Pubdate: Thu, 15 May 2014
Source: Bemidji Pioneer (MN)
Copyright: 2014 Forum Communications Co.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/c267ikFs
Website: http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4739
Author: Zach Kayser

POT POTENTIAL? MN 2020, NORML ADVOCATES IN BEMIDJI FOR MARIJUANA 
REFORM AS LEGISLATURE WORKS ON MEDICAL CANNABIS BILL

BEMIDJI -- As state legislators debate how far to go with legalizing 
medical cannabis in Minnesota, statewide advocacy groups stopped in 
Bemidji on a tour calling for reform to the state's stance on sticky-icky.

Progressive advocacy group Minnesota 2020 and the Minnesota chapter 
of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) 
held a tandem press conference Wednesday outside the Beltrami County 
Judicial Center to highlight what they said were unfair side effects 
of Minnesota's enforcement of laws against recreational marijuana.

Minnesota 2020 fellow Nicole Simms said there's a myriad of 
consequences that occur when someone is convicted for pot possession 
in addition to the criminal charges, including seizure of assets, 
loss of income and loss of access to government assistance. There's 
also a statewide disparity between the number of white Minnesotans 
and non-whites arrested for marijuana crimes, she said. In Beltrami 
County, American Indians are about 1.5 times more likely to be 
arrested for pot possession than whites, she said.

"We're... hoping to get Minnesotans to support legislative reforms 
that will help to minimize the collateral cost of those incidents and 
arrests, " Simms said. "Supporting those kinds of legislative 
reforms, calling for more accountability in policing and better 
training to reduce police bias, and really considering whether 
marijuana prohibition is sort of worth the cost that it's inflicting 
on individuals and communities, those are some of the things we think 
should be part of the conversation going forward."

Jake Chernugal, NORML supporter and a local home health care 
employee, said many of his agency's clients use marijuana as a 
painkiller rather than legal prescription drugs because they feel 
it's less addictive... even if they risk losing their public housing 
by getting busted.

"We see a lot of our clients actually taking the narcotics that 
they're being prescribed by their physicians and actually trading 
them for marijuana... they feel so much safer in using marijuana 
compared to these other extremely, highly addictive narcotics," he 
said. "A lot of them do rely on public assistance, public housing, so 
when they're using (marijuana) to try to curb the chronic pain... 
they put themselves and their family at risk because if they're 
caught... they'll lose their houses."

Legislature wrapping medical bill

Negotiators from the Minnesota House of Representatives and the 
Senate are working to reconcile two different versions of a bill 
legalizing medical cannabis. The House version, considered more 
restrictive, has lower limits on the amount of marijuana dispensary 
locations in the state and the types of medical marijuana allowed 
than the Senate version.

Rep. Roger Erickson, DFL-Baudette, voted in favor of legalizing 
medical cannabis.

"I think it's a good step in the right direction," Erickson said 
Wednesday. "The House did not take a very bold step, but it is 
getting something started and I think that has value in and of itself."

Erickson's Republican opponent in this year's election, Dave Hancock, 
said the decision to legalize medical cannabis should be left up to 
the federal Food and Drug Administration, not the state legislature.

However, both Erickson and Hancock were opposed to legalizing 
marijuana for recreational use.

"I think it poses additional potential for abuse and creates, I 
think, a real problem in terms of potential impaired driving, for 
example," Hancock said. "What are the long term effects of any drug 
use? Certainly habitual alcoholism has posed a big problem. Habitual 
nicotine use has posed medicinal problems, as well. Would marijuana 
pose some of those same concerns? Possibly."

Erickson said the ramifications of Colorado's legalization of 
recreational marijuana use, which took effect Jan. 1, should be 
allowed to play out before Minnesota considers the move.

"I'd want to see how that goes, four or five years down the road -- 
if that's going to turn out to be good for the state or disastrous 
for the state," Erickson said. "I'm not ready to take that leap at 
all... until somebody convinces me it's good for the state of Minnesota."

Doctors, law enforcement weigh in

Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp said that although he did not 
support legalizing medical marijuana, he empathized with those ill 
people who may benefit from the drug.

"There's no law enforcement officers anywhere who want any sick 
person to go without the kind of medication they need to make them 
feel better," he said.

However, like Hancock, Hodapp felt the process to make medical 
marijuana a legitimate drug should be the purview of federal drug 
experts, not part-time state legislators.

"I think what's gone on is, some of these state legislators have been 
frustrated by the process at the federal level... that's why the 
states have decided to just go ahead and pass it," he said. "That's 
probably the case here in Minnesota, too."

Dr. Willliam Dicks, a chronic pain expert at Sanford Health Bemidji, 
was in favor of legalizing medical marijuana in Minnesota. Dicks said 
he was speaking on his own behalf and not that of Sanford Health.

Dicks said some synthetic variants of medical marijuana are 
technically legal already in Minnesota, but they're impractically 
expensive in part because insurance companies are reluctant to cover them.

"Minnesota already has medical marijuana," he said. "It's just that 
it's so restricted that it's out of the hands of most of the people 
that really need it."

However, Dicks was against allowing people to smoke marijuana in full 
leaf form for medical purposes because of the risk of people abusing it.

"I've never talked to a physician face to face that thought that was 
a good idea," he said. "Almost everybody feels that if that happens, 
we're going to have 12-year olds smoking pot."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom