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

if people want to smoke pot then that's their deal. who is the law to judge the life we live? im sure they have all done it..hypocrites!. marijuana is a plant, and herb from this earth that god gave us so why not smoke it? and the law shouldnt arrest us or give is fines for what we want to put in our own bodies? they need to go fight some real crime and arrest the murderers and crack heads. alcohol takes lives..with pot no one dies..

Like it says...yeah it's fun and stuff for people who use it recreationally.
But, some people with injuries or other chronic pain the drug is not entirely used for fun. The right type (indica) of marijuana takes away muscular-skeletal pain. A good Hybrid (indica / sativa) will take away pain and have a peaceful, calming, happy sensations.

Ignore the hypocrites.

I think someone said...move to where the medical marijuana is...I seem to think they are telling you to leave...you go now. ("they don't want you and your compassionate caregiving idealogy here in MN")
If that's what they said and I'd say they are just dinosaurs.

Having state organized marijuana clubs. Cannabis club membership cards.
The hazard is that if you're able to purchase from a cannabis club and you transport the medicine and are caught with it by police, depending on the amount, you'll still be ticketed. or worse.

this bill needs to pass.
you don't get it, you'll never get it.
everyone smokes weed anyways, just legalize it!

I was gonna give a shit...but than I got high

The fact that this bill barely passed, shows nearly half of those politicians voting still have their heads up their rectums. How many of those congressmen went out for cocktails after the session? A person that has consumed excess alcohol can be a lethal threat to themselves and others. A person that has consumed excess pot in only a threat to a bag of chips and/or cookies. For gods sake, legalize pot for medical usage and continue to decriminalize it for the rest of the public. Then, buy stock in Frito Lay and Keebler. Let law enforcement utilize their resources to combat important things like rape, murder, theft and drunk drivers. Personally, I am a hell of a lot more concerned about what has happened to my 401K than whether my neighbor smokes pot.

This should be passed, I never met my grandfather but my dad told me stories about him and how when he was dieing of cancer he smoked some marijuanna it helped him eat, deal with the pain, and come to terms with his demise. Does anyone even know why it was made illeagle? It was to get the mexicans out of the united states in the early 1900's no lie i saw it on the history channel. Cocaine was made illeagle to put african americans in jail, ect all drugs were made illeagle due to racism. We are no longer a country of racism look at Obama I voted for him. Now lets enter the 21st century and stop putting people in jail for drugs wasting our tax money and tax them to bring in money. 3.5 grams for 20 bucks cost to produce and market prob less then 1 dollar then collect tax on the other 19 dollars!! tax the other 19 dollars!!

How is this bill gonna pass all the house of committees bullshit just to be stopped by that cocksucker? I had been living in Oregon, it is soon going to be state provided and taxed $98.00 an ounce. Now here I am in MN without a prescription and I have to call twelve middle men to ask them to find me an eighth that I pay 3 times the amount, and its is really shitty weed. Pawlenty has got to go. we need medicine! I am wonder how much money the government made when alcohol was legalized? SICK

Poeple sit here and complain about something that is good for our states and our lives.
in my opinion i believe that if for 10 minutes, just ten minutes, everyone sat down and smoked marijuana, in that ten minutes the world would be silent. the pleasure of no fighting the dream of less ignorance to our worldly issues.are communities are plagued with a nonsensical version of society's imperfection. we just need peace, and bud will provide it.

I am a person that needs to get a Medical Marijuana Permit.

I suffer from four dieases Osteoporosis ,Fibermyagia ,Achalasia,Acid Reflux to the extreme level. I have been in six high impact auto accidents but none of them while on marijuana i never smoked and drove ever..

I currently am on 17 different medications 4 which are are narcotics, I would truly benefit from medical marijuana and I want to get off some of the narcotics and I know I can with Marijuana . Because I have smoked marijuana in the past years when I was able to work, to manage the pain from the auto accidents. I have not been able to work since 2001. When I had my last auto accident. I know how much marijuana has helped me to manage pain in the past. And I know I can easily grow it myself once I can get a medical marijuana permit. I have a website on youtube about medical marijuana trying to help others in need of information about it. please feel free to check it out. http://www.youtube.com/user/MedicalMarijuanaNews.

I think marijuana should be legal like everyone else has said pot don't kill people like alcohol and how many cases of lung cancer has been reported from smoking pot? Fuck Pawlenty get a pothead for a governor to get it legalized.

