increase teen use. In the end, the opposition’s false claims swayed legislators enough to keep the vote from happening.
[The latest upgrade to WordPress 2.5.1 has wiped out my style sheets. So that’s why the Stash site looks funny today. I’m working hard on getting it fixed, please be patient.]
It’s Thursday, May 15th and it’s 4:20 somewhere in the world. I’m your host, “Radical” Russ Belville and this is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.
Don’t forget to get on the phone and call your Congress at 202-224-3121. Tell your representative to support Ron Paul’s HR5842, the bill to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states, and Barney Frank’s HR5843, the bill to end federal penalties for personal possession of marijuana.
Today on the Daily Audio Stash we’re speaking with NORML Founder and Legal Counsel Keith Stroup, who will update us on the outcome of his trial in Massachusetts on charges he smoked a doobie in public at the Boston Freedom Rally.
Cannabis Karri brings us more island beats with some reggae from Mikey Dread. This Jamaican dub hit is called “Dizzy (Herb Smoker)”. Though he passed from this earth in March, his music lives on and infuses us all with that irie vibe.
Then we’ll finish up with Charles Thomas from the Interfaith Drug Policy Alliance. He’s here to tell us about support for medical marijuana in Minnesota from the clergy of many denominations and their efforts to convince the governor to not veto the upcoming medical marijuana bill.
We’ve got a lot to cover, so sit back and relax with Bong Crosby and your favorite strain and enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash…
While the pro-marijuana lobby will vigorously refute this fact, citing selective bits of information from inconclusive research, they fail to mention that many professional medical organizations, including those representing the patients proponents say need it the most (the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Cancer Society) do not support the medical use of marijuana.
Currently, medical researchers and scientists are conducting studies to determine if certain properties of marijuana may be suitable for medical treatment of illnesses or ailments, which can be refined for safe pharmaceutical distribution. One such drug, Marinol, is currently available in pill form.
Strange, isn’t it, how the free plant with 14% THC is a “dangerous drug”, but a 100% THC pill costing $20 a pop and making profit for a pharmaceutical company is “suitable for medical treatment of illnesses or ailments.” Turns out that the pill isn’t as useful as the raw plant as well, as the pill lacks cannabidiol, flavinoids, and terpenoids.
A 1999 landmark study of the Institute of Medicine found there is only anecdotal information on the medical benefits of smoked marijuana for some ailments, such as muscle spasticity.
For other ailments, such as epilepsy and glaucoma, the study found no evidence of medical value and did not endorse further research.
This study concluded that there is little future in smoked marijuana as a medically approved medication because of the dangers of smoking a substance that contains many harmful substances.
Dangers which don’t exist when cannabis is vaporized, or eaten, or given sublingually as a tincture.
Marijuana is also an addictive drug. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, 7,784 people who reported marijuana as their primary substance of abuse received addiction treatment in 2007. That was 16 percent of all treatment admissions in our state last year.
Because close to 7,784 people were sentenced by a court to drug treatment when caught with cannabis. Only 7.3% of people who personally seek drug treatment (as opposed to being forced into it) are there for cannabis use. Of all the people in treatment for cannabis, only 16.6% put themselves there.
We are not the bad guys. Our goal is to protect, not exploit our citizens. We are united in our belief that passage of this legislation will have negative consequences on our communities, our youth and all our citizens. We are out in front telling you that this legislation is bad public policy. If you don’t believe us, then just ask our colleagues in California or Oregon about the problems “medical marijuana” has caused for them. They will be glad to tell you.
Law enforcement needs to look beyond their years of inculcation to the cult of reefer madness to realize that we have all been lied to about marijuana and its users for over seventy years now. Legalization for all users, healthy and sick, is the only rational public policy. Bushman’s belief essentially boils down to, “Sorry, cancer and AIDS patients should suffer because some healthy person might try to get high.” Well, I mean, high from the wrong drug, of course; I doubt Bushman has a problem with Minnesotans who drink vodka and wishes to return to alcohol prohibition.
The Senate has already approved the bill, and it’s expected to hit the House floor in about a week.
Ads are already hitting the airwaves asking the governor not to veto the bill like he’s promised.
Like the governor, the Minnesota Sheriffs Association and the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association are against medical marijuana.
