HERE WE GO AGAIN, THE LEFTIST MINNESOTA POLITICIANS FOUND ANOTHER WAY TO DRUG DOWN THE PUBLIC, KEEPING THEM IGNORANT TO THE REAL WORLD.

I totally agree. Why would anyone want to relieve some of the excruciating pain that comes along with chronic diseases? It's called compassion, idiot.

The anti medical marijuana person appears to be ignorant to the purpose of the caps lock key.

By the way. Why does a person so obviously against the views printed in Stop The Drug War's newsletter bother reading it? I'm always open to other views, but you are wasting your time; and probably your employer's. (FBI?)

Or maybe you are a member of MART? (Mother's Against Rational Thinking)

Really, don't you have anything better to do than come to a site and post messages that are the antithesis of what the site stands for? As a 'leftist Minnesotan'' myself, I resent your very presence on this web page.
If you believe a medical marijuana bill will serve to allow criminals and dealers to freely roam our streets and keep our society 'drugged down,' then you are clearly ignorant. And clearly a Republican. The two are synonymous right? If it were up to me, I'd put the VETO stamp on Pawlenty's forehead. And then I'd stamp MORON on yours. It is the Republican agenda in this state that has gotten out of hand, and at the head of it is Pawlenty.
It's very difficult to continue to tolerate this sort of conservative, right-winged, closed minded (or absent minded) mindset. I'd say I'd just move to Canada to live in the true land of the free, but then I'd just be letting the right wing win. I am not going anywhere and neither are the other supporters of medical marijuana. Your quest to restrict people of their rights, freedoms etc. is futile. We're gonna keep pushing our 'leftist agendas,' if that's what you want to call equality, and I hope it continues to grate you like fingernails on a chalkboard. Instead of my moving to Canada, why don't you go to HELL.

I watched this bill go through the senate on tuesday. It was very interesting to watch the responses that Murphy got. He presented the bill, which in my mind was very well constructed and well thought out, but there wasnt a single person that contradicted his bill that didnt use the "gateway" myth; they even pushed it to point of trying to say cigarettes are the gateway drug. Further more why are people so upset about this when the DEA schedules cocaine as a shedule 2 drug, which means and can be used for medicine and in fact is used by doctors in some local anasthetics.

To. the raging commentor at the top,
-THINK BEFORE YOU POST-

What is DRC.net some type of private club for leftist druggies? Against the free speech of rightwing zealots and/or thirteen year olds? Sheesh, show some tolerance for the rationally challenged.

you go, minnesota! join the enlightened group of states in this country that see marijuana for what it actually is - an herb with safe and practical medical value.
to those that are still nervous (or even irrationally outright afraid) of marijuana:

wake up! people have been smoking this plant for thousands of years, but for some reason in the last 80 years people (i.e. "those in power"/people with money and influence in the united states/rich, white folks) have started to hate it. just a few years before the marihuana tax act was passed, we were using cannabis extracts for cough medicine! wake up, i say.

if you're worried about marijuana "taking over," and somehow (hopefully, i say) becoming legal, don't be - more dangerous drugs have already dominated our culture (and much of the industrialized world) since their inception: tobacco, caffeine, and many prescription medications.

people somehow are still living under the delusion that making a drug illegal will erase it. lo and behold! drugs that are illegal are actually more easily accessible to our children. if we legalize and regulate these drugs, we can keep them OUT of the hands of children. it seems like a blatant contradiction, i know. however, it is way harder for a child to buy alcohol or cigarettes on his or her own that to buy marijuana from some dealer on the street. dealers don't card! but a dispensary that is regulated by the same laws as alcohol and cigarettes will! (or have their license revoked) have we learned nothing from prohibition of alcohol? the only difference between the prohibition of alcohol and the prohibition of marijuana is that alcohol has been the drug-of-choice for the dominant culture of this country (along with coffee and cigarettes, of course). however, this is changing - many more people are trying marijuana and realizing *gasp* it's not that bad!

if you don't use drugs of any kind, i definitely do not advocate it - there are ways to get 'high'/'drunk'/'wired' without them. however, please make the compassionate decision to allow a few sick people in this state smoke/vaporize marijuana to help them eat, see, and feel happy in this depressing world. it is the LEAST we should do in terms of reforming the failing marijuana policies in this country.

People who rationalize thier thoughts and actions through our governments political agenda need to start thinking for themselves. In fact, I urge everyone to do so, even if it goes against what you believe to be correct. You'll find that keeping an open mind and respecting other peoples decisions feels pretty damn good.

You try living in a daze with prescription painkillers. I look at all the medications that people use today and wonder how people dont notice that these behind the counter drugs are stronger than the drugs on the streets. Marijuana is a pure organic plant with a hand full of uses. What do opiates/painkillers do for you...oh yeah thats right help doctors get richer by prescribing them to hundreds of patients each week. GO DRUG COMPANIES!

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-284.html

read up if your not informed all you fascists

Hemp= livestock feed/ bedding, nutritional supplements, essential oils, medicines, food, paper products, textiles, plastics, body care products, construction materials....and Energy

Narcotics= addiction