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More Than 1.5 Million Would Be Eligible For Medical Marijuana In Florida
October 23, 2013
Nearly half a million Floridians could be getting a legitimate high if voters approve a constitutional amendment making medical marijuana legal.
In the first of three estimating conferences dealing with the financial impact of the medical marijuana amendment, state economists on Monday learned that more than 1.6 million Floridians would be eligible for the treatment, according to state health officials. But just a fraction of those — between 175,000 and 450,000 — would probably pursue the legal pot to cope with a variety of diseases, including cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C.
Department of Health officials estimated it would cost more than $900,000 to regulate in the first year, if voters sign off on the ballot measure in November 2014. Those costs would go down after the start-up year, and would be offset by fees charged to medical marijuana treatment centers. Economists haven’t figured out yet how much money, if any, the state could garner if it taxes the medical marijuana, which would have to be grown or produced by the treatment centers. The economists face a variety of unknowns as they grapple with the issue, including whether the pot would be an over-the-counter type drug which would be tax exempt.
Prominent Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan is chairman of the organization backing the proposed amendment. People United for Medical Marijuana is far from reaching the 683,149 signatures needed to get the amendment on the ballot, but the group has obtained more than 100,000 signatures, enough to prompt the estimating conferences. The proposal would allow doctors to certify that their patients meet the criteria for medical marijuana treatment.
Only treatment centers authorized by the state could distribute the drug. The Department of Health would have to create a registry of patients and authorized care-givers and issue cards to the
by The News Service of Florida
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Comments
30 Responses to “More Than 1.5 Million Would Be Eligible For Medical Marijuana In Florida”
@David Huie Green,
I’m not trying to make friends or enemies. I have never said anything that wasn’t factual or something that isn’t agreed with by a large percentage of the folk here. Anywho, we’ll soon see whose right about this huge train Obeyme is driving down on us. :-/
REGARDING:
“Obeyme won’t be breaking my heart when it does while you’re asking, “what happened?”. I’m expecting it.”
One minor problem is that you are convinced 429SCJ and I are praising Obamacare/The Affordable Care Act.. I have neither praised it nor condemned it. I believed it to be unconstitutional, and part of it was, that part dealing with Medicaid, but the main part was ruled constitutional (whether wise or not) in that the government seems to have the power to tax you for not doing certain things, such as buying insurance. It is silly of you to try to make enemies of disinterested parties.
AND:
“You and millions of others like you decided to take a moral victory and throw your vote away on a third party candidate that you knew had a snowballs chance. You’re just as guilty as everybody else who voted for the community organizer.”
However 429SCJ voted was not a wasted vote. It was counted and showed how he felt. If the Republicans could put up better candidates, the Democratic candidates would have a harder time winning. It is not the fault of the registered independents because they did not take part in the primaries.
AND:
“my bizz tanked due to everyone sitting on their money not knowing what the fool would do next. “
And yet, people spent money every day and not all businesses tanked, despite the uncertainty of what President Obama would do next. I doubt he made it harder on you alone.
By the way, Anderson of Anderson-Columbia went bankrupt several times and came back anyway. Nobody’s a failure until they stop.
David for reality
@429SCJ
Sometimes you sound like smart guy and sometimes you don’t. If you’ll remember, Woodrow Wilson got into office because Teddy Roosevelt ran as a third party candidate. A lot of people threw away their votes then too. Sometimes its hard to see the smart thing to do, and even harder to do it. Well, it’s probably too late now.
:-/
OK, so I am getting confused here. Now we are on a bus talking about Obamanocare?
Seriously, there has never been one reported case of anyone dying from smoking pot, so it seems to me that health care talk is a moot point. Most people will probably have to pay for their doctor visits out of their own pockets due to the nature of the doctor visit. I cannot imagine our government paying for medical marijuana presciptions either. If doctor visits are now paid by health care companies and government funded programs in other states, it won’t be long before they don’t.
@David Huie Green
You being up front makes you arrive at the crash first, and Obeyme won’t be breaking my heart when it does while you’re asking, “what happened?”. I’m expecting it.
@429SCJ
You and millions of others like you decided to take a moral victory and throw your vote away on a third party candidate that you knew had a snowballs chance. You’re just as guilty as everybody else who voted for the community organizer.
Another Kool Aid Drinker I see, I usually admired your wise words here daily, yet now am losing the love. True his idiotic law hasnt taken effect yet, however DAILY on the news I see rates doubling, tens of thousands losing their insurance ( if you like your insurance you can keep it ) BULL, just another lie from the liar in cheif, anyway, my bizz tanked due to everyone sitting on their money not knowing what the fool would do next. I’m sure you know people who have lost more than they gained since his kingship, maybe your one of the elite government workers who get furloughed, only to be payed back in full with interest. Had people not stopped spending money, my bizz Certainly would have tanked when his BS wernt into effect, no small bizz can afford it. Maybe I’m watching the wrong channel. No wonder dish dropped CBS, yet it’s one of the liberal lovers channel.
