A Majority Of Florida Voters Support Legalizing Recreational Marijuana

dddaver said:

Man, I'd call that ducking the issue. So I guess they are leaving it up to the doctors. Then they can all cover their asses if anything goes wrong. Ah...political bullshit. But what would you expect?

"Doc, you better make that rec for a pound so I can make some RSO. On second thought, you better make that 10 pounds just to be safe."

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So it all gets thrown in the hands of "the department" to set rules & limits with docs operating within that.

So, uhh, who's running Florida? Rick Scott! Expect to be bent over, one way or another, probably several ways, but the department can change that if a new gov changes the department.

At this point, it's a holding action against outright legalization but a move in the right direction nonetheless. 2 years down the road, the voters will get the chance to go all the way & they'll have some experience & structure to build upon.

Jhhnn said:

...At this point, it's a holding action against outright legalization but a move in the right direction nonetheless. 2 years down the road, the voters will get the chance to go all the way & they'll have some experience & structure to build upon.

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i agree and recent polling showed 88% in favor of mmj and in the same poll 55% in favor of cannabis being regulated like tobacco/alcohol so its possible to get 60% of voters to approve rec cannabis in a few years.


peace

armedoldhippy said:

here now! hillbillies are as, if not more, ingenious at "McGuyvering" something to smoke out of in an emergency than your average bear...

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THIS!!!!

Jhhnn said:

Please. Scott won the governorship by a 1.15% margin- 48.87% to 47.72%. Repubs hold the Florida legislature by dint of very narrow margins & huge gerrymandering.

Wrt the ACA, Dems held the US Senate by a 60-40 and then a 59-41 margin, the HOR by 257 seats to 178 seats for Repubs. Obama won by 53% to 46% over McCain.

Those were substantial margins, the numbers are easily verifiable.

False equivalency serves you not at all.

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Sure. The entire country was behind Obamacare, which is why the House, the most representative branch of government, flipped from Democrat to Republican. And the House remains Republican to this day and is probably going to stay Republican after the next election.

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics, but that does not change the fact that the Democrats rammed Obamacare down the country's throat.

People were sick of Bush and many of bought into the Obama's rhetoric promising to bring the country together, heal the wounds, an act in a bipartisan way. The country wanted and expected Obama to concentrate on getting the economy going ASAP, but the general feeling was that it was more important to get health care reforms right than to get them done quickly.

Instead, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Obama rammed Obamacare down the county's throat and Pelosi lost her job as a result. Try to rationalize that away if you can.

I enjoy reading your posts because they are generally well informed and you obviously are well educated and knowledgeable about markets and economics, but you have a big blind spot when it comes to politics. Democracy sucks, but it is the best form of government devised by the mind of man.

RetroGrow said:

Please go here, and leave your opinion in the comments section. In particular, Senator Marco Rubio (R), and Senator Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), have views which are neanderthal in nature. They should be chastised and rebuked for their ignorance

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Debbie Blabbermouth Schultz (D) is a member of the House of Representatives. She is not yet a Senator, but it is probably only a matter of time before she joins such illustrative Senators as Patty Murray, Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein, and Barbara Ann Mikulski with whom she will fit in nicely.

Jellyfish said:

By my definition, if you smoke pot, you're not a hillbilly. Perhaps I should have said cave dwellers.

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In the 1970's I worked on riverboats from Pittsburgh to Port Arthur, TX and a large percentage of my fellow deck hands were hard core dyed in the wool hillbillies and many of them loved to smoke pot.

There are lots of people of all political persuasions and social classes who are ignorant and prejudiced about the use and effects of cannabis, which is not surprising given how much bullshit and propaganda the government has spewed on the topic over the years.

How else in a rational universe could alcohol be legal and cannabis illegal?

Morcheeba* said:

^^^^ad religious nut bags to the cave dwellers.

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Why not just leave it at nut bags? Plenty of fine religious people in this world.

We want something, the freedom to enjoy our herb without fear and persecution. That means we need the help of plenty of people who do not enjoy partaking of the herb. We need all the friends we can get in a democratic country.

Calling people names is generally not a good way to get them to see your point of view. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Sforza said:

Debbie Blabbermouth Schultz (D)...

