Medical Marijuana Advocates Announce TV Ad Campaign Featuring Seriously Ill Patients (VIDEO)

Minnesota patients want the state to join 12 others that presently allow medical use of marijuana.

(MINNEAPOLIS) - Advocates announced the first in a new series of TV ads today featuring seriously ill patients asking Minnesotans to urge Governor Tim Pawlenty not to veto a bill to protect suffering Minnesotans from arrest for using medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

The ad, which will begin running on broadcast and cable stations throughout Minnesota later this week, can be viewed online at the bottom of this article.

The ad features Lynn Rubenstein Nicholson of Minneapolis, who suffers intractable pain after enduring 10 surgeries following a back injury.

"Really, the only thing that gave me relief was marijuana," Nicholson says in the ad of her struggle to find relief from the constant pain that keeps her bedridden most of the time. "It's not ok to break the law ... I'm tired of being a criminal."

SF 345, which is sponsored in the House by Rep. Thomas Huntley (DFL-Duluth), passed in the Senate last year, and the House Ways and Means Committee, 13-4, April 9. The bill is heading to the House floor for a vote soon, but Gov. Tim Pawlenty has threatened to veto it if it passes.

"The governor has threatened a veto after hearing from certain aspects of the law enforcement community," said Neal Levine, director of state campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project. "Hopefully, before he finalizes his decision, he will also consider the opinions of the hundreds of doctors, thousands of nurses, multitude of medical associations, the vast majority of Minnesotans and suffering patients like Lynn, who all support this bill."

The bill's chances were recently boosted by a strong statement supporting medical marijuana from the 124,000-member American College of Physicians, the second largest physician group in the U.S. Their statement is available at acponline.org/advocacy/where_we_stand/other_issues/medmarijuana.pdf.

Twelve states – Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington – presently allow medical use of marijuana. Medical marijuana bills are now under consideration in Illinois and New York, and an initiative is expected to appear on Michigan's November ballot.

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SAFERadvocate August 31, 2008 9:07 am (Pacific time)

"Why cant this poor lady use marinol?" Why does this poor lady need to spend thousands of dollars a year to give manufacturers of marinol a paycheck, when she could grow it at home for almost no cost at all? Why make poor suffering people who need THC spend so much money on it? Besides, people who can't work will pay for it out of your tax dollars. Still think this money-making loophole in logic is a good thing?

eric May 9, 2008 6:02 am (Pacific time)

if only people would start throwing their extra seeds all over the land instead of the trash in less than a year it would be growing everywhere wild and the laws would be unenforcible. I personally believe that the politicians who oppose legalization are being bribed by the drug cartels so they can make money on it

patient April 26, 2008 4:55 pm (Pacific time)

Now if we can just get the government to actually obey the law and the media to actually report properly (as the watchdogs they are supposed to be of our freedoms) when they do not.

The Editor April 15, 2008 2:29 pm (Pacific time)

I just want to follow the last comment by saying that Marinol is an expensive attempt to synthetically mimic the effects of THC, and that is only one of the medical properties of marijuana, and it is the one that gets a person "high" and Marinol is known for also causing panic attacks. Doctors with background in this area say that it can be effective but it is also very difficult to administer a proper dosage of Marinol, not that it is necessarily easy to always know exactly what works best.

Our Medical Reporter, Dr. Phil Leveque, is the leading expert in the NW when it comes to medical cannabis, and he suggests people use a "vaporizer" or cook with marijuana, he does not recommend smoking it, although that is probably the fastest way to feel its affects. Marinol is a product of a pharmaceutical industry that wouldn't mind if it bankrupted our nation's economy and people are once again rediscovering that the answers are often close at hand. They are not always based in traditional treatment and it doesn't make it OK because it comes in a pill form.

Jerry Norberg April 15, 2008 1:43 pm (Pacific time)

The ACP does NOT support medical marijuana, it supports the research for medical marijuana. THats a big difference. Why cant this poor lady use marinol? I feel bad for her but there are other alternatives to smoking marijuana.

RevRayGreen April 14, 2008 3:49 pm (Pacific time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofEqvUQnWs

PLEASE Gov. Pawlenty do the right thing........

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