It's no secret that Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria), a former county sheriff, was no fan of reforming Minnesota's laws to allow for patients to use medical cannabis.
After all, he and Senator Julie Rosen sent a "Dear Colleagues" letter to fellow Senators, sounding the alarming about the coming cannabis apocalypse, as we reported in April's Ingebrigtsen & Rosen warn colleagues about "dangerously addictive" pot that rips apart families.
Now, via an email exchange obtained via a data practices request, we know he wasn't just dissing the policy but members of his own party who supported this compassionate measure to ease the suffering of some ailing Minnesotans.
In response to an invitation to a meeting of the Minnesota State Association of Narcotics Investigators (MSANI) discussion on Marijuana and Youth at the Mall of America, the Alexandria area Republican put the event on his calendar, adding:
. . .Please know in fact that this will be on the forefront for the DFL and a couple of stupid Republicans have signed on. Also there is a industrial hemp bill which is another back door bunch of BS.
I intend on sending a personal letter to each of the 87 sheriffs to encourage them to step up and pay attention to this garbage.
Thanks again for the invite and for your efforts in stopping this bad for kids and families legislation.
Sen Bill
Who were the "stupid Republicans" who had signed on to the legislation by January 21, 2014? In the Senate (SF1641), that would be Senator Branden Petersen, of Andover; in the House, HF1818 was supported by Tom Hackbarth (Cedar) and Andrea Kieffer (Woodbury).
In February, Pat Garofalo (Farmington) and Tim Kelly (Red Wing) joined David Fitzsimmons in authoring an "overflow" bill, HF2383.
as for the dummies in the Senate, an amended SF1641 passed by a veto-proof bipartisan vote of 48-18 on May 6, 2014, with Republican state senators Eric Pratt, Dave Brown, Dave Thompson, Roger Chamberlain, Scott Newman, David Senjem, Karin Housley and Sean Nienow joining Petersen in supporting this "garbage."
The more restrictive House version was eventually passed by both chambers and signed into law; Ingebrigtsen voted no to both versions.
As for the "back door bunch of BS" that is allowing Minnesota farmers to grow industrial hemp, that measure is supported by both the Farm Bureau and the Minnesota Farmers Union, both ag producer membership organizations.
One of the co-sponsors of the industrial hemp bill was fellow Alexandria area Republican, Representative Mary Franson; Franson received her party's endorsement, despite her challenger's attempt to portray Franson as a proponent of legal pot. Ingebrigtsen supported the challenger. Franson was a no vote on medical cannabis.
Here are photos of the email exchange:
Photo: As Branden Petersen stands to speak to the medical cannabis bill, Senator Ingebrigtsen imitates Grumpy Cat behind him.
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