MEDICINAL MARIJUANA BILL DEAD IN 1999 LEGISLATURE

Lacking Consensus, Sponsor Withdraws House Legislation

A bill to remove criminal penalties for Minnesotans who use marijuana
to cope with pain and other symptoms of serious illness is dead for
this legislative session.

On Wednesday night, Sen. Pat Piper, DFL-Austin, the chief Senate
author of the legislation, asked for an indefinite postponement of a
committee vote on her bill. Because the Legislature has a Friday
deadline for initial committee action on most bills, Piper's bill will
not officially come back before lawmakers for a vote until at least
next January.

Piper said she and representatives of Gov. Jesse Ventura plan to spend
the next 10 months or so trying to work out an acceptable compromise
that would allow Minnesota to remove its criminal penalties for the
medicinal use of marijuana -- and also protect patients from exposure
to federal anti-drug laws. She said hearings may be held on the
legislation this summer and fall.

``I believe we will be able to have something that will go into law in
the future,'' Piper said.

Charlie Weaver, Ventura's public safety commissioner, said: ``We have
pledged the administration will work with her.''

Weaver said a new federal study performed by the Institute of
Medicine, and commissioned by the President's Office on National Drug
Control Policy, might help win a federal waiver for a Minnesota
research project on the use of marijuana as a medicine.

But Darrell Paulsen, a South St. Paul man who said he smokes marijuana
to relieve symptoms of cerebral palsy, denounced Weaver's insistence
on a federal waiver as unrealistic.

Paulsen, who once was sentenced to probation on state marijuana
possession charges, drove his motorized wheelchair into Weaver and
Piper's joint news conference and accused Weaver and Ventura of
failing to make good on the governor's campaign pledge to support
medicinal use of marijuana.

``This is not reality, folks,'' Paulsen said, referring to Weaver's
discussion of a federal waiver. ``That is not going to happen, as much
as he would like it to happen.''

Paulsen, who was a candidate for lieutenant governor on the Grassroots
Party ticket last fall, said he is one of 165 plaintiffs in a federal
lawsuit in Philadelphia that challenges the application of federal
drug laws to the medicinal use of marijuana.

In large part, Piper's decision to postpone a vote was a recognition
that its passage this year was a long shot. Without strong support
from Weaver and Ventura, the bill would have faced stiff opposition in
the Legislature, especially in the Republican-controlled House.

But Weaver said the Institute of Medicine study, released Wednesday in
Washington, might spur federal approval of Minnesota-based clinical
studies of marijuana.

``It certainly indicates the federal government may be more inclined
to take down some of the roadblocks, at least to research,'' he said.

Piper's bill would have removed criminal penalties for possession of
up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana by people who suffered from serious
illnesses and whose doctors had recommended the drug.

But Weaver repeatedly said that those patients could face federal
prosecution, and anyone who sold them the drug could face both state
and federal charges.

``As it is today, I can't support it, and neither can the governor,
because it forces Minnesotans to become criminals,'' Weaver said in an
interview Wednesday afternoon before the postponement was announced.

Patrick Sweeney, who covers state government and politics, can be
contacted at psweeney@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5253.