I’m Cornfused
REGARDING:
“The view from up front must be better from back here, we’re not seeing it.”
It’s nice up here. You should move up. You get to toot the horn and everything.
David for shared views
@Leo Guy, First of all I am a registered independent and a staunch Ron Paul supporter. Second of all I could care less about this fools errand called O’Bama care as I use Humana/Tricare Prime. Third there is very little smoke as I use a vaporizer, most of the time anyway.
This nation was lost in 1913 when then president Woodrow Wilson signed our monetary system over to the international bankers with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, he then enslaved us to them with the United States Revenue Act of 1913.
Don’t point fingers at me Leo Guy, I gave 21 years military service to this goat drive and moreover I give unto Herod, that which is Herod’s, I pay my taxes.
REGARDING:
David Huie Green, Henry Coe and 429CSJ, you guys have had front seats on the Obeyme Train for quiet a while now. The view from up front must be better from back here, we’re not seeing it. Maybe it’s all the smoke being blown. :-/
REGARDING:
“Do they not see just how much damage Obama has done to our country, the tens of thousands who have lost their health care insurance or had their cost’s double since this idiotic law has been passed and I wonder What goes through their heads to make them think we are in better shape than we were during the last few presidents.”
Not saying anything in favor of the law, don’t know the law but DO know it hasn’t taken effect yet, so blaming it for doubling the cost of insurance makes little sense.
AND
“Being a small business owner and watched my 13 year old business TANK since he got into office, all my employees are now unemployed, and all this BEFORE I would have had to spend thousands a year for their health care, that alone would have shut me down.”
So you admit you went out of business before it took effect and you still blame him just like he keeps blaming Bush 2? I don’t see the rationale. If you went under AFTER it kicked in, you might have a case.
David for BooBerry Blackberry Kool-Aid
and successful businessmen
I sit and read comments from these strange liberals and wonder ? Do they not watch the news ? Do they not see just how much damage Obama has done to our country, the tens of thousands who have lost their health care insurance or had their cost’s double since this idiotic law has been passed and I wonder What goes through their heads to make them think we are in better shape than we were during the last few presidents. How in the world does anything this president stands for help us in any way. Being a small business owner and watched my 13 year old business TANK since he got into office, all my employees are now unemployed, and all this BEFORE I would have had to spend thousands a year for their health care, that alone would have shut me down. Please TELL ME, I Need to know how they come up with such ignorant statements..?????? About all I can say is WOW ! Maybe I need some of that KoolAid !
I say decriminalize it and get it over with!! It’s all about money and control.
So the gov of florida banned bongs, but if medical marijuana passes then what? You go to the pharmacy to get a bong? The gov of the state is just a complete idiot
@Henry Coe
I was just quoting Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont, he is the one that said ” “I just see a huge train wreck coming down.” about Obeymecare. Sit down and have some more Kool-Aid liberal. :-/
@Cathy, Unacceptable by any government”. The problem with government is that most of these cattle have no idea who the government really is.
When the 2% who rule this nation, i.e. the ones who control the money, decide for pot to be legal, it will be legalized at the Federal Level.
429SCJ for happy slaves/taxpayers and Tea Parties.
“Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.”
― Terence McKenna
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of ”kaneh bosm,” 500 shekels of cassia – all according to the sanctuary shekel–and a hind of olive oil. Make these into a sacred anointing oil” (Exodus 30: 22-33)
If you scratch a know nothing prohibitionist just below the surface you will usually find a so called christian,these people would have Jesus in jail,things haven’t changed much have they.
“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”
― Carl Sagan
I gaurantee that every Senior citizen could eliminate a large portion of dangerous drugs from their medicine cabinets if they were free to use cannabis, plus they would have fun growing their own,and save a ton of money.
Last I heard medicine isn’t taxed in Florida
Topical use of cannabis butter or liniment is the best pain relief available on the planet. It is effective for nerve damage from injuries, broken bones, injured knees, sprains, gout, and amazingly even gallstone pain as I recently learned from experience.
Cannabis is such an awesome antibiotic it can kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and disrupt the progression of prion diseases such as Mad Cow and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, currently there is “No FDA-approved treatment for a prion disease.
” Thousands of deaths each year in the U.S. are caused by MRSA. A recent study shows hemp fabric stops the spread of Staph and MRSA. In light of that, with the Staph and MRSA epidemic in most U.S. Hospitals wouldn’t it be wise to use hemp fabric for all hospital bedding, towels, clothing and curtains?
