MN -Pot Fight On Ballot? Thatâ??s Their Plan

Pot Fight On Ballot? Thatâ??s Their Plan

Tuesday, June 2, 2009, 12:10

Medical marijuana supporters, who finally pushed legislation onto the governorâ??s desk in Minnesota only to see the bill vetoed, are preparing for an even bigger task next year: ensuring the right of the sick and dying to smoke marijuana by writing it into the stateâ??s constitution.

Bypassing Gov. Tim Pawlenty and putting the question straight to voters is no easy chore. Supporters of last yearâ??s Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment spent nearly $4 million to get the measure passed. Yet, medical marijuana backers say theyâ??re willing to foot the bill.

But the key question for the 2010 election might not be whether voters approve the measure â?? polls show medical marijuana has consistent support in Minnesota â?? but how the issue affects other races, including what is expected to be a hard-fought gubernatorial campaign.

â??Thereâ??s definitely a second layer any time you think about a constitutional amendment or a ballot question,â?� said Mike Zipko, a political consultant at St. Paulâ??s Goff & Howard. â??You could see how someone from a progressive point of view ( could use the issue ) to push voter turnout even a couple of points.â?�

The Senate had already approved versions of the bill, which originally would have let patients suffering from a list of illnesses get a state-issued identification card allowing them to buy marijuana at licensed dispensaries or to grow their own.

This session, the bill made it out of the House for the first time by a 70-64 vote. It was narrowed dramatically to affect only terminally ill patients and won a handful of Republican votes. But several Democrats voted against it, and it split St. Paulâ??s all-DFL delegation.

Pawlenty quickly vetoed it. â??While I am very sympathetic to those dealing with end of life illnesses and accompanying pain, I stand with law enforcement in opposition to this legislation,â?� he wrote in his veto letter.

The chief sponsors of the bill issued a late-night news release promising a constitutional showdown.

â??For the governor to veto this legislation, even after the House narrowed it so much that thousands of suffering patients would have been without protection, is just unbelievably cruel,â?� said Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing.

The issue is by no means assured of landing on next yearâ??s ballot; the Legislature has often been reluctant to put questions directly to voters. And once they get there, the campaign, which includes assuring a majority cast ballots in the affirmative ( a non-vote counts as a â??noâ?� ) can be expensive.

â??The price of running a statewide campaign has just skyrocketed,â?� said Charlie Poster, the former spokesman of Vote YES Minnesota, which supported the Legacy Amendment.

But the Marijuana Policy Project, a national group pushing the legislation, appears to have the money to launch a serious campaign. Since 2005, the group has spent nearly $900,000 lobbying the Minnesota Legislature with money raised at events like its recent fourth annual Playboy Mansion fundraiser.

â??While nobodyâ??s drawn up a budget yet, our basic approach is we would spend whatâ??s needed,â?� said Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the group.

That sets up an interesting scenario. In 2004, a number of state constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage were credited with helping President George W. Bush win re-election by drawing social conservatives to the polls. Could medical marijuana be the leftâ??s version, drawing voters who arenâ??t typically motivated to vote?

Zipko said it might, pointing to Jesse Venturaâ??s gubernatorial victory in 1998. Many voters turned out to support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to hunt and fish, added a vote for Ventura and left the polls, Zipko said.

â??Everybodyâ??s looking for any kind of edge to get people to come out because these elections are getting closer and closer,â?� Zipko said.

Yet when California voters approved the nationâ??s first statewide medical marijuana law in 1996, a presidential election year, fewer people turned out than in 1992, the previous presidential election. And when Oregon voters followed suit in 1998, a gubernatorial election year, voter turnout there was also down over the previous governorâ??s race.

Larry Jacobs, the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies at the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs, is among the skeptics. He said the Legacy Amendment was passed through a broad coalition and posed a question that was fundamental to the Minnesota way of life.

â??My sense is ( medical marijuana doesnâ??t have ) the kind of intense commitment and breadth of commitment that you see with the Legacy Amendment,â?� Jacobs said.

Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
Copyright: 2009 St. Paul Pioneer Press
Contact: [email protected]
Website: HOME - TwinCities.com
Author: Jason Hoppin

im a republican from minnesota and i hate tim pawlenty. completely ignorant and claims to be opposed to marijuana because "the police feel it should remain illegal"

Twin Cities Cannabis Club (Minneapolis, MN) - Meetup.com

Hey all! We are trying to make a splash on the state marijuana advocacy front. Wanna be involved? Well then, click on the link and meet up with us.

-Jim Jones
The People's Temple

we've came so close so many times but as long as pawlenty is governor it wont happen

We did what the article says in Massachusetts last year, I was there for hemp fest and then through the November 2008 election and into April of this year to see it implemented.

Decriminalization failed the year before in general assembly, a petition was gathered and signed by enough people to put the issue on the ballot directly, and an overwhelming majority of voters (I think it was like 75% which is ridiculously lopsided for a political issue) supported decriminalizing possession under an ounce and a fine of $100 for those caught with an ounce or less. Within a few months the law cleared the governor's desk (he had to, it would have been political suicide to mess with a such an overwhelmingly popular voter-initiative, even though he would have probably preferred to ignore it since he opposed it the year before when it was a bill rather than a voter initiative).

But anyway, yeah it can be done, even with a shitty governor. When we left Mass in April, cops in a lot of towns weren't even issuing tickets for possession, they were just emptying it out and stamping it in the ground with their boot or confiscating it. They said the law was too poorly written to be enforced. They said they couldn't issue tickets because they didn't have the proper forms or something, and they said they couldn't force people to produce identification unless they were driving, so if a pedestrian was smoking and knew his rights under Massachusetts Law, he could tell the cop "I'd rather not identify myself" and he could be detained so the cop could try to figure out who he was, but not for very long, and the cops didn't see it as worth it. In a lot of jurisdictions they just didn't even bother writing tickets, and in other jurisdictions they did. Almost everywhere it became kind of a joke and I think the cops were embarassed to be writing people tickets for it, even more than they used to be embarassed when they would charge people with felonies and ruin their lives for such a joke of an imagined evil.

i am ready to drop everything and start growing for a full-time living if it ever happens..

NEW YORK: Two bills are proposed to help end Federal involvement for cannabis use. Contact your legislators to pass this bill. More info at MPP website. Let's get this thing passed! RK