“They can say they’ve got a prescription but if we call the doctor, they’re not going to release if they have a prescription. It becomes a HIPAA issue,” says Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi.
First of all, Sheriff, people don’t get prescriptions for medical marijuana, as that would violate federal law and cause the DEA to revoke a doctor’s license to prescribe scheduled drugs. But doctors are free to recommend medical marijuana, as adjudicated in the case Conant v. Walters.
As for the so-called HIPAA issue, there is no HIPAA issue (though it is nice to see law enforcement concerned about patient’s right to privacy). Obviously, the sheriff has not read the text of the Minnesota bill, which states:
A qualifying patient who possesses a registry identification card shall not be subject to arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner…
“Registry identification card” means a document issued by the commissioner that identifies a person as a qualifying patient or primary caregiver…
The commissioner shall maintain a confidential list of the persons to whom the department has issued registry identification cards. Individual names and other identifying information on the list shall be confidential, exempt from the Minnesota Freedom of Information Act, and not subject to disclosure, except to authorized employees of the department as necessary to perform official duties of the department.
The commissioner shall verify to law enforcement personnel whether a registry identification card is valid solely by confirming the random registry identification number.
Minnesota continues to debate the medical marijuana legislation in the statehouse. Naturally, law enforcement is against the bill; it makes their jobs too difficult when they aren’t allowed to just arrest every toker and rip up every cannabis plant they find. So they have been trotting out the same tired old drug war lies:
Marijuana has no medical value
Medical marijuana lacks support from the medical community
Marinol is marijuana
Twelve marijuana plants produce far more marijuana than patients would be allowed to have under the law
The safeguards in the medical marijuana law will be unenforceable due to a “tremendous trade in phony scripts”
A medical marijuana law will increase youth access and use of marijuana
Medical marijuana laws cause “nothing but problems”
Every single prosecutor in every single medical marijuana state is opposed to medical marijuana
Illegal marijuana use has increased 50% in California since 1996
The 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) study discounted smoked marijuana for medicine
The potency of marijuana has increased 10 to 30 times since the 1960’s and 1970’s
The federal government is vigorously investigating medical marijuana
Medical marijuana use will lead to patients using more dangerous and addictive drugs
Medical marijuana harms, rather than helps, patients
You can overdose on marijuana
So the good folks at Minnesota Cares have put together an excellent white paper debunking all of these myths point by point. Even if you’re not in Minnesota, this paper makes an excellent guide for rebutting our oppenents.
Call your Congress at 202-224-3121 – they’ll ask your zip code and put you in touch with your elected officials. Tell them to support HR5842 and HR5843 to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states and legalize personal possession of pot. It still is a government of We the People, but you have to step up and do your part.
Tuesday is Government at Work day on the podcast, and coming up after the news, we’re going to speak with Minnesota State Senator Steve Murphy, the chief author of the medical marijuana legislation currently working through the Minnesota Legislature.
After that I’ve got an instrumental musical break for you. Cannabis Karri found us some jazz from Scott Neuman and Osage County. Blow some muggles and enjoy “Mayor of Smoke”, ya dig, hep cat?
And of course today is the DVD release of the new potumentary “Totally Baked”. I have some exclusive audio from the movie that combines stand-up and sketch comedy along with real interviews and marijuana prohibition facts. You need to get this video online at totallybakedmovie.com. And as a special treat for NORML supporters, you can enter the word HIGH as a promo code and get 25% off the cost of the DVD! Salient Media will be donating 10% of the proceeds to NORML, so you can laugh and learn and support marijuana law reform all at once.
Along with the bonus audio I’m replaying my interview with writer/producer/actor Craig Shoemaker, who never mentions it in the interview, but he does a wicked Don Knotts / Barney Fife impersonation. Craig plays a character you can only see if you’re high, and my friends and I all saw him immediately when we watched it at our 4/20 party.
So sit back and relax with your favorite strain – this is the Daily Audio Stash.
Editorial: Medical marijuana merits state support
At a time when researchers are plunging into the rainforest in search of new medicines, there’s growing consensus that a humble herb easily cultivated here may help patients struggling with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other painful, difficult-to-manage conditions.
