Where does Florida Stand on Medical Marijuana?
Medical Marijuana - Nature's Medicine
In Florida, a state with some of the harshest marijuana laws in the country, proponents of medical marijuana and decriminalization of all marijuana understand the uphill battle ahead.
After the memo was made public Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist made his usual Reefer Madness, Neanderthal, Right-Wing, so-called “tough-on-crime” comment. He pointed out that the DOJ memo only affected states that have approved medical marijuana use and added, “I think it’s good that we’re not one of those states. I don’t think that is an appropriate thing.”
For political gain and to bolster his upcoming bid for a U.S. Senate seat, Charlie Crist would rather Florida’s cancer patients go through chemotherapy without access to marijuana which is proven to fight the nausea that comes with the therapy. Charlie Crist would rather deny what 50 percent of the country’s oncologists would recommend to cancer patients if only it was legal. Charlie Crist would rather deny AIDS patients an effective appetite stimulant to help them remain strong and fight off wasting syndrome. Crist would rather see sufferers of chronic pain continue to suffer. Crist would rather see people continue to suffer from glaucoma and spasticity.
Charlie Crist knows better than all of the scientific and medical evidence of more than 200 studies, because he will soon be running for the Senate and he wants to look like a tough guy who is tough on crime.
But where is Florida on the issue? People United For Medical Marijuana-Florida, PUFMM.org is trying to get enough signatures on a petition to force a state referendum on the issue in 2010. They are facing an uphill battle comparable to scaling Mt. Everest.
The Florida Division of Elections has approved the petition that would place a constitutional amendment on the Florida ballot. The good news is that the amendment would give patients the right to grow, purchase, possess and obtain marijuana for medical treatment. According to medical reports, there are more than 1.7 million people in the state who could benefit from marijuana’s medicinal properties. The bad news is that PUFMM has only managed to get just over 28,000 signatures on a petition which requires 700,000 signatures by February 1st of 2010 if the amendment is going to get on the ballot.
If you are an advocate of medical marijuana and feel the sick and suffering people of Florida deserve the same access to medical marijuana that patients in other states have, now is the time to act. You have nothing to fear by signing this or any other petition.
Registered Florida voters should click on the link below, print out the petition, sign it, and send it to PUFMM, P.O. Box 560296, Orlando, FL 32856
Or… paste this link into the address field of your web browser:
http://www.pufmm.org/docs/Medical%20Marijuana%20Petition%20Form.pdf
Note: The petition is two pages, and must be printed on both sides of one sheet of paper, both facing the same direction (i.e. with the top of the page the same on both sides). Any petition received with the back upside down will be rejected. You will need your voter’s registration number as well.
Reminder: It is against the law to sign and send more than one petition, so printout an extra copy for your spouse, lover, family members and friends.
This post was taken from Examiner.com
