Yesterday, Minneapolis state Sen. Scott Dibble’s medical marijuana bill passed its final committee hurdle in the Senate, paving the way for a floor vote in that chamber.
Dibble’s bill, which allows patients to vaporize marijuana but not smoke it, is still more liberal than the medical marijuana bill making its way through the House. In fact, Heather Azzi, political director of Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, tells us the House version is fundamentally unworkable because it would implicate both state employees and doctors in federal offenses.
That’s because the House bill calls upon the state to oversee the cultivation and distribution of marijuana, which patients could use “only under direct, in-person supervision and the control of a licensed health care provider.”
But of course, growing and distributing marijuana violates federal law. And in states with workable medical marijuana systems, doctors don’t directly observe patients, Azzi says.
“It requires state employees and doctors to commit felonies,” Azzi tells us. “That bill won’t help a single patient for that reason.”
“It’s unconstitutional. A doctor has a very limited right under the First Amendment to speak about marijuana’s medical efficacy when it comes to prescribing or dosing, or they risk losing their license to the federal government,” she continues. “It’s most definitely illegal for a doctor to prescribe or talk about specific dosing with a patient.”
By contrast, the Senate bill would mostly remove the government from the equation.
“Under the Senate version, the Commissioner of Health would select people to run alternative treatment centers, which would implement strict security measures… to track every plant from seed to sale,” Azzi says. “It would remove government from this process and give some ability for private citizens to have a role in this program.”
Though she characterizes the Senate bill as “a very solid piece of legislation,” Azzi says the proposal would make the Minnesota the first state to have a medical marijuana system that prohibits any and all smoking. But since vaporizers have improved so much in recent years, Azzi says she can live with that.
“It’s a good compromise if the law enforcement community is really concerned about the smoking of cannabis,” Azzi says.
Read more over at the Minneapolis City Pages