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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014 05-05 Minnesota Senate to vote on medical marijuana bill Tuesday STAR TRIBUNE StarTribune Minnesota Senate to vote on medical marijuana bill Tuesday Article by: Patrick Condon Star Tribune ;O. May 5,2014-9:57 PM Legalization of medical marijuana is headed for a After his bill passed a key Senate committee 7 vote by the full state Senate on Tuesday. -a;sponsor Senator as Dibble thanked Heather Azzi,Minnesotans for Compassionate Care,for her help.]The Senate Health and The proposal,which would allow marijuana to be Human Services Committee voted 7-3 to allow patients with certain medical conditions to used for a broad range of ailments and set up a obtain a doctor's prescription and obtain small statewide system of dispensaries, cleared its last amounts of marijuana.Friday April 25.2014 Senate hurdle on Monday.The Senate Finance GLEN STUBBE°gstubbe©startribune.com. committee approved the bill 14-7. "We have the votes to pass it,"predicted Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, the bill's chief sponsor. The effort for legalization had been in limbo for , much of the session, stymied by a powerful set of kip opponents:Gov. Mark Dayton and the law enforcement community. But shortly after Dayton j -� told legislators to"quit hiding behind their desks" on the issue,the proposal was revived and began racing through committees, picking up momentum � t to make Minnesota the 22nd state in the nation to f f � r p legalize some version of medical marijuana. � � � ass Should the bill pass the Senate, it would still face a serious obstacle in the House,where a much narrower proposal is being considered. The House version would tightly regulate medical Dibble'"We have the votes to pass it marijuana, restricting its use to patients eligible for Feed Loader. a clinical trial.Vaporized marijuana could be used only in the presence of a health provider.There would be only one provider and no system of dispensaries. Law enforcement and Dayton have appeared willing to consider the House bill, but remain opposed to the Senate version. The Senate bill would allow patients with qualifying conditions to get a doctor's prescription for up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. Eligible conditions would include cancer, HIV/AIDS,glaucoma, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder and several conditions that cause chronic pain. Pa- tients would not be able to smoke marijuana, but could use a vaporizer to inhale fumes.The could also ingest the drug in pill or oil form. State budget officials estimate the state would have to spend about$3 million in 2015 to implement the Senate's version of legalization. Those costs would be covered by fees related to purchase of the drug.The state budget office analysis predicted about 35,000 Minnesotans would participate in the new program, a figure that Dibble contended was too high. The House Ways and Means Committee was set to review the House bill on Monday evening. A floor vote in that chamber could also come this week. In the Senate Finance Committee,voting in support of the measure were: Dibble, DFL Sens. Dick Cohen of St. Paul,Terri Bonoff of Minnetonka, Bobby Joe Champion of Minneapolis, Ron Latz of St. Louis Park,Tony Lourey of Kerrick,Sandy Pappas of St. Paul,Tom Saxhaug of Grand Rapids Katie Sieben of Newport,LeRoy Stumpf of Plummer,David Tomassoni of Chisholm and Chuck Wiger of Maplewood,along with Republicans Scott Newman of Hutchinson and Sean Nienow of Cambridge. Voting against the bill were Republicans Bruce Anderson of Buffalo, Michelle Fischbach of Paynesville, Bill Ingebrigtsen of Alexandria,Warren Limmer of Maple Grove,Jeremy Miller of Winona,John Pederson of St. Cloud and Torrey Westrom of Elbow Lake.