TALLAHASSEE (AP) - Florida's first legal harvest of marijuana is stored in multiple vacuum-packed, 441-gram bags in a freezer on the outskirts of Tallahassee.

Each is the result of months of careful growing, monitoring, coaxing, and finally cultivating, scores of plants in a hidden farm overseen by horticulturalists and protected by armed guards.

This is one of two production facilities run by Surterra Therapeutics, the first of six companies to win state approval to grow and harvest medical marijuana for the seriously ill and dying.

[continues 559 words]

The whole escalation of violence - cop on citizen and citizen on cop- has been escalated by the so-called"war on drugs." Back in the day, police were instructed to aggressively pursue drug "crimes."

Authorities profited from this strategy, politically and economically (seizure law). This tough love approach has not worked for 60 years, maybe more. You can't help someone who doesn't want help (drug users and abusers).

Consequently, whenever a cop draws a gun on a person holding a couple of grams of some outlawed substance, violence is possible.

Stop this insanity. Take the money and flesh wasted on this useless "war" and put it into social help and education. We'll all be better off for it-especially the police.

Kevin Campfield, Delray Beach

[end]

Orlando commissioners voted to approve a temporary moratorium on marijuana dispensaries in the city Monday, months before Florida voters will again weigh in on medical uses for the drug.

The City Council vote comes after three would-be sellers of either medicinal marijuana or the low-THC oil known as Charlotte's Web have recently expressed interest in Orlando storefronts where current zoning would allow them.

"We're not trying to keep them from doing business in the city," District 3 City Commissioner Robert Stuart said Monday. "We're looking at: What are the boundaries in which they would do that?"

[continues 381 words]

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's first legal harvest of marijuana is stored in multiple vacuum-packed, 441-gram bags in a freezer on the outskirts of Tallahassee.

Each is the result of months of careful growing, monitoring, coaxing, and finally cultivating, scores of plants in a hidden farm overseen by horticulturalists and protected by armed guards.

This is one of two production facilities operated by Surterra Therapeutics, the first of six companies to win state approval to grow and harvest medical marijuana for the seriously ill and dying.

[continues 1840 words]

The 1936 film "Reefer Madness" wound up becoming a campy cult classic because the movie, originally designed as a warning about the dangers of marijuana use, so overdramatized the issue that it's message simply couldn't be taken seriously.

Now, with a slew of new polls showing Floridians overwhelmingly support the legalization of medical marijuana, opponents of Amendment 2 - the proposed constitutional amendment to legalize medical pot - are themselves edging closer to unintentional satire.

The "Vote No on 2" campaign has launched a series of broadsides, including a recent video warning darkly that if the measure passes, up to 5,000 marijuana dispensaries could open across Florida, more pot shops than McDonald's, 7-Eleven and Starbucks combined.

[continues 479 words]

Opioid Deaths in the US Have Multiplied in Recent Years. Chris Mcgreal Visits Fort Lauderdale to Explore the Origins of the Epidemic

For James Fata, the transition from prescription painkillers to heroin was seamless. The 24-year-old came to Florida to shake an addiction to opioid pills, but trying to go through rehab in a region known as the prescription capital of the US proved too much. When a government crackdown curtailed his supply of pills, Fata turned to readily available heroin to fill the void.

[continues 1528 words]

A 29-Year-Old Man Was Killed In A Raid That Was Later Deemed Justified. Police Found $2 Worth of pot.

TAMPA - The mother of a man who was shot and killed by Tampa police officers during a raid on his home in 2014 has sued the city, its former police chief and the officers involved over her son's death.

The lawsuit, filed late last week in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, accuses the police of negligence for acting on the word of an informer with a history of heavy drug use and criminal activity. It also says that officers used excessive force against 29-year-old Jason Westcott, who was killed, and his boyfriend Israel 'Izzy' Reyes, who was 22 and is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

[continues 603 words]

Proponents Cite Benefits to Many Ill Floridians, Thousands of Added Jobs, Millions in Tax Revenue.

Entrepreneurs in the budding cannabis industry are salivating at the prospect that Florida might legalize medical marijuana.

Pot proponents say hundreds of thousands of Floridians with cancer and other ailments would benefit from medical marijuana - and they see the potential for a billion-dollar industry that could create thousands of jobs and generate millions in tax revenue.

"I look at this as one of the big job savers, job creators, tax getters," said Orlando attorney John Morgan, who's bankrolling a November ballot initiative to legalize pot for medical use. "Technology is taking jobs away every day. This business here is going to replace jobs and income like never before."

[continues 795 words]

TALLAHASSEE - The medical marijuana amendment is back, and the fight over the issue is poised to return to the airwaves and screens of all sizes throughout Florida.

Drug Free Florida, the group that successfully fended off a similar amendment in 2014, released its first video this week attacking the new measure that will go before voters on the November ballot. The three-minute video is running online only, but it signals the start of a campaign likely to inundate the state with ads.

[continues 543 words]

Not all pain medication users are addicts. That sentence had to bemy first because it is a truth that is not well represented. The media have chosen to tell you ever more frightening tales about prescription pill abuse without letting you know about us-the responsible users. Opioids, narcotics, barbiturates, muscle relaxers, corticosteroids or tricyclics are a part of our daily medication regimen, but we aren't looking to get high.

I certainly don't deny there is a major problem with prescription drug abuse.

