Usually legislators' responses sent to us for the MN House medical marijuana people's whip count and the MN Senate medical marijuana people's whip count, but a Legislative Update sent up by state representative Steve Drazkowski illustrates a man in search of political bloodletting rather than a legislative compromise that will help people living with illness obtain relief from medical cannabis.
Drazkowski asks the question in his email newsletter:
So why not allow a processed marijuana extract to be made available in pill form, and obtained at a pharmacy with a doctor’s prescription?
Good question, Steve. Update: The newsletter email has been published as an op-ed in the Winona Daily News, Find medical marijuana compromise. [end update]
In fact, it's such a good question that WCCO's regular feature, Good Question, asked it back on February 18, 2014. Yes, really.
In Good Question: Why Can’t Pharmacies Sell Medical Marijuana?, Heather Brown reported:
A Star Tribune Minnesota Poll out Tuesday found that a slight majority – 51 percent — of Minnesotans favor legalizing medical marijuana. Already, 20 other states allow it, but patients must buy it through shops and dispensaries.
So, why can’t pharmacies sell medical marijuana?
“That’s a difficult question,” said Heather Azzi, director of Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, a group that’s been working to legalize medical marijuana in Minnesota for a decade. “The problem is a political one.”
In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, which labeled marijuana as a Schedule I substance.
The Justice Department defines Schedule I drugs as having “no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse.” It’s the highest classification for a controlled substance, right alongside heroin. In recent Congressional testimony Michael Botticelli, the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, indicates that federal opinion might not change anytime soon.
“The Department of Justice’s responsibility to enforce the CSA (Controlled Substances Act) remains unchanged,” Botticelli said before the House Oversight Committee’s Government Operations subpanel on Feb. 4.
All doctors and pharmacists in the U.S. have to be licensed by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“If a pharmacist or physician were to prescribe or to dispense marijuana, they could lose that registration with the federal government and would no longer be able to prescribe any controlled substance,” Azzi said.
In almost all cases, drugs sold in pharmacies must be FDA approved. Marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I controlled substance prevents significant research from even allowing that to happen. . . .
Read the rest at WCCO.
That's why that can't happen, Representative Drazkowski. It's not a rhetorical question, although he treats it as one. On the other hand, perhaps the gentleman from Mazeppa is simply ill-informed about why the House and Senate bills include distribution of medical cannabis at dispensaries--and why this it the delivery system used in every state that's legalized the drug for patient use.
Is Draz simply using the issue to bash the governor, while seeming to appear sympathetic to " five-year-olds with seizure disorders and terminal illnesses that just want to ease their pain" even though the solution he suggests to his constituents is simply not feasible?
Bluestem highly doubts that the parents of those kids--and adults living with pain and other ailments--don't know the answer to Drazkowski's question.
We're not a fan of Dayton's position and actions on this issue, but Draz seems to be playing his own political shell game using the patients seeking legal relief. If not disingenious, he's just ignorant.
While this is The Draz, it's hard to believe that the latter option is the case. After all, he voted against an extremely restrictive medical marijuana bill in 2009, so we think he's heard the facts before. The Pioneer Press's Jason Hoppin reported in Minnesota Legislature approves medical use of marijuana:
After a decade of debate, the Minnesota House and Senate have passed versions of a bill that would sanction medical marijuana use in the state.
The House — taking up the issue for the first time — narrowly approved a version this evening, 70-64. The Senate, which had approved a version last month, then approved the House's version 38-28.
The bill now heads to Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
The House version was narrowed considerably from the Senate bill. A provision allowing patients to grow their own marijuana plants was removed, and a controversial amendment restricted the use of marijuana to terminally ill patients suffering a debilitating illness.
The latter amendment removes medical marijuana eligibility for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who need the drug to combat nausea.
The bill would establish a licensing system for patients who have a doctor's recommendation for marijuana. They would then be issued a photo identification, allowing them to purchase marijuana at state-licensed marijuana dispensaries.
Draz voted against that in 2009. We're glad he's now open to allowing both the terminally ill and non-terminally ill to receive medical marijuana, even though the delivery system he proposes would put any pharmacy and pharmacist who used it out of business. Perhaps he can tell his constituents why the compromise he offers is pure fantasy.
On the other hand, we've seen versions of these MNGOP arguments before.
Here's the part of the email in which Draz bashes the governor (another paragraph bashes the minimum wage increase):
Over the past few weeks, one of the most frequent topics of conversation I’ve had with constituents is medical marijuana.
As you know, marijuana is illegal and Minnesota’s doctors are barred from prescribing it. The bill under debate would change that for medicinal purposes, providing that their patients were diagnosed with certain ailments.
Governor Dayton has been tap-dancing around this issue. He doesn’t want to sign a medical marijuana bill unless it has support from law enforcement. But he also wants to gain favor from those who support the bill, so he suggested delaying the decision on the issue and requiring Minnesota taxpayers to pay for a Mayo Clinic study determining whether marijuana has medical benefits.
In the meantime, several parents of suffering children said Governor Dayton met with them and encouraged them to either buy pot off the street or go to Colorado where marijuana is legal, buy it and bring it back to Minnesota. Never mind the fact that doing so is a federal criminal offense.
Not surprisingly, the governor denied the conversation took place and again attempted to shift the blame onto someone else - this time the full legislature. This is the same erratic pattern of behavior he has shown on every controversial issue that threatens to damage his popularity in the eyes of Minnesotans.
A compromise solution is there for the taking.
Law enforcement has very real concerns about this proposal, as do I. Medical marijuana should be for patients only. Rightly or wrongly, there are concerns that this is the first step towards full legalization of the drug in the State of Minnesota, and that marijuana could end up in the hands of drug addicts and, potentially, our kids.
On the other hand, we are seeing five-year-olds with seizure disorders and terminal illnesses that just want to ease their pain. Their parents believe medical marijuana could give their children that comfort, but the governor and the legislature are standing in their way.
The governor’s study isn’t the answer. These kids need help now, not two or three years from now.
So why not allow a processed marijuana extract to be made available in pill form, and obtained at a pharmacy with a doctor’s prescription? It is also possible to extract a liquid from the marijuana plant that could be used in an electronic cigarette, which could also be made available behind the pharmacy counter if a physician agrees to prescribe it for certain aliments.
To me, medical marijuana should only be made available in a controlled environment.
The public wants resolution on this topic, but once again we need Governor Dayton to lead by stating a specific vision on this topic and getting involved. Does he want medical marijuana or not?
If the answer is yes, I’m in favor of helping him find a solution that can pass the legislature. Easing the suffering of patients with debilitating illnesses is the compassionate thing to do in my opinion.
But if the answer is no, and the governor doesn’t want to pick a fight with law enforcement, then say so. For better or worse, at least the parents who are pushing for the medical legalization of marijuana will have finally heard a definitive answer on this topic from our state’s top leader. . . .
In the spirit of fairness, here are our posts on Dayton, so that reader understand that this isn't a post in defense of the Governor. Rather, we want the partisan sniping to end on a pair of bills where both support and opposition are bipartisan. Our Dayton posts:
March 13, 2014: Smoke 'em if you got 'em: Dayton feels your pain but totally wants coppers to pinch dope fiends
March 25, 2014: Medical pot: Mark Dayton feels your pain, but thinks you people with PTSD are probably faking it
March 26, 2014: Dayton backs off on doubting some Minnesotans' pain, but won't quit promise to hardcore coppers
Photo: Representative Steve Drazkowski, who feels suffering Minnesotans' pain, but doesn't quite understand some of the facts about how legal medical marijuana can be dispensed to them.
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