Pubdate: Wed, 09 Mar 2016 Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL) Copyright: 2016 Orlando Sentinel Contact: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325 Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs. Author: Scott Maxwell MARIJUANA IS ON THE MARCH IN FLORIDA Marijuana is on the march in Florida. Volusia County made it legal to carry small amounts last week. South Florida counties did it last year. Tampa is preparing to do it next week. Even Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer is looking at the issue. Plus, a statewide campaign to legalize medical marijuana appears poised to pass this fall. Heck, this state's beginning to look like one big Grateful Dead show. Really, though, all this has little to do with Floridians being eager to get high and more to do with taxpayers - and law-enforcement officers - being sick of wasting tax dollars and judicial resources on small-time possession charges that often get dropped or reduced anyway. Citizens also no longer trust legislators who failed to deliver on their promise to get non-euphoric doses of marijuana into the hands of chronic, suffering patients. This movement crosses party lines. In Volusia, a bipartisan county council took unanimous action led by a former prosecutor with the blessing of Republican Sheriff Ben Johnson, a conservative lawman with a Southern drawl and a widespread following. Johnson wasn't pro-pot. He was just tired of wasting resources on crimes that didn't amount to much. That's really the problem. Right now, Florida has about 100,000 people in prison. That's a higher prison population than all of France has. Or the entire United Kingdom. We have a justice system that ramps up spending more than it clamps down on crime. With pot arrests, taxpayers spend money to arrest, lock up and prosecute people who aren't any higher than someone having a couple of Mai Tais. Ask local prosecutors who causes more violence - a drunk or a stoner. People who have read my column for a while know I'm no pot promoter. I don't tout the recreational use of marijuana. But I don't tout the use of alcohol or cigarettes, either. Yet we allow those things, because we live in a society that generally permits people to make choices - even bad ones - unless someone else is harmed. So now, even Buddy Dyer is looking at the issue, asking staff to research what other cities and counties have done. I have to admit that surprised me. I mean, I don't get the impression Buddy is ready to hop in Cheech and Chong's big green van. But it's remarkable that he's considering the issue. Over at Orange County, Mayor Teresa Jacobs is not - and probably won't unless the chamber of commerce first drafts a position paper. Interestingly, though, Florida's business groups are increasingly pushing to ease up on pot punishment as part of what they call "smart justice," an effort to curb Florida's costly and ineffective revolving jail doors. Most Florida counties voting to ease up on small-time pot possession haven't really made it legal. Instead they give officers the choice of issuing noncriminal citations and fines. In Volusia, it's $100. In Tampa - where both the mayor and police chief endorsed the change that received preliminary approval last week - fines would start at $75 for the first offense and escalate after that. Penalties can also be paid in community service. That's at the local level. At the statewide one, I expect medical marijuana will pass at the polls this fall. It almost passed in 2014. The effort fell just short of the 60 percent threshold for constitutional amendments, but had wide supported. With 58 percent approval, it had more backing than any winning governor in three decades. With increased turnout, growing acceptance and less opposition during a busy presidential cycle, 60 percent should be an easy bar to clear. In general, people want sufferers to get relief, unnecessary government spending curbed and personal freedoms protected ... which is what keeps driving this movement forward. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom