MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL ADVANCES

The push to add Minnesota to the list of 10 states that have legalized
marijuana for medical use has passed a milestone with approval by a
state Senate committee, but it isn't expected to go much farther this
year.

The Senate Health and Family Security Committee advanced the measure
to the Judiciary Committee on an unrecorded voice vote Tuesday
evening, the first time it has advanced in the Minnesota
Legislature.

Doctors and medical patients, including a military veteran who was
arrested for possessing marijuana that he used to ease the effects of
cancer chemotherapy, testified in favor of the bill sponsored by Sen.
Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins. The Minnesota Family Council spoke against
it, saying it would be a bad influence on children.

Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he opposes the legislation
because he believes enough other medications are already legal. Kelley
said those drugs don't work for everybody.

The bill would allow people with certain debilitating conditions -
including cancer, glaucoma, Alzheimer's disease, AIDS and multiple
sclerosis - to get a doctor's certification that marijuana would help
them and to register with the state for an exemption from arrest for
possession of up to 12 plants or 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana.

Similar rules are in place in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii,
Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state, but
federal authorities have not recognized them and the issue is pending
before the U.S. Supreme Court.