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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFlorida Marijuana Petition Meets Criteria For November Ballot
By Bill Cotterell
January 24, 2014 5:41 PM
[font size=1]A sticker to support proposition 19, a measure to legalize
marijuana in the state of California, is seen on a power pole in
San Francisco, California in this October 28, 2010 file photo.
REUTERS/Mike Blake/Files [/font]
TALLAHASSEE - A petition drive to allow medical use of marijuana by patients with a debilitating disease cleared a major hurdle on Friday, surpassing the number of signatures needed for a spot on Florida's election ballot.
The issue is still pending before the state Supreme Court, which has until April 1 to determine whether the ballot language meets state standards.
If the petition is approved by 60 percent of voters in November, Florida would become the first southern U.S. state, joining 20 other states in approving marijuana for medical use.
A Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey late last year showed 82 percent public support for the amendment, if it gets on the ballot. A constitutional amendment in Florida requires 60 percent voter approval for adoption.
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CFLDem
(2,083 posts)Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)The Democratic Party in Colorado did so, and it arguably helped Obama get reelected.
Lochloosa
(16,066 posts)Our asshole Attorney General, Pam Bondi, is trying to stop it from getting on the ballot.
KaryninMiami
(3,073 posts)Unless Scott configure out a way to personally profits rom medical marijuana, it will probably have to wait till the Crist administration comes in. I could be wrong of course and am hoping there are smart attorneys working to get it on this year. Sure would be amazing!
JCMach1
(27,559 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)They can't stop it. They might slow it a little at first. But once the truth gets out to the masses -- and people start leaving the old backwards states (as they're now doing) -- these black holes of death and misery -- the states who're holding onto the old paradigm of reality because it's how these political cronies have maintained control of their power bases all these years -- when these people start getting well -- hell, start being cured (as they are now) of deadly diseases that their doctors back home had given up on them and consigned them to hospice centers (as they have done) -- it's all over!!!
And then there's all that tax money being left on the table too. Going out west for gawd sakes!!!! And the consequent losses in medical services and prescription drugs tax income will require a new source of revenue be found.
And another advantage of legalization is they'll lose another revenue drain: Private prisons. So instead of spending $40K per prisoner per year, they'll won't have that drag on the tax revenues anymore if you're no longer locking people up. Less prisons, less police. All upside.
So obviously there's a lot of industries that are going to be real pissed-off. They'll do everything they can to stop it dead in it's tracks. But Colorado and all the others that have eased the yoke of oppression from our necks are like cracks in Hoover Dam. So there ain't a damned thing they can do about it. The dam's gonna blow.
- It's sad, really -- These boneheads know it's over, but they can't stop themselves. This is what greed and power does to a person.......
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Shampoobra
(423 posts)...imagine the profitable black markets that will grow even larger in the states that refuse to re-legalize it.
If just a couple of states continue to cling to cannabis prohibition after it's legal on the federal level and in most other states, those holdouts will be a mecca for the underground pot trade. The product will become more easily available than ever before, but at twice the cost of crossing the border and buying it at a state-regulated cannabis store.
Also, any brave entrepreneurs who live near these states' borders will have the opportunity to make a lot of extra cash doing deliveries.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)Logical
(22,457 posts)hurt the long term goal. My worry is that will hurt the legal image.
Shampoobra
(423 posts)My point is, the holdout states that refuse to legalize it will become the states with the worst illicit drug problems. As less and less states prohibit cannabis, the overall black market for it will become more and more concentrated in those states.
Logical
(22,457 posts)That is happening in Colorado already.