MPP releases second Minnesota television ad

This morning, MPP debuted the second in a series of hard-hitting television ads airing in Minnesota, which feature seriously ill Minnesotans pleading with Gov. Pawlenty not to veto the medical marijuana bill. The bill passed out of the Senate last year and is currently awaiting a historic vote on the House floor.

This ad features Ely resident K.K. Forss, who endures excruciating, debilitating pain after a disc in his neck exploded, causing extensive nerve damage. In the ad, Forss — who describes himself as a Republican and born-again Christian — states, "This doesn't have anything to do with culture wars. It's all about people in pain. That's what I was taught growing up — you take care of people who are in pain." Click here to view the ad and listen to K.K.'s powerful appeal.

Like Minneapolis resident Lynn Rubenstein Nicholson — the subject of MPP's first Minnesota ad, who suffers from intractable pain after enduring 10 surgeries following a horrendous back injury — K.K. shouldn't face the threat of arrest and jail for trying to alleviate his pain.

If you agree, would you please consider donating $10 or more today so that we can keep these ads on the air at this critical moment?

MPP's ad campaign has generated a tremendous amount of positive press in Minnesota, some of which you can read here, here, and here. And the two largest papers in the state — the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press — have editorialized in favor of the bill, which also has the support of the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Minnesota Public Health Association, the Minnesota AIDS Project, the Minnesota Senior Federation, nearly 3,000 Minnesotan medical professionals, and the vast majority of the public.

Would you please give whatever you can today to ensure we have the resources to continue putting a human face on the issue?

Please also take a minute to e-mail the governor and tell him not to veto this compassionate legislation. We need to make clear to him the depth of support across the state — the fact that Minnesotans do not want suffering patients like Lynn and K.K. facing the threat of arrest and jail.

If you have already e-mailed the governor, please take a moment to call his office as well. He can be reached, toll-free, at (800) 657-3717. You can simply state that you support S.F. 345, the medical marijuana bill, and that, as a constituent, you strongly urge him not to veto this legislation.

Also, if you'd like to be more involved at this critical moment for Minnesota's medical marijuana patients, please contact Matt Witemyre, MPP's Minnesota organizer, at (612) 424-7004 or mwitemyre@mpp.org.

The vote could literally be happening any day now, so it is urgent that you take action and donate what you can today. Please forward this e-mail to your friends, family, and neighbors in Minnesota.

We are on the verge of making Minnesota the 13th medical marijuana state and the first in the Midwest, but we need to keep pushing straight through to victory!