Fact: There is no scientific data to support that pot is a gateway drug. Fact: Pot is higher in carcinogens than tobacco. Fact: There is no scientific evidence to support the claim that pot leads to amotivational syndrome (people become unmotivated and apathetic). Like any other recreational substance, there are pros and cons. Personally, as a conservative, I would like to see the govt remove the biggest source of income for gangs and dealers.

The left in this country is just as guilty as the right when it comes to social engineering and trying to give the govt all the power to "protect us from ourselves". I say it's time for govt to get the hell out of our way and leave us to make our own decisions about what to smoke, eat, drink, drive, etc.

The problem isn't about Marijuana being an addictive drug .. I have a friend who is in his mid 20's who hurt his back at work has had 2 back operations. He lives every day in pain and he has to force himself out of bed and deal with this pain every day.. The DR. tells him no surgery will every make him better He can get any RX pain killer "DRUG" that are extremely addictive and change the way he thinks and acts to the point of almost being a zombie and not being able to hold any food down. I think the real problem is that the BIG DRUG RX company doesn't want to see their profits go bye bye when everyone figures out they can grow a plant that does the same thing in most cases and doesn't make you act like a zombie or make you throw up.. Think of a quality of life, if there is something out there that can make a person feel better or improve their outlook on their grim situation and is already legal in part of the country shouldn't they have a right to that. I am not for everyone in the world to be smoked up out of their minds but it is something were this can be done right and everyone can benefit from it.

Ive suffered with depression most of my adult life. Ive never admitted this publicly, although, its fairly obvious to most people that I do. Ive never considered conventional antidepressant drugs because of the fear of the side effects and the negative stigma that this condition and all mental conditions come with. Do these drugs available provide the relief that could counter balance the fact that a rubber stamp of mentally ill will follow me my entire life. I believe marijuana does. My approach to coping with this has always been put my head down grit my teeth and fight it tooth and nail. This method isn't ideal. It makes me quite abrasive socially and I am certain I have lost jobs due to this method of coping.

My depression manifests its self in week long to month long funks where I feel no joy. Even things I loved for years bring me no solace, no reprieve. Its hard to be happy when you forget how to smile. Ive used pot before to help break these funks that I find myself in from time to time and its almost miraculous how quickly I can over come these feeling with the aid of marijuana. so much so that i can comfortably say my experience with pot has been nearly a religious one.

Unfortunately, there is only one source for this reprieve and it is the most unscrupulous and sometimes the most dangerous people in my community. Id like to never have to associate my self with these types of people but the prohibition of marijuana makes this impossible. There is also the concern that the marijuana has been tainted by some unknown additive. Its common for dealers to add all sorts of chemicals to weed to intensify the effects of the high. The worst sounding of which is embalming fluid. yes the chemical used in the preservation of a corpse. I have no idea what effect this has but I feel safe in assuming brain damage is one of them.

Ive thought long and hard over the pros and cons of marijuana for years. Was I happier before or after the first time I consumed marijuana. Does the use of marijuana create a atmosphere where I can develop other mental problems the most prevalent of course long term paranoia. Does it make me more pron to a sedimentary life style. Is it a gateway to a life of much more dangerous and destructive drugs.

My conclusions are as follows. yea I am happier the recovery time of my depressive episodes is nearly instant. I believe that its not the drug itself that makes one paranoid but the situation the person finds himself in. For an example if I am driving with a sober friend and I see a police officer my paranoid thoughts become overwhelming. I have nothing against police officers in fact I really respect what they do. However, the state of incredible sensitivity to emotional responses fills me with dread. Living like this everyday could create a situation where I got in the habit of feeling paranoid. Does it keep me indoors on the couch and just all around lazy. It does but for a different reason then one unfamiliar with the effects of marijuana might expect. Marijuana induces a very relaxed mood when other negative stimuli are not present. I don't see myself taking a jog after the use of pot. I do, however, enjoy nature walks in my local state park. The gateway theory has been around since day one of the war on drugs. I have a theory of my own. Many of the people you can obtain marijuana from don't sell marijuana alone. They have a plethora of mind altering substances. These people have no problem getting you hooked on some if not all they have to offer. Will a person using marijuana from a safe reputable source seek out these people so they can experiment with other substances? Absolutely not.

If in the end the bill passes and my depression isn't deemed an except able malady and the consumption of marijuana not a proper treatment I still wholeheartedly support this medicine for the dying.