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Amendment 2 Opponents: ‘Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot’
June 11, 2014
“It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, president of the Florida Sheriffs Association. “It’s wrought with loopholes. It’s very cleverly written so that there can be use and abuse.”
Judd and other members of the group said they want to educate voters about the dangers of the amendment, which they consider to be so loosely written that Floridians of all ages will be able to obtain marijuana if it passes in November.
“We are literally looking at an unleashing of a Wild, Wild West of potent marijuana products,” said Calvina Faye, executive director of Drug Free America.
A ballot summary that voters will see when they go to the polls says, in part, the medical use of marijuana would be allowed for people with “debilitating diseases as determined by a licensed Florida physician.” The more-detailed text of the amendment lists diseases such as cancer, glaucoma and HIV and also refers to “other conditions for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient.”
Judd said that given the example of states that have legalized medical marijuana, such as California, the “other conditions” in the amendment could include sleeplessness, stress, cramps and pain from a sore back or broken arm.
“If you just look at the history of what we’ve gone through with pill mills, you can imagine that it would be the same type of doctors making those recommendations,” Faye said.
But Ben Pollara, campaign manager for United for Care, the group driving the amendment, said the anti-pot coalition’s arguments were misleading.
“This is about getting relief to really sick and suffering people,” Pollara said. “Our opponents look at the polls and see that Floridians probably support medical marijuana and are either split or opposed to the adult use of marijuana. And the way that they think they can win this campaign is by tricking people into believing this is about something other than what it really is, which is the medical use of marijuana.”
The constitutional amendment requires approval from 60 percent of voters to pass, and polling has been inconsistent. A Quinnipiac University poll released in early May showed that 88 percent of Florida voters support allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes.
But Sarah Bascom, spokeswoman for another anti-Amendment 2 effort, the “Vote No on 2 Campaign,” pointed to a poll out Tuesday that was conducted for The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. It showed that roughly 54 percent of Miami-Dade County voters supported the medical marijuana measure — not enough for it to pass in November. And that was in a heavily Democratic county.
“It’s completely at odds with what every poll has found on the topic in the last year and a half,” Pollara said of the Miami-Dade poll. “I don’t really think much of it.”
The polls are inconsistent because they’re changing, University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus said.
“I suspect some of them were fairly accurate at the time they were taken,” she said. “But you’ve got to put them in the time frame of when they were asked and what’s going on. … It makes a difference as to what kind of stories have been carried on television in what markets on the whole issue of marijuana in Colorado and groups coming out against it. The publicity, in other words, can really change people’s minds on this issue.”
MacManus said she thought the ballot measure could go either way.
A political committee that is helping fund opposition to the amendment raised $2.6 million in May, with $2.5 million coming from Republican super-donor and Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. That committee, the Drug Free Florida Committee, had received $100,000 before May.
A spokesman for United for Care, the group backing the amendment, said it raised $195,359 in May, but details had not been posted on the state Division of Elections website late Tuesday afternoon.
Comments
13 Responses to “Amendment 2 Opponents: ‘Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot’”
So explain how pot/weed is abused.
For Law Enforcement, the Legalization of Marijuana is really about a big loss in funding and for Private for profit Prison owners and shareholder, having Marijuana legal means less profit from not locking people up for non-violent offenses.
We need to legalize it for personal use as when as for it’s medicinal value and for the production value of Hemp Crops.
When can end the criminal enterprise involved with selling marijuana, stop filling up up the court system and save lots of money by not locking up non-violent marijuana users.
Law Enforcement could focus on real crime and real criminals and the State of Florida could collect a bunch of revenue like we do off cigarettes and alcohol and like other states are doing who have legalized marijuana for personal use.
I don’t get why anyone would deny someone relief for real pain. Yes, there is people who abuse it and they will continue legalized or not. Just like pain meds. This is no excuse to deny those who really need it. I lost 2 close relatives to cancer. I would give them whatever they needed other watch the continued pain day after day during there last months in this world. When u are healthy you have no idea what it is like to live in pain day after day. People die everyday from alchol abuse or from dui wrecks but I don’t see no one raising money to ban that. People have a choice with any of it. They will use it with caution or abuse it. The people that don’t abuse it should not be denied because of the ones that abuse it.
The cops are trying to keep pot illegal so they can keep thier budgets inflated and the for profit prisons are fighting to keep it illegal to protect thier profits. Prohibition of any drug allows the black market to flourish with massive profits, making it possible for these traffickers to finance personal armies.
Instead of putting people in prison for drugs and insuring they can never become productive citizens, the money from these drugs should be used to fund treatment centers and education. People who use these substances will do so not matter the legal status of these drugs, they would benefit more from affordable treatment centers than they will from the prison system. Legalization will take the money out of the hands of criminals.
Calvina Faye should be teleported to Salem 1692. She would make a great juror at a witch trial. Denying cannabis as a medicine is a crime against humanity.
People who vote against this are two face and stupid.They sit home and drink their cocktails and take their pills while children suffer and die.Pills don’t work for these children but pot does and you can take all you want and it wont get you high.So why not help a child who is suffering,are you really that stupid,Pull your heads out…and wake up. If it was your child sick maybe you would understand.
Vote them all out!!! It is time to get people who think more modernly and are willing to try new things. It is 2014 and its time to change all this old bible belt crap!
My mother has it really bad I agree with darryl its so hard to get pain meds if you need them so why not let people suffering aleast get the chance to see if it helps. It’s already wide spread and abused, so what’s the difference. Times are changing and people are different, not not very old but in my years already I’ve seen change that it clearly says in the Bible is the end of time. So why not legalize it and stop crying about it and see if it works.i was a leo and I see the dangers in widespread but as a ex leo I know the problem has always been here anyway.leo stay safe and cancer patients get relief
I think flrida should allow pat to generate revenue instead of relying on the prison system and locking up innocent people for it
Like it or not pot has been here a long time and there are many Floridians who smoke it daily. They are not unkempt degenerates with unkempt property and persons. Many are retired taxpayers who just want to smoke pot within the confines of their private property and wish no trespass against Sheriff Judd.
Personally I could care less at this point if Pot is legalized in Florida or not. Clandestine/untaxed pot is about the same price and quality as legal pot is in Colorado, California and WA state and is readily available.
These opponents are either delusional or as Richard stated, they are simply afraid of loosing funding.
It is now so hard to get pain meds because of scott and Bondi .Some druggies were abusing them guess what, they still are and the people that need them cant get perscribition now because doctors are scared to right them. Next they’ll outlaw paint ,glue ,spray starter fluid ,whip cream,etc,etc,etc….The sheriffs know is weed is legalized there goes 3/4s of there yearly arrests and less in there jails,it kills there budget.
I think some are forgetting the state probably went to pot years ago with the lucrative black market. Now it is just a matter of whether or not it is legal.
My question on this is why this one plant is so reviled when we accept all kinds of ‘alternative medicine’ which study after study shows most do not work, but this drug has shown some results in helping cancer patients eat, and that alone is worth considering. Someone struggling with cancer should be able to use whatever drug works and not have one politicized out of reach.
If simple meds such as pain meds are so hard to get I wonder how hard it will be to get a prescription for this I bet doctors will be terrified to write one.