ELY MAN SAYS POT EASED HIS PAIN

ST. PAUL - K.K. Forss dumped a trash-bag full of medicine bottles onto
the floor, showing Minnesota lawmakers how he survived a serious
spinal condition.

They let the Ely, Minn., photographer survive, but his life was
miserable.

"I don't want the meds," he said. "I don't want drugs. I just want my
life back."

Forss was among several Minnesotans affected by painful diseases who
told committee members Wednesday they support allowing marijuana to
ease pain in some circumstances.

On a 9-6 vote, with five committee members out of the room, the bill
by Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, advanced to another House committee.

"The side effects are ungodly," Forss said about his medical problem.
"The pain was overwhelming."

But after he began to use marijuana, he no longer was forced to be bed
fast 20 hours to 22 hours a day. And while he has not been able to
return to photography, he said, he has taught photo classes now that
his pain has eased.

Medical marijuana proposals regularly surface in the Legislature, but
so far have not passed, due in a large part to stiff law enforcement
opposition. A similar bill is making its way through the Senate.

'Cut our pay'

Republican lawmakers want to cut their pay, as well as that of
statewide election officials such as the governor.

"At a time when the budget deficit is growing larger by the minute,
legislators need to set an example in St. Paul by cutting their own
compensation and that of constitutional officers," Sen. Geoff Michel,
R-Edina, said.

Lawmakers earn about $30,000 annually. The governor is paid $114,288,
with the attorney general, lieutenant governor, state auditor and
secretary of state each earning at least $74,000.

The GOP proposal would cut pay 5 percent in the next two-year
budget.

Biased meetings?

The top House Republican says he fears legislative meetings around
Minnesota today and Friday will be stacked against GOP Gov. Tim
Pawlenty's budget proposal.

"It sounds to me that these 'listening sessions' we are about to have
are more like carefully orchestrated political operations set up by
Democrats to create 'grassroots' opposition to Gov. Pawlenty's budget
proposal," Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said Wednesday.

Seifert pointed to an e-mail from Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona,
urging people to attend a local legislative meeting.

"We would ask you to focus your comments on the impact of the
governor's budget including what is the harm to your area of
government or program," Pelowski wrote.

Republicans have said they feared Democrats, who control the House and
Senate, would pack hearings with people who do not like Pawlenty's
proposal, coming back to the Capitol saying that Minnesotans do not
want cuts contained in the plan, calling for tax increases to keep
programs intact.

The state's expected $7 billion deficit is subject of a series of
meetings in rural Minnesota this week and the Twin Cities next week.
Democrats say they are soliciting ideas from citizens about how to
write a two-year budget.