Florida Amendment 2 (2014)

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Florida Voters Ballot 2014 - By voters initiative proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution to allow doctors to recommend the use of marijuana for patients and the patients use thereof. FL Ballot 2014 Amd.2 Compassionate Medical Marijuana.jpg
Florida Voters Ballot 2014 - By voters initiative proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution to allow doctors to recommend the use of marijuana for patients and the patients use thereof.

Florida Amendment 2, Use of Marijuana for Certain Medical Conditions, is an initiative that appeared on the November 4, 2014, ballot in the state of Florida as a citizen initiated state constitutional amendment.

Initiative means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote

In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote in parliament called an indirect initiative or via a direct initiative, the latter then being dubbed a Popular initiated Referendum.

Florida State of the United States of America

Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital.

Contents

It was officially certified by the state's secretary of state to appear on the 2014 November ballot and numbered Amendment 2, not to be confused with the 2008 ban on same-sex marriage of the same name. If it had been enacted, the measure would have allowed 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. [1] [2] As of 2014, 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. [3] After the amendment failed, in 2016 a similar amendment passed.

The title secretary of state or state secretary is commonly used for senior or mid-level posts in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple secretaries of state in the government.

Medical cannabis marijuana used medicinally

Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana, is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions, resulting in limited clinical research to define the safety and efficacy of using cannabis to treat diseases. Preliminary evidence suggests that cannabis can reduce nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy, improve appetite in people with HIV/AIDS, and reduce chronic pain and muscle spasms.

2014 gubernatorial politics

The ballot measure was 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 Morgan & Morgan employee Charlie Crist(D) supported by donating a large sum of his own money to the effort,[ citation needed ] while the incumbent governor Rick Scott(R) is opposed to it.

Charlie Crist politician

Charles Joseph Crist Jr. is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. Representative from Florida's 13th congressional district since 2017. He previously served as the 44th Governor of Florida, from 2007 to 2011.

Rick Scott United States Senator from Florida

Richard Lynn Scott is an American businessman and politician, serving as the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019. He previously served as the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019.

Attorney General Pam Bondi lead an effort to keep the measure off the ballot, ultimately failing when the state's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the proposed ballot measure. Bondi, backed by Rick Scott, filed suit to prevent the proposed constitutional amendment from appearing on the ballot. 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 ballot for years. 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. A citizens for compassion petition for a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution on the matter of decriminalizing the medicinal use of cannabis was drafted with 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. [4] Under Florida's Constitution Florida's Supreme Court has ultimate authority and jurisdiction over proposed state constitutional amendment approval. Florida's top court ruled, in a split decision, that the language of the proposed amendment was not unconstitutionally vague nor confusing and the proposed amendment specifically addressed only one subject matter as required under the Florida Constitution and will be placed before the voters. [5] 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." [6]

Pam Bondi American lawyer and politician

Pamela Jo Bondi is an American attorney and politician. A Republican, she served as the 37th Attorney General of Florida from 2011 to 2019.

Supporters

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. [7] In response to claims that politics is the motivating factor, Russell says, "It's freedom and it's also compassion." [8] Supporters are widespread and include some notable public figures, the Florida Cannabis Action Network and John Morgan, head of the Morgan & Morgan law firm. [9] 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, Don Gaetz. [10]

Parkinsons disease long-term degenerative neurological disorder that mainly affects movement

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. As the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms become increasingly common. The symptoms generally come on slowly over time. Early in the disease, the most obvious are shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement, and difficulty with walking. Thinking and behavioral problems may also occur. Dementia becomes common in the advanced stages of the disease. Depression and anxiety are also common, occurring in more than a third of people with PD. Other symptoms include sensory, sleep, and emotional problems. The main motor symptoms are collectively called "parkinsonism", or a "parkinsonian syndrome".

John Bryan Morgan is an American lawyer. He is the founder of a class action and personal injury law firm, Morgan & Morgan.

Opposition

Opponents include Sheldon Adelson, a Nevada Billionaire who donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free America Foundation, which is a political committee that helped defeat the measure. [11]

Sheldon Adelson American businessman, investor, and philanthropist

Sheldon Gary Adelson is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and is the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He also owns the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom and the American daily newspaper Las Vegas Review-Journal. Adelson, a donor and philanthropist to a variety of causes, also founded the Adelson Foundation in 2007, at the initiative of his wife, Miriam. He is a member of the Republican Party, and made the largest single donation to any U.S. presidential inauguration when he gave the Trump inaugural committee US$5 million.

The Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization focused on drug prevention and policy that is committed to developing, promoting, and sustaining national and international policies and laws that will reduce illegal drug use and drug addiction.

Path to the ballot

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 gained the court's approval. [4]

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 multi-institutional study by Penn Medicine 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, indicated that 88 percent of Florida's voters favor legalization of medical marijuana. [12] [13]

Result

Amendment 2 failed, receiving 57.6% of the vote. This was short of the 60% supermajority required for constitutional amendments in Florida. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

In the politics of the United States, the process of initiatives and referendums allow citizens of many U.S. states to place new legislation on a popular ballot, or to place legislation that has recently been passed by a legislature on a ballot for a popular vote. Initiatives and referendums, along with recall elections and popular primary elections, are signature reforms of the Progressive Era; they are written into several state constitutions, particularly in the West.

Marijuana Policy Project organization

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is the largest organization working solely on marijuana policy reform in the United States in terms of its budget, number of members, and staff. Its stated aims are to: (1) increase public support for non-punitive, non-coercive marijuana policies; (2) identify and activate supporters of non-punitive, non-coercive marijuana policies; (3) change state laws to reduce or eliminate penalties for the medical and non-medical use of marijuana; and (4) gain influence in Congress. MPP advocates taxing and regulating the possession and sale of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol, envisions a nation where marijuana education is honest and realistic, and believes treatment for problem marijuana users should be non-coercive and geared toward reducing harm.

The removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the most tightly restricted category reserved for drugs that have "no currently accepted medical use," has been proposed repeatedly since 1972.

1998 Oregon Ballot Measure 67

The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, a law in the U.S. state of Oregon, was established by Oregon Ballot Measure 67 in 1998, passing with 54.6% support. It modified state law to allow the cultivation, possession, and use of marijuana by doctor recommendation for patients with certain medical conditions. The Act does not affect federal law, which still prohibits the cultivation and possession of marijuana.

Amendment 44 was a proposed amendment to the state statutes submitted for referendum in the 2006 general elections in the U.S. state of Colorado. The amendment proposed the legalization of the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana for any person twenty-one years of age and over, as long as marijuana use does not occur in public. The measure was eventually defeated at the polls by 60-40 percent.

The Michigan Compassionate Care Initiative was an indirect initiated state statute that allowed the medical use of marijuana for seriously ill patients. It was approved by voters as Proposal 1 on November 6, 2008, 63 percent in favor to 37 percent opposed.

Cannabis in Oregon

Cannabis in Oregon relates to a number of legislative, legal, and cultural events surrounding use of cannabis. Oregon was the first U.S. state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of cannabis, and among the first to authorize its use for medical purposes. An attempt to recriminalize possession of small amounts of cannabis was turned down by Oregon voters in 1997.

Medical cannabis in the United States

In the United States, the use of cannabis for medical purposes is legal in 33 states, four permanently inhabited U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, as of January 2019. Fourteen other states have more restrictive laws limiting THC content, for the purpose of allowing access to products that are rich in cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component of cannabis. There is considerable variation in medical cannabis laws from state to state, including how it is produced and distributed, how it can be consumed, and what medical conditions it can be used for.

Initiative 1068 was a proposed initiative for the November 2010 Washington state general election that would have removed criminal penalties from the adult use, possession, and cultivation of marijuana in Washington. Sponsored by Vivian McPeak, Douglass Hiatt, Jeffrey Steinborn, Philip Dawdy, initiative I-1068 sought to legalize marijuana by removing marijuana offenses from the state's controlled substances act, but failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

2012 Oregon Ballot Measure 80 Cannabis-related ballot initiative

Oregon Ballot Measure 80, also known as the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, OCTA and Initiative-9, was an initiated state statute ballot measure on the November 6, 2012 general election ballot in Oregon. It would have allowed personal marijuana and hemp cultivation or use without a license and created a commission to regulate the sale of commercial marijuana. The act would also have set aside two percent of profits from cannabis sales to promote industrial hemp, biodiesel, fiber, protein and oil.

2012 Massachusetts ballot measures

Three citizen-initiated measures were voted upon in the 2012 Massachusetts general election: a Right to Repair initiave, a proposal to allow physician-assisted suicide, and a measure to legalize medical marijuana. The Right to Repair initiative, which was to require open access to vehicle diagnostic and repair information, passed overwhelmingly, with 86% support. The measure to allow physician-assisted suicide failed by a narrow margin, with 51% opposed. The proposal to legalize medical marijuana passed with 63% of voter support.

Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Initiative

The Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Initiative, appeared as the third question on the state's 2012 ballot as an indirect initiated state statute. The measure allows cannabis to be used for medical purposes in the state. The initiative—backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance, and the Committee for Compassionate Medicine—was filed with proponents turning in the required signatures to the Massachusetts Attorney General's office by the August 3, 2011 deadline. Those signatures were needed for the required ten qualified voters who submitted the original petition to put forward the full text of the law they want enacted. The initiative passed with support from 63% of state voters.

Timeline of cannabis laws in the United States

The legal history of cannabis in the United States began with state-level prohibition in the early 20th century, with the first major federal limitations occurring in 1937. Starting with Oregon in 1973, individual states began to liberalize cannabis laws through decriminalization. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize medical cannabis, sparking a trend that spread to a majority of states by 2016. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize cannabis for recreational use.

Cannabis in South Dakota is illegal for all purposes, and possession of small amounts is a misdemeanor crime. South Dakota is the only U.S. state which outlaws ingestion of controlled substances. Testing positive for cannabis can be a felony offense.

The Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative, also known as Amendment 2, was approved by voters in the Tuesday, November 8, 2016, general election in the State of Florida. The bill required a super-majority vote to pass, with at least 60% of voters voting for support of a state constitutional amendment. Florida already had a medical marijuana law in place, but only for those who are terminally ill and with less than a year left to live. The goal of Amendment 2 is to alleviate those suffering from these medical conditions: cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic nonmalignant pain caused by a qualifying medical condition or that originates from a qualified medical condition or other debilitating medical conditions comparable to those listed. Under Amendment 2, the medical marijuana will be given to the patient if the physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient. Smoking the medication was not allowed under a statute passed by the Florida State Legislature, however this ban was struck down by Leon County Circuit Court Judge Karen Gievers on May 25, 2018.

The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act (AMCA) is a proposed legislative act to appear on the 2016 general election ballot as an initiative in the U.S. state of Arkansas. According to a 2015 survey, 84% of Arkansas voters favored medical cannabis legalization, leading some to conclude passage of the 2016 act is likely. The act has a provision to collect sales tax and apportions some of the revenue to subsidize low-income medical cannabis patients.

Cannabis in Missouri is illegal but decriminalized. Medical use was legalized in 2018 through a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution.

Cannabis in Michigan is legal for medical use and recreational use, after passing a ballot initiative in 2018. Regulated stores are expected to open early in 2020.

References

  1. ↑ "Initiatives/Amendments/Revisions".
  2. ↑ "Kush "Florida Marijuana Initiative Needs Over 670,000 Signatures for 2014 Ballot," May 3, 2012".
  3. ↑ "Oregon, Alaska, D.C. next to vote on legal marijuana".
  4. 1 2 "Medical marijuana group gets 110,000 signatures, waits for high court ruling".
  5. ↑ http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2014/sc13-2006.pdf
  6. ↑ Advisory Op. to Att'y Gen. re Right to Treatment & Rehab. for Non-Violent Drug Offenses, 818 So. 2d 491, 494 (Fla. 2002).
  7. ↑ Lotan, I; Treves, TA; Roditi, Y; Djaldetti, R (2014). "Cannabis (medical marijuana) treatment for motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson disease: an open-label observational study". Clin Neuropharmacol. 37: 41–4. doi:10.1097/WNF.0000000000000016. PMID   24614667.
  8. ↑ ANDERSON, ZAC. "New push in Florida for medical marijuana".
  9. ↑ News-Press.com, "Florida medical marijuana advocates claim impending victory," June 3, 2013
  10. ↑ Author, Gary Stein; Advocate (9 September 2014). "Florida's Medical Marijuana Amendment: Forced Choices or Freedom to Treat? - Huffington Post".
  11. ↑ "Nevada billionaire spending millions against Fla. marijuana amendment" . Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  12. ↑ Topaz, Jonathan. "Florida poll: Most back legal marijuana". www.politico.com. Politico. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  13. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-10-24. Retrieved 2014-10-20.
  14. ↑ "Medical marijuana: On the ballot in Florida in 2016?". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved 2016-11-14.
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