Marijuana - legalizing it, making it available for patients, reducing penalties involving it - is on the minds of legislators around the country.
But apparently not in Florida - despite petitions that are circulating and protests in support of legalization, including one earlier this month in Gainesville.
Sixteen states currently are considering or have recently passed legislation involving medical marijuana or decriminalizing minor marijuana offenses. California soon might legalize and commercially produce it. Fourteen states allow medical marijuana.
The Sunshine State isn't among the states on either list.
Florida Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, chair of the Senate health regulation committee, said that since he has chaired the committee, no member of the Florida Senate has contacted him and asked that a medical marijuana bill be placed on the agenda. Gaetz also said he wasn't aware of any request from the state's medical community or patient caregivers or providers to consider a change in the law.
State Attorney Bill Cervone said he didn't hear anything about supporting medical marijuana use in Tallahassee during this year's legislative session, even as California made headlines and could become the first state to legalize marijuana and tax it.
"I'm surprised, given the budgetary constraints, that there hasn't been at least whispering about it - and I've heard none," Cervone said.
The cold, hard reality of scarce cash and tight budgets is what many think is pushing states nationwide to join the "Green Rush" and take a serious look at marijuana legalization.
A legal marijuana crop would be a possible source of additional tax income. Estimates from some supporting legalizing medical marijuana are that Florida and other states would see millions of dollars enter the tax base.
Another factor behind the push for legalizing marijuana, at least for medical purposes, is the absence among younger generations of the "reefer madness" stigma that was attached to marijuana in the eyes of many older Americans.
An Associated Press-CNBC poll, released last month, showed only 33 percent favor legalizing marijuana, while 55 percent oppose it.
But 60 percent of responders support the idea of medical marijuana, and 74 percent believe the drug has a real medical benefit.
Two-thirds of Democrats support medical marijuana, according to the poll, with 53 percent of Republicans also in favor. The poll found that 54 percent of those under 30 favor legalization. Those who oppose legalization saw their opposition grow the older they were. Of those 65 and older, 73 percent are against legalization, the poll found.
In the past decade, nine states have legalized medical marijuana, and one approved the medical use of the drug as a court defense.
Legalizing medical marijuana, however, is not a trend Florida lawmakers have embraced.
NORML, a nonprofit group that lobbies against marijuana prohibition, reported that the state Legislature's only action this year involving marijuana was to pass a bill limiting the sale of marijuana paraphernalia in stores that receive less than 75 percent of their annual revenue from the sale of tobacco products.
University of Florida sophomore Devyn Arbogast is president of the newly reinstated NORML chapter at the university. A lack of proper paperwork ended the group a few years ago, but it now has 175 people officially in the organization.
With talk about possible tax revenue as well as people who want to use marijuana for medical purposes, Arbogast said it's just a matter of time before the state will be forced to consider revising laws on marijuana use.
Anthony Lorenzo of Gainesville, who helped organize a protest locally earlier this month in favor of legalizing marijuana, said supporters are trying to send a message to the legislators.
"We think it's time to end the prohibition of cannabis," he said, noting that no matter how much state and federal governments try to stop the flow of marijuana, usage continues. "If we don't regulate the ability of people to produce the substance, we're still fueling black markets in another country," he said. "Cannabis would be an excellent crop for farmers.
"There's no reason we should be putting these people in cages with criminals," he said about marijuana users who are jailed.
So far, Cervone said he hasn't seen anything, even the promise of tax revenue, that would change things.
Cervone points to the uproar over attempts to legalize gambling in the state and said legislators believe there's a similar lack of support for reducing constraints on marijuana use.
"The Legislature, I just don't think, would be receptive to it. I don't think it would go very far no matter how much they're claiming the tax revenue would increase," he said.
Reiterating the lack of proposals for medical marijuana legislation from the medical community, Gaetz said, "I don't think that the Florida Legislature is prepared to legalize an illegal drug for the primary reason of gaining tax revenue."
Area officers declined to address whether they agree with the legal changes in other states.
"Whatever laws that are passed by the state's legislation, then we're sworn to enforce them," said Lt. Matt Nechodom, a member of the Gainesville Police Department and Gainesville Alachua County Drug Task Force.
But both Nechodom and Alachua County Sheriff's Detective Larry Kirkpatrick, who also is a member of the task force and a recognized expert on illegal marijuana grow operations, say the variety of laws nationwide on marijuana use will lead to more problems for law enforcement.
Locally, there have been cases in which marijuana grown in California, which is at the center of the marijuana-legalization movement, has been shipped to Gainesville, Nechodom said.
One case now pending in Alachua County courts involves a 20-year-old man, arrested earlier this year, who officers allege has been traveling regularly to California and mailing back large amounts of marijuana in backpacks with zippers glued shut. Officers have accused the man of racketeering and the sale or possession with intent to sell, manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance.
The source of marijuana in the past has been illegal indoor growing operations or other countries such as Mexico. Now, it's also being grown domestically in some states with different laws and shipped to Florida, which is known as having some of the toughest laws on the use of marijuana and other drugs.
And that creates problems when it comes to trying to enforce laws that vary from state to state.
"It's going to pit one state against the other," Kirkpatrick said. "It has to be everybody signing off on it. Whatever they come up with."
News Hawk: Warbux 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Gainesville.com
Author: Lise Fisher
Contact: mailto:fisherl@gvillesun.com
Copyright: 2010 The Gainesville Sun
Website: Florida not jumping on marijuana bandwagon | Gainesville.com
But apparently not in Florida - despite petitions that are circulating and protests in support of legalization, including one earlier this month in Gainesville.
Sixteen states currently are considering or have recently passed legislation involving medical marijuana or decriminalizing minor marijuana offenses. California soon might legalize and commercially produce it. Fourteen states allow medical marijuana.
The Sunshine State isn't among the states on either list.
Florida Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, chair of the Senate health regulation committee, said that since he has chaired the committee, no member of the Florida Senate has contacted him and asked that a medical marijuana bill be placed on the agenda. Gaetz also said he wasn't aware of any request from the state's medical community or patient caregivers or providers to consider a change in the law.
State Attorney Bill Cervone said he didn't hear anything about supporting medical marijuana use in Tallahassee during this year's legislative session, even as California made headlines and could become the first state to legalize marijuana and tax it.
"I'm surprised, given the budgetary constraints, that there hasn't been at least whispering about it - and I've heard none," Cervone said.
The cold, hard reality of scarce cash and tight budgets is what many think is pushing states nationwide to join the "Green Rush" and take a serious look at marijuana legalization.
A legal marijuana crop would be a possible source of additional tax income. Estimates from some supporting legalizing medical marijuana are that Florida and other states would see millions of dollars enter the tax base.
Another factor behind the push for legalizing marijuana, at least for medical purposes, is the absence among younger generations of the "reefer madness" stigma that was attached to marijuana in the eyes of many older Americans.
An Associated Press-CNBC poll, released last month, showed only 33 percent favor legalizing marijuana, while 55 percent oppose it.
But 60 percent of responders support the idea of medical marijuana, and 74 percent believe the drug has a real medical benefit.
Two-thirds of Democrats support medical marijuana, according to the poll, with 53 percent of Republicans also in favor. The poll found that 54 percent of those under 30 favor legalization. Those who oppose legalization saw their opposition grow the older they were. Of those 65 and older, 73 percent are against legalization, the poll found.
In the past decade, nine states have legalized medical marijuana, and one approved the medical use of the drug as a court defense.
Legalizing medical marijuana, however, is not a trend Florida lawmakers have embraced.
NORML, a nonprofit group that lobbies against marijuana prohibition, reported that the state Legislature's only action this year involving marijuana was to pass a bill limiting the sale of marijuana paraphernalia in stores that receive less than 75 percent of their annual revenue from the sale of tobacco products.
University of Florida sophomore Devyn Arbogast is president of the newly reinstated NORML chapter at the university. A lack of proper paperwork ended the group a few years ago, but it now has 175 people officially in the organization.
With talk about possible tax revenue as well as people who want to use marijuana for medical purposes, Arbogast said it's just a matter of time before the state will be forced to consider revising laws on marijuana use.
Anthony Lorenzo of Gainesville, who helped organize a protest locally earlier this month in favor of legalizing marijuana, said supporters are trying to send a message to the legislators.
"We think it's time to end the prohibition of cannabis," he said, noting that no matter how much state and federal governments try to stop the flow of marijuana, usage continues. "If we don't regulate the ability of people to produce the substance, we're still fueling black markets in another country," he said. "Cannabis would be an excellent crop for farmers.
"There's no reason we should be putting these people in cages with criminals," he said about marijuana users who are jailed.
So far, Cervone said he hasn't seen anything, even the promise of tax revenue, that would change things.
Cervone points to the uproar over attempts to legalize gambling in the state and said legislators believe there's a similar lack of support for reducing constraints on marijuana use.
"The Legislature, I just don't think, would be receptive to it. I don't think it would go very far no matter how much they're claiming the tax revenue would increase," he said.
Reiterating the lack of proposals for medical marijuana legislation from the medical community, Gaetz said, "I don't think that the Florida Legislature is prepared to legalize an illegal drug for the primary reason of gaining tax revenue."
Area officers declined to address whether they agree with the legal changes in other states.
"Whatever laws that are passed by the state's legislation, then we're sworn to enforce them," said Lt. Matt Nechodom, a member of the Gainesville Police Department and Gainesville Alachua County Drug Task Force.
But both Nechodom and Alachua County Sheriff's Detective Larry Kirkpatrick, who also is a member of the task force and a recognized expert on illegal marijuana grow operations, say the variety of laws nationwide on marijuana use will lead to more problems for law enforcement.
Locally, there have been cases in which marijuana grown in California, which is at the center of the marijuana-legalization movement, has been shipped to Gainesville, Nechodom said.
One case now pending in Alachua County courts involves a 20-year-old man, arrested earlier this year, who officers allege has been traveling regularly to California and mailing back large amounts of marijuana in backpacks with zippers glued shut. Officers have accused the man of racketeering and the sale or possession with intent to sell, manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance.
The source of marijuana in the past has been illegal indoor growing operations or other countries such as Mexico. Now, it's also being grown domestically in some states with different laws and shipped to Florida, which is known as having some of the toughest laws on the use of marijuana and other drugs.
And that creates problems when it comes to trying to enforce laws that vary from state to state.
"It's going to pit one state against the other," Kirkpatrick said. "It has to be everybody signing off on it. Whatever they come up with."
News Hawk: Warbux 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Gainesville.com
Author: Lise Fisher
Contact: mailto:fisherl@gvillesun.com
Copyright: 2010 The Gainesville Sun
Website: Florida not jumping on marijuana bandwagon | Gainesville.com
