Minnesota gov says medical pot bill is dead, activists say he’s wrong

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Coleen Danger.

Gov. Mark Dayton took to the radio yesterday morning to say that his proposal to research medical marijuana hasn’t gotten any love from the advocates of broader legalization. He put the prospects of passing it between “slim and none.”
However, those same advocates plan to add part of the Dayton proposal as an amendment and are open to compromising on some points. They contend that the governor’s version of a medical marijuana program — despite his assertions — would help no one in the immediate future.


Rather than green-light a distribution system for a range of qualifying patients, Dayton is advocating that access to marijuana be forestalled while the state pumps $2.2 million into Mayo Clinic research of CBD — the non-psychoactive compound in marijuana that has been shown to control infantile seizures in liquid extracts.
His proposed health-impact study, slated to end in February 2016, would draw on the “concerns identified by community representatives and the experience of other states with current medical cannabis programs.” Those representatives would make up a 21-person advisory council and include pols, patients, caregivers, counselors, one prosecutor, and three cops.
“I would be more than happy to incorporate the governor’s study into my medical marijuana bill, in which smoking of marijuana and home cultivation will be prohibited,” says Rep. Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing) in an email, but adds: “I will not accept his proposal as an alternative.”
Minneapolis City Pages has the full story.

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