Amendment 2, a proposal to expand medical marijuana use in the Sunshine State, failed to meet the 60 percent threshold to be added to the Florida Constitution. The proposal came up short, reaching 57 percent at the polls.
What the result means is that the amendment failed, but medical marijuana did not.
As recently as four months ago it looked impossible that Amendment 2 would go down.
A Quinnipiac University poll in July showed 88 percent in favor and just 10 percent opposed.
United for Care, the group promoting the amendment, has been called "a strictly Democratic affair," and the campaigns financial burden was carried almost entirely by Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan.
The campaign, bankrolled with roughly $4 million of Morgan's own money, became inseparable from party politics and Charlie Crist, who ran on the Democratic ticket for governor and just happens to work at Morgans Orlando law firm.
On the opposing side, at the end of May casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a Republican whose son died of a drug overdose, sent $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee (No on 2). By Tuesday, Adelson had contributed a total of $5 million, or 85 percent of the total budget against the amendment.
Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, said some of the blame falls on Amendment 2s campaign, which showcased prominent trial lawyer Morgan.
"While it's disappointing that patients in Florida won't be able to find legal relief with marijuana just yet, tonight's result does show that a clear majority of voters in the Sunshine State support a new direction, Angell said on Tuesday night.
We didn't get the 60 percent needed to pass medical marijuana as a constitutional amendment, but patients and their supporters will keep pushing until the law reflects what most voters want. The campaign this year faced several key challenges, including that it took place during a midterm election in which turnout dynamics don't favor marijuana reform. Next time medical marijuana is on the ballot, organizers should put patients and medical professionals at the forefront of the campaign rather than relying on a well-meaning but much less sympathetic political donor as the chief spokesperson."
Had the measure passed, Florida would have become the first Southern state to legalize medical marijuana, joining 23 other states nationwide.
State Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose House bill inspired the more restrictive Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014, told Sunshine State News Tuesday night, "As we have seen tonight, 57 percent of Floridians agree that cannabis can help patients.
"But our bill got it right by making sure patients get it in a safe, effective form that doesn't involve smoking, getting high or excessive pot shops," Gaetz explained.
Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, Gaetz's chief co-sponsor of the bill nicknamed "Charlotte's Web," said, "The Department of Health rule-making workshops certainly illustrated the need for a glitch bill to address the concerns raised by patients, doctors and those who ultimately will be licensed dispensing organizations.
"I believe that you will see lawmakers take the feedback they heard from their constituents on the campaign trail and make substantial changes to the law passed in 2014."
Added Edwards, "I would love to see us include patients who were left out of the first bill, mainly those patients dealing with illnesses like multiple sclerosis."
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
