MEDICINAL MARIJUANA BACKERS TRY TO GET ON MINNEAPOLIS BALLOT

As medicinal marijuana supporters submitted a petition Tuesday to get the
issue on the Minneapolis ballot in November, key City Council members
questioned the action.

Citizens Organized for Harm Reduction submitted a petition to the city
elections office with what they say are 12,000 signatures, substantially
more than the required 7,774 signatures of registered city voters. The
elections office has begun certifying the signatures to ensure that they
are valid.

The proposed language would amend the City Charter, "to require that the
City Council shall authorize, license, and regulate a reasonable number of
medicinal marijuana distribution centers in the city of Minneapolis as is
necessary to provide services to patients who have been recommended
medicinal marijuana by a medical or osteopathic doctor licensed to practice
in the state of Minnesota to the extent permitted by state and federal law."

The council's Intergovernmental Relations Committee will discuss the issue
Tuesday. Committee Chairman Scott Benson said he doesn't think the issue is
appropriate for the charter.

The council legally has some decision-making authority on whether to put
charter amendments on the ballot. The extent of that authority will be
discussed at the committee meeting.

But both Benson and Council President Paul Ostrow say it seems to be a
waste to take a vote and possibly amend the charter for something over
which the city has no legal authority.

Benson said, "If it's not a proper subject matter to be regulated by the
charter, which I don't think this is, it doesn't have to go on the ballot."

Ostrow agreed, saying marijuana legalization clearly is an issue for the
Legislature, not the City Council. (The Legislature hasn't conducted a
committee meeting on medicinal marijuana since 2000.)

Benson and Ostrow say putting the issue to Minneapolis voters would result
not in any changes, but would merely be a poll of popular opinion.

Council Vice President Robert Lilligren, however, said that he signed the
petition and that he is supportive of medicinal marijuana after seeing
about 20 friends die of complications from AIDS. "One of the few things
that brought them some relief and encouraged them to eat was smoking
marijuana," he said.

Citizens Organized for Harm Reduction President Aaron Marcus said the
proposal doesn't conflict with the law because it's conditioned on a change
in state or federal law.

"I think it is an uphill battle, but I believe the climate is right,"
Marcus said.