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An organization advocating medicinal use of marijuana asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to take pot off the blacklist of totally banned drugs with no medicinal value Tuesday, so the Legislature can set rules for its therapeutic use by patients with painful or crippling afflictions.
"This is a life and death situation for me, and I do have a right to life," Catherine Jordan, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, said from her wheelchair at a news conference in the Florida Press Center. Jordan, president of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, said marijuana has kept her alive more than 20 years -- so long that the Social Security Administration once declared she had outlived her eligibility for benefits, and made her come to an office to prove she was still alive.
She said doctors have attested to the drug's value for her, but that she still can't get it legally in Florida.
"My goal has always been not to be a criminal," she said. "Florida has a medical necessity defense but I had to be arrested to use it."
Jodi James, executive director of the Melbourne-based network, displayed a metal canister she said the federal government uses to send medically approved marijuana to Irvin Rosenfeld, a Broward County man with a rare bone tumor disorder. Next week, he will mark his 30th year receiving pot under a prescription for smoking 10 to 12 joints per day.
She said Florida has thousands of elderly patients with Alzheimer's, ALS, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease and other afflictions that have responded to cannabis. The advocacy group said salves containing the substance have shown benefit for skin cancer treatments.
But James said university researchers and legislators "have their hands tied" unless the attorney general removes marijuana from Schedule One -- the classification for dangerous drugs with no medical value. She said her organization is not seeking recreational use, as legalized last week by voters in Washington and Colorado, but that only Bondi can permit lawmakers to legalize and regulate marijuana prescripttion and research.
"That is all we're talking about," she said. "That will allow the Florida Legislature to have a reasonable conversation about who qualifies as patients and how they'll have reasonable access to their medicine."
Robert Ohlwiler, a retired software executive from Pasco County, said legalization and regulation of medicinal cannabis makes good business sense. Ohlwiler said prisons cost about $20,000 a year, per cell, to operate and that the time of state prosecutors could be better used fighting violent crime rather than investigating and jailing people who illegally obtain marijuana for symptoms of diseases or chemotherapy.
The Cannibis Action Network brought Bondi a petition saying 18 states and the District of Columbia have accepted medical uses of marijuana since 1996. Last month, a federal court heard arguments on reclassifying of the drug off of Schedule One under federal law.
Bondi is a conservative Republican and tough former prosecutor who ran for the Cabinet office two years ago as a law-and-order hardliner. John Lucas, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, was not encouraging for any change in marijuana classifiation.
"The emergency rule-making process is designed for addressing drug problems that pose an immediate threat to the safety of Floridians, such as synthetic drugs," he said. "This issue is best addressed through the legislative process, not through the emergency rule-making process."
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: thefloridacurrent.com
Author: Bill Cotterell
Contact: About Us | The Florida Current
Website: https://www.thefloridacurrent.com/article.cfm?id=30241289
"This is a life and death situation for me, and I do have a right to life," Catherine Jordan, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, said from her wheelchair at a news conference in the Florida Press Center. Jordan, president of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, said marijuana has kept her alive more than 20 years -- so long that the Social Security Administration once declared she had outlived her eligibility for benefits, and made her come to an office to prove she was still alive.
She said doctors have attested to the drug's value for her, but that she still can't get it legally in Florida.
"My goal has always been not to be a criminal," she said. "Florida has a medical necessity defense but I had to be arrested to use it."
Jodi James, executive director of the Melbourne-based network, displayed a metal canister she said the federal government uses to send medically approved marijuana to Irvin Rosenfeld, a Broward County man with a rare bone tumor disorder. Next week, he will mark his 30th year receiving pot under a prescription for smoking 10 to 12 joints per day.
She said Florida has thousands of elderly patients with Alzheimer's, ALS, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease and other afflictions that have responded to cannabis. The advocacy group said salves containing the substance have shown benefit for skin cancer treatments.
But James said university researchers and legislators "have their hands tied" unless the attorney general removes marijuana from Schedule One -- the classification for dangerous drugs with no medical value. She said her organization is not seeking recreational use, as legalized last week by voters in Washington and Colorado, but that only Bondi can permit lawmakers to legalize and regulate marijuana prescripttion and research.
"That is all we're talking about," she said. "That will allow the Florida Legislature to have a reasonable conversation about who qualifies as patients and how they'll have reasonable access to their medicine."
Robert Ohlwiler, a retired software executive from Pasco County, said legalization and regulation of medicinal cannabis makes good business sense. Ohlwiler said prisons cost about $20,000 a year, per cell, to operate and that the time of state prosecutors could be better used fighting violent crime rather than investigating and jailing people who illegally obtain marijuana for symptoms of diseases or chemotherapy.
The Cannibis Action Network brought Bondi a petition saying 18 states and the District of Columbia have accepted medical uses of marijuana since 1996. Last month, a federal court heard arguments on reclassifying of the drug off of Schedule One under federal law.
Bondi is a conservative Republican and tough former prosecutor who ran for the Cabinet office two years ago as a law-and-order hardliner. John Lucas, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, was not encouraging for any change in marijuana classifiation.
"The emergency rule-making process is designed for addressing drug problems that pose an immediate threat to the safety of Floridians, such as synthetic drugs," he said. "This issue is best addressed through the legislative process, not through the emergency rule-making process."
News Hawk- TruthSeekr420 420 MAGAZINE
Source: thefloridacurrent.com
Author: Bill Cotterell
Contact: About Us | The Florida Current
Website: https://www.thefloridacurrent.com/article.cfm?id=30241289
