Minn. governor vetos medical marijuana bill

Dear Friends:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) today vetoed the medical marijuana bill just passed by the Minnesota Legislature.

MPP has been lobbying in Minnesota for five years, pushing our medical marijuana bill closer and closer to passing. The Senate passed our bill on May 4, and on Monday, the House followed suit … the first time a medical marijuana bill has been debated on the floor of the Minnesota House in history.

However, because the governor had been threatening a veto, the House narrowed the scope of the bill, hoping to find common ground with the governor and start protecting Minnesota's patients from arrest and jail. The final version of the bill was watered down beyond what any medical marijuana advocates wanted to see — in its ultimate version protecting only terminally ill patients.

And yet disgustingly, the governor still vetoed it, while simultaneously claiming that he “has great empathy for the sick” … the same sick and dying people he has now sentenced to arrest and jail.

Disgusted? Me too.

It's not going to end here. Every recent poll shows that Minnesotans support medical marijuana by a 2-to-1 margin, and if the governor won't listen to them, we can bypass him entirely. In Minnesota, constitutional amendments bypass the governor and are instead ratified by voters after passing the legislature. We can lobby next year to pass a constitutional amendment for a comprehensive medical marijuana law that would appear on the state's November 2010 ballot.

But that would mean going from our lobbying campaign in the legislature — which was expensive but affordable — to a ballot initiative campaign, which would require statewide advertising, which is much more expensive. What do you think? Should we should stand up and fight? Taking the battle to the next level will cost more but would be the only way forward.

If you're outraged by the governor's cruelty and want to gird for the next stage of battle, can you help us show the governor and other prohibitionists like him that their time is past? We can win — just like we've won in other states  — but we need your help to do it.

Thank you,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.