LAKELAND — Jeffrey Reddout, a Winter Haven psychologist, posed a question to the audience at the outset of a discussion of Amendment 2, which would legalize medical marijuana.
“How many people out there think that they’re going to learn something tonight that will change their opinion?” Reddout asked.
The point of Reddout’s question: Many who attended a forum Thursday night in Lakeland came with firm and passionately held opinions that won’t waver between now and the Nov. 4 election. But Reddout and five other panelists did their best to supply information and persuasion for anyone who might still be undecided on Amendment 2.
The forum, organized by The News Herald’s sister paper, The Ledger, brought together for the first time two of the loudest voices in the campaign over Amendment 2: John Morgan, the Orlando lawyer who bankrolled the drive to get the measure on the ballot, and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a spokesman for the Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot coalition. The panel also included Reddout; Dr. Sergio Seoane, a Lakeland physician; Jessica Spencer, statewide coalition director for the Vote No on 2 campaign; and Irvin Rosenfeld, a Fort Lauderdale stockbroker with a rare bone disorder who receives marijuana from the federal government through a discontinued medical program.
Morgan and Judd delivered energetic and sometimes sarcastic arguments respectively for and against Amendment 2, which requires 60 percent approval by voters to pass.
Many in the audience wore T-shirts or carried signs labeling them as for or against Amendment 2. Proponents seemed to outnumber opponents, and a good portion of the audience chanted “Yes on 2” before the event got underway. The audience included families with children plagued by ailments for which marijuana could be a treatment.
Morgan described his motivation for pushing Amendment 2: seeing how marijuana benefited his father as he was dying of cancer and how it helps his brother, who has faced chronic pain since an accident left him paralyzed decades ago.
“This is the moment of our lifetime in Florida to do something,” Morgan said. “We don’t have to rely on our politicians. We can just rely on ourselves to go out and, for God’s sake, vote, and vote for compassion, and when you do it, do it for the people.”
Judd and Spencer repeatedly blasted Amendment 2 as a vaguely worded measure that will yield myriad negative consequences. Spencer said the measure is more loosely written than laws in other states that have legalized medical marijuana. Judd questioned the language of the amendment, which specifies debilitating medical conditions for which marijuana could be recommended, such as cancer and AIDS, and adds the phrase “or other conditions” for which a physician sees a potential benefit.
Judd lamented the amendment’s “multiple loopholes that’s going to create a de facto legalization” of recreational marijuana.
Rosenfeld, who said he has smoked more than 140,000 marijuana cigarettes, described how the drug lessens the pain and muscle spasms caused by his bone disorder.
Rosenfeld is a member of Florida for Care, a commission created to suggest rules for the implementation of Amendment 2 should it pass. He said voters can be sure the Florida Legislature, the governor and the Florida Department of Health will craft rules that prevent the state from duplicating the example of California, a state often criticized for its loose regulation of medical marijuana.
Judd, though, said trusting those groups to create guidelines not spelled out in the amendment is akin to buying a used car without being allowed to inspect it first.
Addressing concerns about “pot docs” who will recommend marijuana for people without genuine ailments, Morgan said, “I believe in doctors. I believe 99 percent are good.”
That prompted Seoane to say later, “You better worry about the 1 percent,” referring to disreputable doctors.
There was one point of agreement among the panelists: All said marijuana should be removed from Schedule 1, the federal category reserved for drugs considered to have no medical value and a high risk of abuse. That listing makes it nearly impossible for scientists in the United States to conduct rigorous tests of marijuana’s benefits and dangers.
Morgan made several references to Cathy Jordan, a Manatee County woman with ALS, a progressive neurological disorder, who sat in a wheelchair near the stage. Morgan said Amendment 2 is necessary because Tallahassee lawmakers refuse even to hold hearings on behalf of people like Jordan who want the right to use marijuana to treat their symptoms.
“To Cathy Jordan, whose voice was not heard in Tallahassee — her voice is being heard now, loud and clear,” Morgan said.
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Medical marijuana proponent, opponent square off
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