Fact is science has since discovered the endocannabinoid system. As Raphael Mechoulem, the man who originally discovered THC in 1964 and has been studying cannabis ever since, whose team discovered the endocannabinoid system in 1987, states, “There is barely a biological or physiological system in our bodies in which the endocannabinoids do not participate”.
The ECS (endocannabinoid system) is a modulator of physiological functions not only in the central nervous system but also in the autonomic nervous system, the endocrine network, the immune system, the gastrointestinal tract, the reproductive system, in microcirculation, and most important the cytokine network, which is the source of inflammation, the cause of nearly if not all disease.
By continuing to keep cannabis illegal the government is denying citizens an essential nutrient for health, causing health problems for many people. While we are a capitalist society, to create diseases for an industry to feed on by maintaining an illegal status of a plant that science has proven repeatedly to be a necessity for homeostasis is unacceptable by any government.
@Bobs Brother, You were probably smoking that Mexican dirt weed that sat in a warehouse in Texas for a year before it finally made it’s way cross I-110 to you.
We should declare war on the cartels for sending that bunk across the river.
The pot today has been genetically manipulated by post graduate horticulturist into
the killer pot that your friend turned you on to. The quality of American pot today far surpasses any of the imports, even the Colombian Gold of the 70s.
I have to agree with you on operating machinery under the influence of any chemical agent.
@LEO GUY, Considering the train wreck our Health Care/ Health Insurance System has been for years that ranked us a 37th in the world for quality, before the ACA/Obamacare became law and that health care cost were increasing faster and higher before Obamacare and that the Medicare Part D created in 2003 that added 800 Billion Dollars to our deficit without paying for it, is now paid for because of Obamacare, I’m not understanding what part of Obamacare you are talking about as being a “train wreck” ?
As an “LEO Guy”, I’m sure you care about the evidence and would have some way to clarify your claim.
Btw, the ACA website having issues in the first week when they received an influx of visitor between 6 and 20 million a day in the first week, does not constitute being a train wreck. Those are just website glitches and the ACA is more than just a website, so PLEASE, explain how this is a train wreck or even a bigger train wreck than what we had in place before it. Thanks.
*Bobs Brother* Get real.If you can’t handle marijuna then don’t smoke it.Not pointing fingers but your the type of person to why it is illegal.How many times have you heard a case where someone has induced too much marijuana..Never.The only outcome of “too much weed” would be a unhealthy snack and a good nap.Alchohol on the other hand you hear deaths caused by that poison every day.Marijuana is a good thing with many helpful qualities.Ill take my chances with people driving off of marijuana then drunk driving any day.
After people learn what a train wreck Obeymecare is, a whole lot more people will need Medical Marijuana. :-/
In regards to Bob’s Brother who said: “There is no way I want to be on the same roadway as a person who has just smoked pot. I’m no angel, I smoked the garden variety of this stuff in college and up to the point I had kids. A few Christmas’ back, a friend said, “Try some of this.” I did and I was in-capacitated. The pot of today is more like a narcotic than the stuff we rolled up in college. It’s bad bad stuff.”
Wake up, there are people who smoke it on the road every day! You smoked it yourself, and presumably not ill!!!! I’m sure this friend of yours wasn’t ill when offering it to you either.
The people who would legally have it probably won’t be on the road much anyway. We are talking about sick people. Folks with cancer and glaucoma, who probably haven’t driven in quite some time.
Legalizing it only means the folks who actually need it will finally, legally get it.
There is no way I want to be on the same roadway as a person who has just smoked pot. I’m no angel, I smoked the garden variety of this stuff in college and up to the point I had kids. A few Christmas’ back, a friend said, “Try some of this.”
I did and I was in-capacitated. The pot of today is more like a narcotic than the stuff we rolled up in college. It’s bad bad stuff.
This could be Florida’s new cash crop! The only problem is it is for medical use, which means there’ll be no taxes for the politicians to spend on their pet projects. I doubt too that this will passed by the public.
What a godsend this could be for so many of my patients. Cancer doesn’t play by the rules. Too bad our “devil”government cannot see this.
If legislators only had an inkling to the flood of untaxed cash flowing untapped through this state, they would fall off their barstools.
Which ever way they vote, the sun will still rise tomorrow.
I agree with Ponch but it will be a shame if they don’t pass it, especially for people it could “really” help.
Don’t hold your breath (no pun intended) on this ever being passed in Florida.
If you want to smoke marijuana, I suggest you move to Colorado or Washington.
This “devil plant” will never be passed as medicinal in the bible belt.
Alcohol and tobacco are fine, though. Certainly these toxic substances don’t cause any harm.