With regard to the May 7 story “Minnesota Senate passes medical marijuana legislation,” I would like to clear something up.

Law enforcement doesn’t favor any medical marijuana legislation in Minnesota, simply because of the fact that they will lose over several million dollars from the federal government’s allocations for the drug war. Grant money is awarded to every state, every year, dependent upon the supposed success of their drug-related criminal arrests. State law enforcement agencies depend on this.

State Rep. Carly Melin’s bill has been so watered down to cater to the interests of law enforcement that it has become almost completely ineffective. The new bill offered by state Sen. Scott Dibble is a far more sensible proposal for actual patients. Both bills have made enormous concessions to the concerns of law enforcement, and yet, opposition has continued.

Their goal is to keep people in need of medical cannabis in the state of Minnesota from either obtaining their medicine or keeping access to it illegal. Regardless of the outcome of the now-pending legislation, this point needs to be made clear to the people of Minnesota.

Unfortunately, we now live in a world where people are getting ever more suspicious of police and other people with powers of investigation and prosecution, and this could be a perfect opportunity for those in the law enforcement community to extend their hands and show people that they work for them, and don’t lord over them. This is a change that’s coming, and it would best suit all involved to figure out how to make it work best for them.

 

Douglas A. Houge

Albert Lea