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i thought you response to my post had more credibility regarding refraining from calling anyone names if you held yourself to the same standard.

peace

Sforza said:

In the 1970's I worked on riverboats from Pittsburgh to Port Arthur, TX and a large percentage of my fellow deck hands were hard core dyed in the wool hillbillies and many of them loved to smoke pot.

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Interesting that you'd bring up something like that. Way back when, sometime in the mid 70's, my first wife & I were fishing the North Platte river in Wyoming when 3 young cowboys rode up. They all looked like Buffalo Bill. We chatted a bit & one lit a joint, apologized for the low quality. Then I lit one, red colombian. They liked it. We met later in town at the bar, met their friends, drank & toked our way into complete inebriation.

I knew right then that the drug war was lost. Unfortunately, it's lasted a lot longer than I'd expected.

Sforza said:

I enjoy reading your posts because they are generally well informed and you obviously are well educated and knowledgeable about markets and economics, but you have a big blind spot when it comes to politics. Democracy sucks, but it is the best form of government devised by the mind of man.

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I don't think it is a blind spot. Jhhnn may be a bit overly optimistic but he does know his politics. You may be just a bit too pessimistic.

oldchuck said:

I don't think it is a blind spot. Jhhnn may be a bit overly optimistic but he does know his politics. You may be just a bit too pessimistic.

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Thank you for that. Sforza & I can agree more often than not if we put our heads to it.

I object to overly cynical attitudes about politics because they promote non-participation in Democracy. It's the easy way out for too many people. It's defeatism, something authoritarians very much like & encourage.

I firmly believe that Democracy sucks the least when the most people participate. Obviously many in power seek to make it otherwise, a key ingredient to their success. They are masters of propaganda & at motivating their base, turning out the vote. They win by getting other people to tune out.

In general, the higher the turnout, the worse they fare. And by they, I mean traditionalists, authoritarians. I firmly believe that if every citizen voted in every election that the political landscape would be very different indeed & a helluva lot less "conservative".

That's why I'm an optimist about it, because they *can* be beaten. A64 proves it. And like Sforza says, we needed a lot of friends to do it.

While we always believed that national legalization was inevitable, I think it's more like imminent at this point. Well, relative to all the years of prohibition. I also say that because nobody has adopted MMJ & then reversed it, either. At this point, nobody with a lick of sense believes that current MMJ systems aren't quite "leaky", either. And yet, no great disaster has befallen us.

And no great disaster has befallen us in CO, either, nor will it. I think that the opposition in other states will try to throw up obstacles as they pull back, CBD only, MMJ but you can't get any, so forth & so on, but it can't hold. The genie is out of the bottle & there's no way to put him back.

The next phase in the fight is to get personal growing as part of any MMJ or legalization proposal. It's what keeps everybody honest, well, at least those out to make a lot of money or amass a lot of power by restricting access.

The lowlifes against legalization: Partnership at Drugfree ( make sure everyone knows this! )


The Partnership at Drugfree dot org, formerly known as the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) is a New York City-based non-profit organization which runs campaigns against marijuana legalization.
The foundation's founder, Robert Wood Johnson II, had built the family firm of Johnson & Johnson into an international health products maker, and he left the foundation a generous bequest of stock upon his death in 1968.
Supporters of the Parntnership include:
Abbot: [Pharmaceutical]
CHPA: [Pharmaceutical]
Cephalon: [Pharmaceutical]
Endo: [Pharmaceutical]
Pfizer Consumer Healthcare: [Pharmaceutical

Yes, Big Pharma is morally opposed to you smoking pot. Unless you buy it from them.

And rick scott and his ilk are Eichmann wannabe's.

88% support medical. But people like governor rick scott have said he will VETO what the people want and his friends like this scumbag Sheldon adelson are putting up millions to see to it that continues to happen in the "sunshine" state. My best friend of over 30 years, family man with 2 kids, professional insurance man who represented Prudential is dying right this very minute in extreme pain in a hospital room in coral springs ( suburb of ft Lauderdale ) and now in his final moments of life he does not even have access to ANY cannabis and it's people like "governor" du jour rick scott who would lock people like my friend and so many others up in cages for merely trying to eeek out a few more days of life.