The herb, whose slim, multi-pronged leaf makes it instantly recognizable, is marijuana. The Minnesota Senate has already approved a measure that would make Minnesota the 13th state to legalize its medical use. The House will likely vote this spring. Lawmakers, as well as the governor, should give the bill careful yet open-minded consideration and make it a reality.
There’s solid and growing data on the medical benefits of marijuana and its active compound for treating neuropathy (which causes extremity pain), multiple sclerosis, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and chemotherapy-induced nausea and appetite loss. While other treatments are available, there are situations in which marijuana may work best. Doctors should be able to make this call.
The New England Journal of Medicine has editorialized in favor of marijuana’s medical use. In January, the nation’s second-largest group of physicians, the American College of Physicians, weighed in, also in favor.
Minnesota’s [medical marijuana law] is nine pages, and written more tightly [than California’s law] to limit abuse. Unlike California, it requires qualifying patients to register and carry an ID card. Patients, who must have a health professional’s approval to qualify, are also not allowed to grow their own; they’d buy marijuana from a registered nonprofit. There’s still potential for abuse. But as Oxycontin illustrates, that can happen with any prescription drug.
Most western states and a handful in the northeast protect patients whose doctors have decided marijuana is the best treatment option. For the most part, the laws have worked well, without the worst-case scenarios feared by law enforcement. It’s time for Minnesota to ensure that its sickest patients have all the treatment options they need.
The people are way ahead of the politicians on this issue. Kudos to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for seeing through the reefer madness and endorsing such a sensible piece of legislation… though I have my reservations about patients not being allowed to grow their own medicine. Why not allow people who are suffering to treat themselves independently?
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.)
MinnPost - Medical marijuana: A politically risky vote?
Legislation that would allow the medical use of marijuana by chronically and terminally ill patients was sent to the Minnesota House floor Wednesday, setting up a prolonged floor debate and a politically sensitive vote in the final weeks of the legislative session.The Ways and Means Committee approved the bill on a 13-4 vote. Backers don’t expect the final House vote to be so lopsided, but that it will squeak through and go to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has all but promised a veto.
Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, chief House sponsor, acknowledges that in an election year when all House members must run, it could be a tough vote for some of his colleagues. “Sure, it could be used against you,” he said. Incumbents who support the bill could face charges by opponents suggesting they are soft on drugs.
Not to worry, said Tom Lehman, a lobbyist for health care organizations, including the Marijuana Policy Project and Minnesotans for Compassionate Care. Twelve states have passed medical marijuana laws and no legislator in those states has ever been defeated for his or her vote on that particular piece of legislation. “That’s fact,” said Lehman. “It’s a good vote in an election year.”
It’s time to get through to these final roadblocks - these governors, first in Connecticut, now in Minnesota - who ignore the overwhelming will of the voters and the bipartisan passage of medical marijuana bills in their legislatures. Let’s get on the phone, Minnesotans and everyone else, and politely tell Gov. Pawlenty that the people want medical marijuana to be legal:
Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA — Lynn Nicholson has spent a great deal of her life in more pain than most people could imagine.
When she was 10 years old, she and a friend were playing in the attic of her family’s house in Minneapolis when the floor gave way. The two girls fell 8 feet and crashed onto the floor below.
Lynn landed on the hard floor. She stumbled up to get help, but her back was so hurt she wasn’t able to balance herself and tumbled down a flight of stairs.
She’s had 10 back surgeries and spent three years in a body cast. She’s been on a long list of painkillers and had to check herself into a detox facility in an effort to get off them. She received steroid injections in her back, which she said her doctors told her caused steroid-induced diabetes. She was prescribed the painkiller Fentanyl, of which a possible side effect according to some studies is tooth decay, and had to have all of her teeth pulled. She put on more than 200 pounds, has trouble getting around and sometimes has to use a wheelchair and stair lift.
In order to help with the pain, Nicholson smokes marijuana. She said she does it because it does not produce the negative side effects of her prescribed painkillers, like addiction and tooth decay.
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John Wesley Hall, president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, describes the case precendent in roadside traffic stops and search and seizure.
Seattle, Washington attorney Doug Hiatt explains the latest medical use issues in Washington State, including denial of transplant organs for medmj patients.
