Welcome to Minnesotans for Compassionate Care (MCC)

Minnesotans for Compassionate Care is a coalition of organizations, medical professionals, patients, and concerned citizens working to protect people with cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, and other serious illnesses from arrest and prison for using medical marijuana on their physicians' advice.

Seriously ill patients who use medical marijuana under their doctors' supervision are currently in danger as a result of Minnesota's failure to protect them from criminal penalties. MCC is working to enact a medical marijuana law based on compassion and common sense, so that medical marijuana patients will not be forced to live in fear simply for using the medicine that eases their pain and, in many cases, allows them to live normal lives.

House leadership fails to call medical marijuana bill up for a vote before the close of 2008 session

Despite unprecedented progress in the legislature and the court of public opinion, the sick and dying patients of Minnesota will have to wait until the next legislative session for a medical marijuana law. S.F. 345, the medical marijuana bill, did not come up for a vote on the House floor before the legislature adjourned on Monday.

S.F. 345 passed the Senate at the beginning of Minnesota’s biennial session, with the endorsements of the Minnesota Nurses Association, the Minnesota Public Health Association, the Minnesota AIDS Project, the Minnesota Senior Federation, and hundreds of doctors and thousands of nurses who signed statements of support. Recent polling has shown more than 2-to-1 support among Minnesotans. More than 10,000 Minnesotans contacted their state representatives in support of S.F. 345, and a series of TV ads featuring Minnesota patients ran for weeks.

However, the bill couldn’t overcome opposition from a small but vocal group of law enforcement officials who persistently relied on mistruths, exaggerations, and outright lies to derail it, despite the fact that supporters made no less than 19 amendments at their request. The bill's proponents produced documents and a series of Web videos revealing these claims – such as the idea that medical marijuana lacks support from the medical community and that such laws increase teen use – to be demonstrably false; however, enough members of the House were sufficiently swayed by these false claims to prevent the bill from coming up for a vote on the House floor.

Despite this profoundly unfortunate turn of events, no one should lose sight of the tremendous progress that we've made. Prior to this session, no medical marijuana bill had passed a single House committee, while we passed out of five. As the SurveyUSA poll demonstrates, MPP’s lobbying effort made a significant impact on the electorate.

And we will be back next session: The battle to protect Minnesota’s sick and suffering patients is far from over.

We'd like to thank all of the courageous patients, doctors, nurses, and ordinary Minnesotans who testified on behalf of the bill, signed statements of support, sent e-mails, and made phone calls. In particular, we’d like to thank K.K. Forss, Neil Haugerud, Lynn Nicholson Rubenstein, Ron Oveson, Shannon Pakonen, Anthony Clark, Sean Haugan, Tom Fonio, Raymond Shelstad, Roy Sandstrom, Darrell Paulsen, Don Haumant, Shelley Anklan, Dr. William Heegaard, and Dr. Jacob Mirman. Your bravery, sacrifice, tenacity, and compassion are inspiring to all of us.

We would also like to thank Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing) for taking the lead on this critical issue in the Senate, along with co-sponsors Sens. Geoff Michel (R-Edina), Steve Dille (R-Dassel), Linda Higgins (DFL-Minneapolis), and Linda Berglin (DFL-Minneapolis); and Reps. Tom Huntley (DFL-Duluth), Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis), Chris DeLaForest (R-Andover), Leon Lille (DFL-North St. Paul), former representative Steve Sviggum (R-Kenyon), and all of the co-sponsors of H.F. 655 -- S.F. 345's House companion bill -- for sponsoring this compassionate legislation.

Despite this setback, momentum remains on our side in Minnesota. Our efforts -– and your generous support -– have made an important difference, and all that was accomplished this session will set the stage for future reform.