Brandon Krampert
Special to In Motion
In recent years, the question of the decriminalization of marijuana has increasingly become a state issue. In fact, 20 states have legalized it in varying degrees, from medicinal use with tightly regulated policies to more lenient policies for recreational use.
To mention the most recent reform, both the states of Washington and Colorado passed a voter referendum in the 2012 elections to implement recreational use into their state constitutions. What is now being proposed in Florida, this coming November, is putting such a referendum on the ballot, for medicinal purposes anyways.
This year has seen a successful petition campaign by an advocacy group known as United for Care, started by stay-at-home mom and member of the Orange County Republican Executive Committee, Kim Russell. It’s no secret that John Morgan, a Democratic party backer from the Orange County based Morgan & Morgan personal injury law firm, contributed a large sum of money to the campaign. By some reports Morgan donated some $4 million to allow the organization to hire individuals well educated on the subject to obtain signatures and to advertise the campaign.
As of Jan. 15, United for Care announced that they can ensured over 1.1 million signatures, more than enough to get the amendment onto the ballot for November and well ahead of the Feb. 1 deadline.
Although in its infancy, the measure was challenged by State Attorney General Pam Bondi in the Florida Supreme Court , over the semantics and language of the amendment. She claimed it would offer too much leniency and questions who could be prescribed medical marijuana. But in late January, the court 4-3 that the initiative meets all the requirements to allow it onto the ballot this coming November.
Throughout the years, state officials have failed time and time again to pass marijuana reform bills in the state legislature. What would make a voter referendum any different?
At least this time around, legislative patterns and public opinion have changed. In a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University last fall, 82 percent of registered Florida voters support the use of marijuana for medicinal use. The survey also found that it’s not very divisive among political party lines; 70 percent of Republicans support it, along with 87 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of independents.
Even among supporters of the highly-publicized critic of the proposed amendment, Bondi, there are inconsistencies. The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting obtained emails from the public that were received by the office of Florida’s Attorney General in the last four months of 2013. Out of 98 e-mails, a majority of them were asking the office to back away from opposition to the proposed amendment.
Any level of marijuana law reform in Florida would alleviate crime rates, along with costs within jails and among law enforcement and court systems. It would prevent people from falling victim to strict mandatory minimums for non-violent crimes and it would ease crowding in the prison system.
In an American Civil Liberties Union report published June of 2013 and in the latest data provided by the FBI, it was found that “The total national expenditure of enforcing marijuana possession laws is approximately $3.6 billion in 2010,” the latest figures are available.
Not least, the data shows states spent an estimated $1.7 billion policing marijuana possession arrests, $1.4 billion adjudicating marijuana possession and $496 million incarcerating individuals for marijuana possessions.
Florida itself spent more than an estimated $20 million of state taxpayer money in 2010 housing individuals in local jail and county correctional facilities for possession of marijuana. Florida made 57,262 arrests alone for marijuana possessions that same year.
Financial donors to the drive to legalize it medicinally, as well as John Morgan, have publicly chimed in on the subject, claiming it’s an exponentially safer and effective alternative to pharmaceutical painkillers and not addictive as well.
It’s certainly true that the common painkiller Oxycontin kills about 16,000 people a year and creates addicts out of many more.
Morgan said, “One thing I think most of us accept as truth is medical marijuana works and it works for a broad variety of illnesses and ailments. It’s helpful with ALS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, epilepsy, all sorts of chronic pain.”
For the ballot initiative to be put into effect, it’s required to pass with at least 60 percent. If passed, Florida would be the first Southern state to approve such reform. It’s also one of the most populous states in the country and could very well influence other states to implement less restrictive laws pertaining to the drug.
It would be a genuine breakthrough.