Good news from Minnesota:

After a debate pitting compassion for those suffering from the pain of cancer or HIV-AIDS against concerns about abuse and violence from expanded availability of a "gateway drug," the Minnesota Senate gave tentative approval Wednesday to the use of marijuana for medical purposes in the state.

The 36-28 vote came despite questions about whether the measure fully defines who would be eligible and whether it provides proper safeguards against potential abuse. [Star-Tribune]

The bill could still get blocked in the House and a veto from Gov. Pawlenty is a definite possibility. If you're in Minnesota, click here to contact your legislators in support of medical marijuana.

This looks promising:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congressman Eliot L. Engel – the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere – has introduced the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Act of 2009, a bill that will create an independent commission to evaluate US policies and programs aimed at reducing illicit drug supply and demand.

"Billions upon billions of US taxpayer dollars have been spent over the years to fight the drug war in Latin America and the Caribbean," says Engel. "In spite of our efforts, since the early 1980s, the number of US lifetime drug users has steadily risen for marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Clearly, the time has come to reexamine our counternarcotics efforts here at home and throughout the Americas." [LAHT]

Great. Let's do that. Let's reexamine the hell out of this. Good idea.

But I can't wait to see who comes forward to oppose the idea of examining our drug policy and trying to make it less bad. Amazingly, there will be people in Congress who come forward to argue that our drug policy is awesome the way it is and we should be proud that so many people are getting killed because that means things are really getting good.

By the way, Rep. Engel who introduced this bill is a strange character who voted the right way on the Hinchey Amendment (to end mmj raids) every single time, but also introduced legislation to ban selling prosthetic penises used to cheat on drug tests.

This story from FOX Memphis provides a rare glimpse into the federal government's massive marijuana grow-op:



My favorite part is when Dr. Mahmoud Elsohly boasts about the high quality of the government pot he grows, then proceeds to demonstrate by sticking his hand in a barrel of disgusting brown schwag. It's all ground up, and you can see the stems sticking out. Anyone can plainly see that the government's weed just sucks.

I also noticed how the FOX story explained that the marijuana is used for research purposes, but conveniently left out the fact that the government actually provides medical marijuana to a small group of patients, while simultaneously prohibiting medical marijuana under federal law. I guess that contradiction was too much for a local FOX affiliate to explore in a fluffy pot-porn segment. Or, more likely, Dr. Elsohly never mentioned it to the reporter.

Given the popular urban myth that government-grown marijuana is super-potent, it's amusing to consider how stunningly bad it actually is. Ironies aside, however, it's actually a serious problem that these guys don't know what they're doing. They won't make any of their product available to researchers seeking to make marijuana an FDA-approved medication, and even if researchers gained access, the material is so weak that you couldn't do much with it.

Someone else needs to be growing marijuana for research purposes, but the DEA won't allow it because they're afraid of what the research will show. Our friends at MAPS and ACLU have spent years in court trying to gain approval for one well-qualified scientist to grow research-grade marijuana, and they've been blocked at every turn. Unless the Obama Administration intervenes before May 1, the DEA's Final Order will take effect and the effort to establish an independent source of research-grade marijuana will return to square one.

Click here to encourage Obama to support science over politics by allowing independent marijuana cultivation for research purposes.