Minneapolis Council Rejects Medical Marijuana Initiative August 23, 2004
News Summary
The Minneapolis City Council's Intergovernmental Relations Committee voted against putting a medical-marijuana ballot question before voters this November. The action could lead to a lawsuit from Citizens for Harm Reduction, which pushed for the initiative, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune reported Aug. 18.Committee chairman Scott Benson said the initiative contradicts current state and federal laws. The measure would have amended the City Charter "to require that the City Council shall authorize, license, and regulate a reasonable number of medicinal-marijuana distribution centers in the city of Minneapolis as is necessary to provide services to patients who have been recommended medicinal marijuana by a medical or osteopathic doctor licensed to practice in the state of Minnesota to the extent permitted by state and federal law."
The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), which is funding the Citizens for Harm Reduction group, said it would sue to get the initiative on the ballot. "We are fully prepared to go to court and to spend whatever it takes to prevent the city's voters from being disenfranchised," said Neal Levine, director of public policy at MPP.
The entire council is expected to consider the measure at its next meeting, but a similar outcome is expected.
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