In an embarrassing display for committee members of both parties, The Safe Access to Medical Cannabis Act was denied its anticipated hearing in a Senate health committee this morning. After Democrats failed to show up for the committee, present Republicans refused to even call a motion allowing for discussion on the bill, which is already dead in the House.

The hearing would have made history, according to medical cannabis activist and former public health epidemiologist Bernie Ellis, as the first of its kind in the Senate in some 20 years. The "Marijuana Martyr," Ellis was busted several years ago by authorities for growing marijuana and giving it free-of-charge to cancer patients.

"I've been up at this legislature for eight years," Ellis told Pith as activists and patients who had come to testify milled around. "The quietest I've ever seen it was when he asked for a motion or a second. I mean, a pin could have dropped in there."