Pubdate: Wed, 29 Jan 2014
Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
Copyright: 2014 The Palm Beach Post
Contact:  http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333

MEDICAL POT VOTE A CHANCE FOR COMPASSION

Attitudes About Marijuana Are Changing.

It's official: Florida voters will get a chance in November to 
legalize medical marijuana, a step that would be a compassionate 
accommodation for many with painful diseases and a move toward more 
sensible policy regarding the drug's broader use.

But supporters of this important initiative should count themselves 
lucky. The proposed constitutional amendment was poorly worded - some 
would say deceptively worded - and narrowly escaped being struck from 
the November ballot by a sharply divided Florida Supreme Court. On 
Monday, justices approved the ballot language 4-3.

In doing so, they gave Florida the chance to join 20 states that 
already have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, which can 
include alleviating pain from chemotherapy, treating epileptic 
seizures in children, and muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis. Last 
week, state officials announced that the proposal's supporters had 
attained the 683,149 verified signatures needed to get the referendum 
on the ballot. That left only the Supreme Court's approval of the 
ballot language.

Across the country, attitudes about marijuana are changing rapidly, 
and Florida is no exception. Polls indicate a comfortable majority of 
Floridians now favor legalizing its use for medical purposes. 
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but the Obama 
administration has indicated that for now it will not enforce the law 
in states that legalized its use (Colorado and Washington have 
permitted it as a recreational drug), so long as it is not sold to 
children or used as a front for trafficking to other states. 
President Barack Obama recently went a step further, saying this 
month in an interview that he believes marijuana is no more dangerous 
than alcohol.

All of this creates an attractive political environment in which to 
push for extending access to medical marijuana to Floridians. But it 
almost didn't happen.

The language that will appear on the November ballot is confusing. 
The amendment summary, put together by a group called United for 
Care, tells voters they will be voting to allow medical use of 
marijuana to treat "debilitating diseases," while the actual text 
amendment permits it for a "debilitating medical condition," a 
broader term. And the amendment defines medical conditions to include 
"other conditions" for which the benefits "would likely outweigh the 
potential health risks." That has the potential to be a broad loophole.

Three justices on the state's high court agreed with critics that 
this discrepancy between the seemingly narrow impact suggested by the 
ballot summary and the broader impact implicit in the actual 
amendment was too misleading. In his dissent, Chief Justice Ricky 
Polston wrote that "despite what the title and summary convey to 
voters, minor aches and pains, stress, insomnia, or fear of an 
upcoming flight could qualify for the medical use of marijuana."

But the slender majority disagreed, concluding that there was no 
significant difference between the use of the different terms 
"disease" and "medical condition," and that what seems like a broad 
loophole should actually be read as limited to serious illnesses like 
those named specifically in the amendment.

There is certainly a risk that access to medical marijuana will be 
abused. If the amendment is approved, it may be left to the courts to 
decide how extensive the right will be. But opening the door to a new 
treatment option for people in pain is the humane and sensible thing to do.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom