Defeat Florida's Amendment Two

I was privileged to attend the DON'T LET FLORIDA GO TO POT Drug Summit Tuesday, presented by The Coalition Partnership of Hardee, Highlands and Polk Counties. Excellent speakers included: Dr. Bertha Madras, Professor of Psychobiology at the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Polk's own Sheriff Grady Judd, and Sergeant Dale Quigley from Colorado which passed the similar Amendment that Florida is considering. Here are a few points from the conference.

The FDA is being circumvented by the ballot box and politics. Since when have we voted on what can easily become an addiction?  Real medicine is not determined by popular vote, says Grady Judd. 

States who have tried medical marijuana have interesting consequences--doctors flying in to prescribe in Montana for their own profit, for example. 

Florida's Amendment Two doesn't specify what diseases will be treated and the amendment doesn't provide a prescription. Caregivers are really dope dealers. 

These associations do not support legalizing marijuana: Florida Medical Assoc., American Medical Assoc., American Cancer Society, American Glaucoma Society, Epilepsy Foundation to name a few. 

What has been heralded as compassionate use is not.

But isn’t allowing marijuana for the treatment of health problems a compassionate thing to do?

• Not really. "Medicalizing" this harmful substance has caused truly ill people to refuse proper medical care, thinking that because marijuana makes them feel better they are getting better. Medical practitioners and others who are truly concerned for the sick have higher standards and greater compassion – we want the ill to receive the medicine they need.
• The medical excuse marijuana movement has become a device used by special interest groups to exploit the sick and dying and well-meaning voters for their own purposes.
• Rev. Scott Imler, Co-Founder of Prop 215 (California's medical marijuana law) said, "We created Prop 215 so that patients would not have to deal with black market profiteers. But today it is all about the money. Most of the dispensaries operating in California are little more than dope dealers with store fronts."

 from http://dfaf.org/qa/marijuana

Colorado is where recreational use and shipping to other states has happened. Note warnings in the interesting report "The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado" at www.RMHIDTA.ORG.