Get Active Subscribe Support Us

LEGISLATIVE SLOTH MEANS MEDICAL POT GETS DO-OVER

During the just-ended session, Florida legislators had an opportunity to add some legal and regulatory sanity to the medical marijuana movement.  But they blew it - again.

Rather than tweak last year's law so that thousands of Floridians living with debilitating illnesses could have access to limited-use low-THC cannabis oil ( CS/ SB 7066 ), for example, legislators fumbled, stumbled and then balked.

It is unlikely to come up during an expected special session in June because legislators need to deal with health care funding and passing a state budget.  "It's probably not going to happen," Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, declared.

Which brings us back to the place no one wanted to be: supporters of medical marijuana legalization making good on their threat to bring back a proposed constitutional amendment in 2016.  That ballot initiative, by the way, narrowly failed in 2014.  To be sure, passing a bill on the issue this session was a bit of long shot to begin with.  House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, showed no interest in taking up the issue again after grudgingly passing the so-called Charlotte's Web bill in 2014.  There is real fear among House members that legalizing medical pot opens the door to recreational use.  Further, there is legitimate concern among parents that smoking marijuana - particularly the "high" THC-level strains grown today - presents a danger to children.  Indeed, studies have shown that marijuana use can adversely affect brain development in young children.

There are also parents like Holley Moseley, however.  The Gulf Breeze mom pushed for the Charlotte's Web law on behalf of her daughter, RayAnne, who has epilepsy.  Moseley has been forced to watch as the law, intended to go into effect Jan.  1, instead got bogged down in lawsuits over which of some 40 nurseries gets one of five licenses to grow the pot.

Her frustration, and the plight of as many as 500,000 Floridians who would benefit from some form of medical marijuana containing higher amounts of THC, was not lost on all legislators.  Rep Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, and Sen.  Jeff Brandes, R-St.  Petersburg, filed bills ( HB 863/SB 528 ) that would, among other things, allow patients who suffer from certain diseases to get pot.  Rep.  Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, sought to add medical marijuana to a list of experimental drugs that terminally ill patients could use under the so-called "Right to Try Act" ( HB 269 ).  And CS/SB 7066, sponsored by Sen.  Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, attempted to build off of the 2014 measure by increasing the level of THC allowed - making it at least a little bit euphoric, which advocates said was needed to care for those suffering from Parkinson's disease, AIDS, HIV and multiple sclerosis.  The bills all died.  Into this legislative vacuum steps such advocacy groups as United for Care, bolstered by their narrow defeat last fall and a recent Quinnipiac University poll showing support among Florida voters at 84 percent.  Saying his "commitment is as strong as ever" to pass a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana, Orlando attorney John Morgan said, "I was hoping - like many of you - that our legislators would wake the hell up, realize that the science is there, the will of the people is there, and that a delay not only hurts patients - it's going to hurt in the next election."

That Morgan, who spent millions on the 2014 effort that fell 2 points short of the 60 percent voter approval needed for ballot initiatives, may be able to make good on this threat should have been enough motivation for the Legislature.

But as happens too often with this Legislature, ideologies and shortsightedness get in the way.

The desired outcome would have been a legislative compromise bringing relief to suffering Floridians within a proper regulatory structure; one placing requirements on patients, doctors, growers and even retail stores.

What now?