Fking bastards.

I am considering going to the newspapers and television stations about his situation. There isn't much time left, they are transferring him to hospice where he gets all the morphine he wants but he TOLD ME that the ONLY thing that has helped him eat, helped him sleep has been the cannabis and without it he would have already been dead. I am willing stand in front of the governors office personally and sign affidavits to that fact. Anyone in the media or who knows anyone in broadcasting send me a verifiable contact number and I'll tell you the whole story of how my friend, who is a good man is dying a bad death and how people like the governor of the state of Fla COULD with a simple signature change everything and help him and so many others like him.

Will you do it governor scott?

We must win. We must. Don't give up, don't give in. Fight. Get the word out. Make donations. Speak with as many people on the subject as you can. In getting my haircut at a hair salon where the average person is female and 50's on the low end and 80's on the high end, I had an audience today for over an hour speaking of the many benefits. This hair salon has been responsible for dozens of signatures for the ballot. Who knows how many others these wonderful older folks have spoken to who will help Fla win in less than 80 days now.

WIN!

I totally expect a full blown anti-mmj media blitz right before the election, funded largely by big pharma. This media blitz I expect to be full of blatant lies and innuendo targeted at the border-line uninformed voter...Who would believe there are any of those types here in progressive Florida? ;-P

One of those lies that they will try to get people to believe is that the governor can veto and overturn popular vote making any vote for mmj moot. That is simply not true. Any mandate voted on cannot be vetoed. But they would have you believe it can, and will argue it. They have millions at stake.

Along with that blatant lie will also be the drug war rhetoric with focus on hurting our young people, also allowing organized crime in. thereby ruining our future. Both lies.

But, I have made up my own mind of course, no matter what they say. Yet I worry about those border-line voters who will be most likely to drink this sweet kool-aide offered to them. This will be a brutal dog-fight. "When you get hit with a bucket of shit, be sure to close your eyes".

I'm really sorry about your friend. It's such a shame he is considered just a statistic and actually denied what can really help him.

Jhhnn said:

Thank you for that. Sforza & I can agree more often than not if we put our heads to it.

I object to overly cynical attitudes about politics because they promote non-participation in Democracy. It's the easy way out for too many people. It's defeatism, something authoritarians very much like & encourage.

I firmly believe that Democracy sucks the least when the most people participate. Obviously many in power seek to make it otherwise, a key ingredient to their success. They are masters of propaganda & at motivating their base, turning out the vote. They win by getting other people to tune out.

In general, the higher the turnout, the worse they fare. And by they, I mean traditionalists, authoritarians. I firmly believe that if every citizen voted in every election that the political landscape would be very different indeed & a helluva lot less "conservative".

That's why I'm an optimist about it, because they *can* be beaten. A64 proves it. And like Sforza says, we needed a lot of friends to do it.

While we always believed that national legalization was inevitable, I think it's more like imminent at this point. Well, relative to all the years of prohibition. I also say that because nobody has adopted MMJ & then reversed it, either. At this point, nobody with a lick of sense believes that current MMJ systems aren't quite "leaky", either. And yet, no great disaster has befallen us.

And no great disaster has befallen us in CO, either, nor will it. I think that the opposition in other states will try to throw up obstacles as they pull back, CBD only, MMJ but you can't get any, so forth & so on, but it can't hold. The genie is out of the bottle & there's no way to put him back.

The next phase in the fight is to get personal growing as part of any MMJ or legalization proposal. It's what keeps everybody honest, well, at least those out to make a lot of money or amass a lot of power by restricting access.

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Well said.
I have been thinking about how to get the people to come out to vote. I feel like the reason is is because the average American citizen does not have the info readily available to make informed decisions. We need to have a "central station" where we can go and receive the info we need a political figure. Kinda of like a baseball card. Or a website or app. Craigslist type format with info on every political figure and there views, what they voted for, who they support, what they support, what they didn't vote for, video clips, public documents, ect ect.

Been thinking a long time......

