Second year of the 2011-2012 Minnesota Legislature begins

The Minnesota Legislature has convenved for the second year of the 2011-2012 legislative session. Last year, lawmakers failed to discuss the compassionate, serious, and necessary business of instituting a medical marijuana program in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Although a bipartisan group of lawmakers were able to pass a medical marijuana bill on to the governor in 2009, then-Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed that bill (more on that later). Given that the new governor’s position is no more favorable than Pawlenty’s, there has not been a strong push to pass medical marijuana in the Minnesota Legislature since. However, the recent discovery that a consulting firm recommended that the GOP-controlled legislature support medical marijuana may be enough to spark the debate again. Please email your senator and representative, and ask them to introduce compassionate medical marijuana legislation in St. Paul this session.

There were a couple of bills introduced in St. Paul last year that have carried over to this year. Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL – Minneapolis) introduced HF 662, which would regulate the production of medical marijuana for export to states with medical marijuana programs. This bill has yet to make it out of committee.   

The second intriguing bill also came from the desk of Rep. Kahn. HF 479, a bill that would specify that the weight of water from a pipe may not count towards the weight of any controlled substance for the purposes of personal possession. A similar bill overwhelmingly passed through the Minnesota Legislature during the 2009-2010 session, only to be vetoed by then-Governor Pawlenty. Although HF 479 passed the Minnesota House of Representatives in May of 2011, 101 – 29, it has stalled in committee on the Senate side.

Minnesotans Confront the War on Marijuana

The Marijuana Policy Project has been busy making sure our members and supporters are aware of the need to reform our state and federal marijuana laws. In 2011, we had a couple of Minnesota-centric advocacy opportunities.

In May 2011, former Minnesota governor, and then presidential hopeful, Tim Pawlenty, spoke at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. He spoke about the need for limited government and touched on his desire to take government out of health care. MPP legislative analyst, and Minnesota native, Robert Capecchi, was on hand to ask his former governor why, if he supports limited government, did he veto the medical marijuana bill in 2009. Here’s the video.

C’mon governor! You were the top executive. It was your job to tell law enforcement what the law is, not vice versa.

In addition to hounding the former governor, Robert Capecchi recently dropped by Fox 9 studios in Eden Prairie. Fox 9 invited him on to discuss the recent Global Commission on Drug Policy report and why the war on drugs in general, and marijuana specifically, has failed. You can watch that interview here.  

Are you a patient?

If you are a patient with a serious medical condition who could benefit from medical marijuana, or a supportive medical professional, please email state@mpp.org to get involved.

Learn about Minnesota's marijuana laws

In 2007, there were 11,629 marijuana-related arrests in Minnesota. Interestingly, only 66% of these arrests were for marijuana possession. Nationally, marijuana possession arrests in 2007 comprised 89% of all marijuana-related arrests. While the penalty for a first offense of possessing a small amount of marijuana in Minnesota is $200, having two ounces could land Minnesotans in jail for five years! You can learn more about Minnesota's marijuana penalties and enforcement by reading this report by Jon Gettman, Ph.D.

Stay up to date

During the last several years, we have moved the bar significantly, and it's only a matter of time until we have an effective medical marijuana law on the books in Minnesota. Please subscribe to our free legislative alert service if you haven't already done so.