DOUG GROW: MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE STILL MIRED IN POLITICS

The witnesses poured out their pain for a Minnesota Senate committee. They
explained that marijuana had comforted them when other drugs had failed.
They were passionate and powerful.

Then it was time to hear from those opposing a bill that would allow
marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes.

There was a spokesman for the Minnesota Family Council, Aaron Frederickson,
who acted as if he hadn't heard the pained people who'd just spoken.

"Now is the time to enforce drug laws, not soften them," Frederickson read,
monotone, from a prepared statement.

And there was the wit and wisdom of Sen. Dan Stevens, R-Mora. Stevens said
if the Legislature passed a bill allowing marijuana to be used to comfort
the afflicted, some Minnesotans would think legislators must be using
marijuana themselves. Chuckle, chuckle.

"I'll vote against this," Sen. Wit said after his little laugh.

The people who testified about their horrific pains only could shake their
heads at the old, cold words they were hearing.

It's 1999 in most of the world, but in government, we're still in dense,
dark times whenever the subject is medicinal use of marijuana.

Even Gov. Jesse Ventura's cabinet was sending mixed messages at Tuesday's
hearing. Ventura supposedly supports legalization of marijuana for medical
purposes. But at Tuesday's hearing, Charlie Weaver, commissioner of public
safety and presumably Ventura's voice on the issue, filled the air with
"ummmms" and "buts" and "maybes" on the subject of legalization. (What do we
have here, Jesse [the Vacillator] Ventura?)

So, for purely political reasons, good people continue to suffer more than
they need to.

Darryl Paulsen, who is in a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, was at the
hearing to tell how marijuana has helped him control his spasms; how
marijuana gives him some control over his body that no other drug does.

But there's a tough price to pay for his medicine. Three years ago, Paulsen,
who lives in South St. Paul, was busted for possessing that which he needs
to live decently. He says that 14 police officers from the East Metro Drug
Task Force busted into his one-room apartment, guns drawn.

"They came in yelling, 'Where is it? Where is it?' " Paulsen recalled.

He was charged with possession of marijuana, found guilty and put on
probation. To find the drug he needs, he must associate with dealers, who
sometimes frighten him, and he must keep looking over his shoulder to see if
he's being tracked by police or task force members.

"Absurd," he said, sadly, after the meeting.

This is how absurd it is: Two physicians who testified Tuesday were
ever-so-careful to say that they were speaking as individuals, not for their
employers. Despite the fact that each has patients who have had positive
results from marijuana, they were cautious, lest some crusading politician
get the idea their institutions were soft on drugs.

After the hearing, Dennis Dykstra, a University of Minnesota physician who
helps patients who have physical disabilities, said he is often frustrated
working with people who have run out of hope, because there seem to be no
medications that work.

"I see people who are at the end," he said. "They come to me and say, 'I've
gone everywhere. I've tried everything. Can't I sign up for research? Isn't
there something I can do?' "

Dykstra said that a law allowing physicians at least to discuss marijuana as
an option would give him the chance to be honest with desperate patients.

"This would be a choice that would be far down on a list," Dykstra said. "I
would be able to say, 'Here's something that has worked for some people.' "

Now what happens between a doctor and patient when all the mainstream
medicines have failed and the doctor knows that some have been helped by
marijuana? What happens when doctors know of patients who have relieved
their pains, increased their appetites, finally been able to sleep because
of marijuana?

Dystra said he can't legally discuss the marijuana option with patients.
Sometimes, though, he suggested that physicians go to quiet corners with
their patients and speak in vague terms.

Supporters of legalization say they think there's a chance that some
watered-down version of the bill will pass this session.

Sen. Pat Piper, DFL-Austin, is leading the push for legalization in the
Senate. (Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, is her counterpart in the
House.) After Tuesday's hearings before the Senate's Health and Family
Security Committee, she walked into the hallway and nodded toward the
witnesses who had shared their stories.

"How can we deny them?" she wondered.

Simple. If it's expedient politics to deny them, they will be denied.