I would move back within 24 hrs lol

Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Author: Ray Strack
Note: Ray Strack spent 27 years as a U.S. Customs special agent, including
five years in charge of all Customs Service interdictions of marijuana
and narcotics in waters off the Florida coast near Broward County. He
is principal Florida spokesperson for Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition (LEAP), a national organization of 150,000 police, judges
and other law-enforcement professionals and civilian supporters of
drug policy reform (http://www.leap.cc).

NOT ALL OFFICERS OPPOSE MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The Florida Sheriffs Association is putting its credibility at risk in a misguided campaign to stop patients from getting safe, legal medicinal marijuana when their doctors recommend it. On behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( LEAP ), an organization of law-enforcement officials who once enforced these laws - and as a former Customs special agent - I want you yo know that many of us in law enforcement support providing compassionate care for people suffering with disease.

With less than three months left before Election Day, the Sheriffs Association is reduced to using "scare tactics" and "fear mongering," according to the Polk County Sun, whose editors compared a meeting with Association President Sheriff Grady Judd to "1930s-era films such as 'Reefer Madness.' " The sheriffs' highly organized and apparently well-funded campaign is based on claims that the Tampa Bay Times-Miami Herald "PolitiFact" calls "half true."

The sheriffs' most frequently repeated assertion, that medical marijuana will increase criminal activity, directly contradicts years of research in states where medicinal marijuana is allowed. The research proves that there has been no increase in either teen use or crime - and that permitting the use of medical marijuana may actually result in a decrease in traffic fatalities.

As career law-enforcement officers, we believe medical marijuana actually has real potential to improve public safety. This is because it removes a portion of the underground illicit marijuana market from the control of criminals. As we have seen in 23 different states over nearly two decades, it gives sick people a much-needed form of palliative care and pain relief, while at the same time allowing those of us in law enforcement to focus on violent crime. That's one reason, perhaps, that violent crime is down in those states that already allow medical marijuana.

Both as citizens and as law-enforcement officers, we believe it is a waste of tax dollars and police resources to arrest a suffering patient for possessing medicinal marijuana that his or her doctor believes is necessary.

No one who has a serious medical condition should be forced to become a criminal in order to relieve suffering. If your doctor believes medical marijuana is appropriate for your treatment, you should be able to purchase it just like any other medicine, in a legal marketplace where you can be assured of its safety - and your own. Patients should not have to risk consuming an illegal product that may be tainted with mold or other toxins, nor should their dollars be used to enable and enrich criminal gangs and drug cartels.

For some law-enforcement administrators, opposition to medical marijuana has more to do with protecting their current budgetary allotments than with providing the highest level of public safety. Untold millions are at stake in the operational budgets and staffing levels of sheriffs' offices and in the civil asset forfeiture enforcement operations that they conduct. Civil asset forfeiture laws allow the sheriffs and other police departments to confiscate and keep people's property, even without charging any person with a crime - and, yes, even the property of sick people whose doctors would recommend marijuana is subject to seizure.

Florida deserves to know that this group of public administrators has a parochial position in opposition to the will of the public and does not speak for all of us in law enforcement.

We respectfully disagree with the sheriffs on Amendment 2. Like them, we are cops - but we are not physicians, and we don't feel qualified to stand between you and your doctor. For us, it is as simple as that.

Ray Strack spent 27 years as a U.S. Customs special agent, including five years in charge of all Customs Service interdictions of marijuana and narcotics in waters off the Florida coast near Broward County. He is principal Florida spokesperson for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( LEAP ), a national organization of 150,000 police, judges and other law-enforcement professionals and civilian supporters of drug policy reform ( http://www.leap.cc ).

We'll see a lot of rear guard engagements from prohibitionists, no doubt, particularly since they know they're losing the war. Their credibility with the public has been waning for decades, and we've now come to a tipping point.

That only intensifies with more MMJ states, so they'll try to hold the line where they can, screw up MMJ if they can't. Their biggest problem will be the fact that we got completely around them here in CO & there's not a damned thing they can do about it. Smooth sailing so far, and I doubt that'll change.

By 2016, nobody will even listen to 'em.

the funny thing is in polk county there is a facility currently being built out at an airport that intends to apply to cultivate cannabis if Amendment 2 passes and their goal is to be the largest cultivator of medical cannabis in the U.S.

I bet that doesnt sit well with sheriff judd.


peace