After getting a reprieve at the ballot box last November, Florida’s legislature is once again racing the clock and the smoke signals of public opinion on the medical marijuana issue.
Last year, the legislature and Gov. Rick Scott implemented an approval of the use of low-potency marijuana for cancer and epilepsy patients. Then, in November, a constitutional amendment that would have allowed doctors to prescribe marijuana for almost any kind of ailment barely failed to reach the 60 percent supermajority necessary for passage.
However, on Jan. 1 the patients who need marijuana to help with their suffering found that Florida’s bureaucracy had failed them. Currently, a regulatory structure for growing and distributing pot has not been approved, leaving vulnerable patients without the medicine they need.
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If something isn’t done soon those that want to legalize marijuana – including those operating under the guise of helping the sick - will have all the ammo they require to get another constitutional amendment on the ballot.
Legislators can’t bank a it being defeated a second time.
Whatever any of us think of marijuana it is clear Floridians believe that those who are seriously ill should have the right to use it as part of their treatment. Last year, The News Herald opposed the marijuana amendment because the language was too broad and took the power to regulate the drug away from our elected representatives.
There’s a fine line between helping people who need it – and defining in what form it should be administered - and legalization. Last year’s amendment crossed it.
However, we also urged the legislature to get serious about approving medical marijuana and setting up a system for patients to get the help they need.
And that’s exactly what Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg and Northwest Florida’s own Matt Gaetz, seem to be doing. It was Gaetz’s bill that was passed last year and in an editorial board meeting earlier this year he expressed frustration about the lack of implementation.
This week, Brandes filed a bill that, according to the Associated Press, “includes a detailed regulatory structure that would place requirements on patients, doctors, growers and retail stores.”
“Many groups have been working on this initiative for quite some time, and my goal is to work openly with all of the interested parties on this issue so that we can pass responsible legislation that provides relief to those Floridians in need,” Brandes said in a prepared statement.
This appears to be exactly the type of bill we have been calling for and should be approved as fast as is responsible. If it doesn’t happen, Florida’s voters — many of whom voted “no” last time because they believed the legislature had addressed the issue —will rightly feel that they were duped.
Also, it’s vital to separate the medical marijuana issue from legalization.
Floridians may well, someday, choose to legalize marijuana. That is a debate worth having. However, the discussion should be honest and shouldn’t require marijuana users, doctors and others to lie in order to obtain the drug.
A system built on corruption is doomed to fail.
And, no matter the outcome of the legalization debate the first step is to nip the medical marijuana issue in the bud.