[continues 456 words]

Because the legalization of medical marijuana will be on the ballot again this year, Florida legislators may want to remember that states are losing billions by not legalizing pot.

According to a new study, federal and state governments are missing out on $28 billion by not legalizing recreational marijuana.

The study was released on May 12 by the Tax Foundation, an independent think tank. Experts said most of that revenue would come from a tax on marijuana.

The study criticized moral objections to marijuana legalization-such as concerns over addiction-by suggesting that people abuse marijuana regardless of its legal status. And according to a national survey on drug use and health, roughly 12 percent of marijuana users were considered "abusers" of the drug.

Michael Rose, Lighthouse Point

[end]

TALLAHASSEE - A group fighting a proposed amendment to allow medical marijuana in Florida released its first web video Monday, attacking the measure as a fig leaf for full-blown legalization of the drug.

The video from Drug Free Florida's Vote No on 2 campaign is posted on its website and isn't running as an ad on television or online. But it signals the first salvo from those opposed to Amendment 2.

The three-minute video features online searches of California marijuana shops, noting their marketing of marijuana-infused baked goods and other items aren't likely to be for genuine medical ailments.

[continues 223 words]

Palm Beach County's cost for jailing people caught with small amounts of marijuana may be much less than initially estimated, according to revised figures released Monday.

Just last week, the county estimated that it cost taxpayers $1.1 million from 2009 to 2015 to jail people whose most serious offense was having a small amount of marijuana.

But at the urging of the Sheriff's Office, the county's Criminal Justice Commission on Monday revised its estimate to show that when marijuana is the only charge involved - excluding trespassing and other minor offenses that may coincide with a marijuana charge - the cost drops to about $322,245 from 2009 to 2015.

[continues 416 words]

No matter how defensively you drive in Florida, not having an accident is usually by luck, not skill. Almost every day we read about fatal DUI accidents. Usually the driver at fault, already has had 4-5 DUI convictions and is driving with a suspended license.

In Florida, we will be voting whether to legalize pot. In some states that have legalized marijuana, fatal car crashes have doubled.

I for one will vote against the legalization of marijuana. If you disagree, tighten your seat belt and hope you survive the carnage caused by impaired drivers who may be under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana.

Carl Solomon, Delray Beach

[end]

It's the latest turn in a clash between the sheriff and county commissioners over whether deputies should give citations to those caught with a small amount of marijuana.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has said he has no plans to use a commission approved ordinance that lets deputies issue a civil citation, instead of a criminal charge, for possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana. A citation would be similar to a traffic ticket.

Now, a newly completed analysis by county staff estimates the expense that comes from jailing small-time offenders instead of ticketing them.

[continues 444 words]

Drugs, Booze, Food, Gambling All Lead to Changes in Brains.

He was 40 years old, a father of three and an Orlando house painter, clean and sober for eight years. One night last summer, he climbed into his truck, stuck a needle in his arm and injected himself with what would be his final dose of heroin.

"The paramedics worked on him for a long time. And when they declared him dead, he was still clutching his last bag of the drug in his fist," says Pastor Spence Pfleiderer. "That's the power of addiction."

[continues 1178 words]

BENEFACTOR OPTIMISTIC ON AMEND. 2

For the second time in two years, Florida voters will be presented with a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. United for Care, which backed Amendment 2 in 2014, is also backing the 2016 measure, also known as Amendment 2. Campaign chairman John Morgan has invested millions of dollars in both efforts. We discussed the issue with Morgan, campaign manager Ben Pollara and Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre. An excerpt of Morgan's responses follows. A video of the full interview is at OrlandoSentinel.com/opinion.

[continues 556 words]

TALLAHASSEE - About six months before Election Day, Florida voters overwhelmingly support a broad legalization of medical marijuana but are less clear about a critical U.S. Senate race, a new poll shows.

The poll, released on Wednesday by Quinnipiac University, said that 80 percent of voters support a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow medical marijuana for patients with a wide range of conditions, such as cancer, AIDS, Crohn's disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.

Support for the proposal cuts across political and demographic lines. For example, it is supported by 71 percent of Republicans and 87 percent of Democrats. It is supported by 80 percent of men and 81 percent of women.

[continues 406 words]

Florida voters overwhelmingly support legalization of medical marijuana, pollsters said Wednesday, and most also favor legalization of recreational pot use.

The Quinnipiac University poll found 80 percent of Florida voters said they would vote for a proposed constitutional amendment in November allowing for medical use of marijuana. Just 16 percent said they'd vote no.

Support is greater than 70 percent among every category pollsters analyzed, regardless of political party, gender, education, age and ethnicity. The question was specific, asking people if they favored medical use of marijuana "for individuals with debilitating medical conditions as determined by a licensed Florida physician."

[continues 168 words]

Attorney John Morgan Confident in Voter Turnout.

John Morgan, the deep-pocketed attorney bankrolling the effort to legalize medical marijuana in Florida, predicts November's election will produce the victory that eluded him two years ago.

Morgan spent more than $4 million on Amendment 2, the measure that won support from 57.6 percent of voters in November 2014. It needed 60 percent to pass.

"I didn't really realize how hard 60 percent was going to be," Morgan said Tuesday during a speech at the Marijuana Business Conference in Kissimmee. "It is hard - it's a landslide."

[continues 295 words]