Group wonders how new marijuana stance might affect Florida

[nashville_brook]

Will new pot stance lead to liberalization of Florida laws?

http://www.pufmm.org/

Advocates for medical marijuana are hoping that the federal government's decision to no longer prosecute medicinal users in states that allow such use will help bring the issue to a vote in Florida.

People United For Medical Marijuana-Florida must collect nearly 700,000 signatures by Feb. 1 to trigger a state referendum next year on whether to allow medical marijuana in Florida. So far, however, the group has collected 28,213 signatures.

Kim Russell, founder of the group, said that the announcement Monday by the federal government that it will not prosecute medicinal users legitimizes efforts to get a medical marijuana law on the ballot here.

"It certainly helps our cause," Russell said. "We're going to get it on the ballot here. Once we get 100,000 signatures, national groups have said they will help fund our effort. If we don't get it on the ballot in 2010, we definitely will in 2012."

Meanwhile, Gov. Charlie Crist took a far different view of the federal government's policy change, noting that it will only affect states that have approved marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"I think it's good that we're not one of those states," Crist said. "I don't think that is an appropriate thing."

But Anthony Veigel, 40, who heads the pro-marijuana group's Venice chapter, said he hopes that the decision will help ease the fear some residents have about signing the petition.

Veigel said he has collected about 200 signatures in Venice the past three months, but 300 others declined to sign.

"The sad part is that many of those were users," Veigel said.

[Braulio]

1. It's time to legalize pot anyway

Hopefully they'll legalize it all over the place. It's about time.

[nashville_brook]

2. i'm betting Florida will be last on the list, and ironically it's a state that could use it more

than many others, what with the large retired population who'd benefit from the analgesic properties (as well as the mellowing-out traits).

[movonne]

5. I predict that the next generation will use pot instead of alcohol for recreation

use.

[nashville_brook]

7. funny -- the generation prior to mine did that -- :)

[Divine Discontent]

3. medically approved marijuana should be everywhere!

just like adoption by Gays, and yet, it's not.

[tkmorris]

4. And yet, Florida is the OxyContin capital of the world

We have clinics here in South Florida that do nothing but supply addicts with prescriptions for drugs for "pain" they don't have. Crist is a hypocrite.

[nashville_brook]

6. as a chronic pain person, i see how our attitudes about pain meds are screwing up the

the practice of medicine as a whole. it's my firm belief that pain patients shouldn't be ghetto-ized into these skeevy pain clinics. it's way preferable to get treatment within the setting of your family doc -- that way the whole patient can be treated. in my experience the pain clinics just dispense medication, and push their injection therapies. but, the problem is that law enforcement has made it so that most docs won't treat pain at all. it's a miserable "system."

[dysfunctional press]

12. i went to a 'pain clinic' once, and never will again...

i take methadone for chronic pain- i've been on it for over 10 years- before that i was on oxycontin for two years, but my dr. switched me to methadone when i lost my prescription coverage.

when i needed a new dr., i decided to try a pain clinic, and the whole atmosphere disgusted me- the office was unkempt, and EVERYONE was treated basically like a junkie, in regard to the strict sets of rules they had in regard to prescriptions. i decided to find another internal med guy who could prescribe my meds. and it's always a drag, while looking for a new dr.- when the first question you have to ask is whether or not he prescribes narcotics. :shrug:

i wouldn't be able to function without my opiates- they don't get me high, they just keep me from curling into a ball in pain.

[nashville_brook]

13. yep, when you're in pain, you don't get high at all. the unkemptness is my experience too.

i've been really lucky in the last few years -- since leaving TN -- in finding a good doc and identifying a pain management system that works reliably. turns out i do fine on tramadol/ultram, whereas the pain clinic had me on morphine and were doing regular spinal injections which freaked me out.

i went for more than a year without any treatment at all, and became damn near disabled -- i got into a nasty feedback loop of pain. to say it was miserable would be a vast understatement. i couldn't move. couldn't think. had no energy. it was hell.

and you're so right on about the way you're treated like a criminal in the pain clinic setting. it's dehumanizing -- you "learn" that your pain is something to be ashamed of.

[RagAss]

8. I'd be shocked if they could get 700,000 people in Florida to sign anything but a hate based

initiative.

[ddeclue]

9. Not likely given the composition of the state house, state senate and governor's mansion.

All are overwhelmingly Republican.

[nashville_brook]

10. by the time it takes to get 700K sigs, who know, we might have dems in all 3.

[ddeclue]

14. Easier to collect the sigs than change the legislature..

Fair Elections and Hometown Democracy have done it.

[nashville_brook]

15. how's Hometown Democracy doing, anyway. I get all kinds of intell from the developer community

that I'd love to share. They're scared. Convinced it's happening. I couldn't be happier about their level of depression on the subject -- but then again, they're mostly all suicidal right now anyway.

[Romulox]

11. Holder's new stance makes little sense; let the states enforce their own laws

Whether or not an act violates a state law is a strange basis for the federales to claim jurisdiction. The point of the Federal Government is to enforce Federal law, which is by needs distinct from state law.

Just stop busting medical marijuana users, full stop, DEA. :eyes: