House Passes Medical Marijuana Bill By 70-64 Vote
T.W. Budig
May 18, 2009
HometownSource.com (MN)
The House today (Monday, May 18) passed a medical marijuana bill, amending the legislation so the use of the drug would be restricted to the dying.
The bill passed on a 70-64 nonpartisan vote.
“Let’s call it medical pot,” said Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, who spoke several times against the bill.
But Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, spoke of his own mother’s death to cancer and how lawmakers should not joke about a possible “gateway to peace.”
“My mother went through extreme pain,” he said.
Lawmakers busied themselves on the House floor on the last evening of the 2009 legislative session. Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, peers through late session rimmed-eyes at Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis. Both lawmakers deal extensively with natural resources.
Area lawmakers voting in favor of the bill: Buesgens, Dittrich, Garofalo, Hackbarth, Hansen, Hortman, Jackson, Kalin, Masin, McNamara, Morgan, Newton, Obermueller, and Tillberry.
Voting against: Abeler, Anderson, B., Davids, Dean, Dettmer, Doty, Eastlund, Emmer, Holberg, Kiffmeyer, Lenczewski, Mack, Peppin, Sanders, Scott, and Sterner.
The House version of the bill is different than the Senate’s.
A highly controversial seat belt provision passed the House today on a nonpartisan vote.
Primary seat belt allows cops to pull over a motorist for not wearing a seat belt. Currently, cops can’t make such calls.
One big feature of the House debate was racial profiling — pulling motorist over more based on skin color than anything that they did illegal — and how primary seat belt might provide an additional excuse for such stops.
Amid a forest of arms raised for a vote, Rep. Rob Eastlund, R-Isanti, turns to speak to a Republican colleague.
People of color in the House strongly argued against primary seatbelt, as did some Greater Minnesota and suburban lawmakers.
But the primary seat belt legisaltion passed on a 73-60 vote.
Local lawmakers voting in favor: Abeler, Dittrich, Gardner, Garofalo, Hansen, Hortman, Jackson, Kalin, Kiffmeyer, Lenczewski, McNarama, Morgan, Obermueller, and Tillberry.
Votiing against: Anderson, B., Buesgens, Davids, Dettmer, Doty, Eastlund, Emmer, Hackbarth, Hoberg, Mack, Masin, Peppin, Sanders, and Scott.
A provision allowing motorists to exceed the speed limit on 55 mph, two-lane roads by ten mphs when passing another car was amended onto the bill.
Primary seatbelt has always had a hard time in the House.
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