Florida Amendment 2 (2014)
Florida Amendment 2, Use of Marijuana for Certain Medical Conditions, is an initiative that will appear on the November 4, 2014, ballot in the state of Florida as a citizen initiated state constitutional amendment.
It has officially been certified by the state's secretary of state to appear on the November ballot and has been numbered Amendment 2, not to be confused with the 2008 ban on same-sex marriage of the same name. If enacted this measure would allow for the cultivation, purchase, possession and use of medical cannabis to treat certain medical conditions when recommended by a licensed physician. The amendment was introduced by People United for Medical Marijuana on March 26, 2009. Supporters are widespread and include some notable public figures, the Florida Cannabis Action Network and John Morgan, head of the Morgan and Morgan law firm. Highly respected members of society have acknowledged the viable need for this legislation even admitting publicly to assisting loved ones to obtain medical marijuana including last sessions Florida State Senate President, Jon Gaetz. To date Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have already passed legislation allowing doctors to recommend the medicinal use of marijuana thereby legalizing a patients possession and use.This election season Florida is one of twelve states that have pending marijuana ballot measures. Opponents include Sheldon Adelson, a Nevada Billionaire who donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, which is a political committee trying to defeat the measure.
For the earlier Amendment 2 that banned same-sex marriage in Florida, see Florida Amendment 2 (2008).
Contents
2014 gubernatorial politics
The ballot measure is expected to have a significant impact on the 2014 governor's race, as the state's governor will be elected the same day the measure is voted on and both leading candidates have directly opposing views on the issue. Gubernatorial candidate, former governor, and former Morgan and Morgan employee Charlie Crist(D) supports it, while the incumbent governor Rick Scott(R) is opposed to it, with attorney general Pam Bondi leading an effort to keep it off the ballot, ultimately failing when the state's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the proposed ballot measure. Under Florida's Constitution and judiciary Florida's Supreme Court has ultimate authority and jurisdiction over state constitutional interpretation. Here, Pam Biondi backed by Rick Scott filed suit to prevent Florida residents from exercising the constitutionally guaranteed right to vote on the proposed constitutional amendment. This is the third citizen backed initiative to amend the Florida Constitution to allow for the medical use of cannabis however, several "hail-mary passes" which consisted of filing legal challenges with seconds remaining on the clock have successfully kept this matter off the voters ballot for years, effectively denying Floridian's their right to put the question to the democratic voting process. In opposition to the vote, court documents alleged each year that the proposed amendment failed to meet the rules of statutory construction regarding vagueness and violated the single subject matter rule. (State of Florida v. Citizens) Prior years experience educated the seriously ill citizens of Florida as in the oft cited lament "justice delayed is justice denied". Not to be deterred a citizens for compassion petition for a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution on the matter of decriminalizing the medicinal use of cannabis was yet again drafted, the proposed amendment was put into a simplified statement using elementary language and petitioners began gathering the requisite minimum number of voter signatures well in advance of the deadline in order to preemptively place the proposed ballot language before the Court anticipating the inevitable legal challenge. This time the Court ruled well before the ballot deadline, they determined the language of the proposed amendment was neither vague nor confusing finding that voters will know what they are voting upon and the proposed amendment specifically addressed only one subject matter as required under the Florida Constitution and will finally be placed before the voters. The Court used not so subtle cues by citing the rules of review from an advisory opinion titled "Advisory Op. to Att’y Gen. re Right to Treatment & Rehab. for Non-Violent Drug Offenses", finding, "This Court has traditionally applied a deferential standard of review to the validity of a citizen initiative petition and “has been reluctant to interfere” with “the right of self-determination for all Florida’s citizens” to formulate “their own organic law.” The Court leads the current administration and legislators to the river reflecting Florida's voters and current societal trends are for the reform the justice system and decriminalization of the use of marijuana. Admonishing them as representatives of constituents "There is no lawful reason why the electors of this State should not have the right to determine the manner in which the Constitution may be amended. This is the most sanctified area in which a court can exercise power. Sovereignty resides in the people and the electors have a right to approve or reject a proposed amendment to the organic law of this State, limited only by those instances where there is an entire failure to comply with a plain and essential requirement of [the law]., Id. (quoting Pope v. Gray, 104 So. 2d 841, 842 (Fla. 1958))."
Charlie Crist's former law firm, Morgan and Morgan, heavily pushed for the ballot measure and became involved in the petition efforts to get it on the ballot. The candidate and former governor himself donated a large sum of his own money to the effort.
Arguments in favor
Kim Russell, founder of People United for Medical Marijuana, said that she began legalization efforts shortly after her father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Some research claims that the drug can help alleviate the symptoms. In response to claims that politics is the motivating factor, Russell says, "It's freedom and it's also compassion."
Path to the ballot
Registered voters signing the petition in Ybor City, FL from October 2013-January 2014. In order to qualify for the 2014 ballot supporters are required to collect a minimum of 683,149 valid signatures by the petition drive deadline on February 1, 2014.
Supporters reported in August 2013 that they had collected at least 110,000 signatures, enough to trigger a ruling by the Supreme Court of Florida on the measure's constitutionality. Because of the cost of circulating petitions, supporters said they were pausing all petitioning activity until the measure gains the court's approval.
The language in the measure was later approved for the ballot by the Florida Supreme Court on January 27, 2014. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi had been litigating against the measure in court. An opinion against it was also filed by the Florida Legislature.
A new multi-institutional study, by the nations top medical schools published in JAMA Internal Medicine, supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01DA032110, R25DA023021) and the Center for AIDS Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center (NIH AI-51519). found that on average, states allowing the medical use of marijuana have lower rates of overdose caused deaths from opioid analgesics, such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin than states without compassionate use medical marijuana laws. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, reviewed rates of death caused by opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2010. Results of the research reflect that on average, the (then 13) states with laws permitting medical use of cannabis reported an opioid overdose mortality rate at 24.8 percent lower after the compassionate use laws were enacted than those states without compassionate use laws. Implications of the findings may be the best evidence of the claims long made by proponents of medical marijuana use whose previous arguments were largely supported by anecdotal evidence due to the FDA ban inhibiting research. Long term benefits may be even greater where the study revealed that over time the relationship was even more apparent, as deaths attributed to opioid overdose were nearly 20 percent lower in the first year after a state’s medical use law was implemented, and opioid overdose deaths continued to decrease to 33.7 percent lower five years after implementation of medicinal use laws. The study provides irrefutable evidence using a discrete data set (state), with a clear variable (with or without medicinal cannabis use), and a measurable mortality rate may provide the proof that cannabis is a safer medication for those patients suffering from chronic pain such as that endured by cancer patients.
A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University and released on July 28, 2014, indicates that 88 percent of Floridia's voters favor legalization of medical marijuana, suggesting that the initiative may pass.
Result
Florida Amendment 2 received 58% of the vote, short of the 60% required to pass in Florida.
