If Florida doesn’t crack down on regulations for medical marijuana, the results could be costly.
That’s the message the Mel and Betty Sembler-backed Drug Free America Foundation is busy pitching around the state, warning Floridians of the consequences of expanded use of marijuana.
The Semblers, who fund Drug Free America, were some of the biggest backers in the movement against Amendment 2, which greatly expands medical marijuana in the Sunshine State.
The group pitched billboards across Florida, bashing the amendment. They unleashed millions of dollars of campaign ads warning against the dangers of marijuana both in 2014 and in 2016.
DFAF was victorious in 2014, but came up short last year when 71 percent of Floridians voted in favor of Amendment 2. But DFAF's work isn’t over just yet.
On Tuesday, DFAF Deputy Director Amy Ronshausen appeared at the Pinellas County Young Republicans monthly meeting in St. Petersburg, making the pitch to crack down on medical marijuana regulations.
"We are not here to discuss whether marijuana is a medicine or not,” Ronshausen said. “That ship has sailed."
The battle over Amendment 2 may have been lost, but DFAF’s ship still floats on the sea to regulating the industry to deliver medical marijuana to suffering Florida patients.
Their goal, Ronshausen said, is to make sure medical marijuana is properly researched and vetted just like any other medicine -- and they’ve taken their fight to the halls of the state Capitol to make sure Florida proceeds with caution in implementing medical marijuana.
DFAF has lodged several complaints about possible ways to ingest medical marijuana, taking issue with edibles, which offer patients medical marijuana in drink or food options.
Ronshausen warned edibles could be appealing to children since they can come in cookie and candy form -- and often with a much greater high since the type of marijuana used is sometimes via high-THC oil.
DFAF also argues medical marijuana edible companies aren’t held to the “same standard” as other food producers, something the foundation has warned would have dire consequences, leading to laced products which could cause death in some patients.
The list of grievances and fears about marijuana DFAF goes on.
The group has also taken issue with standalone pot shops, which they believe could be nuisances to residents.
The shops, with names like “House of Dank” and “Dr. Ganja” beam neon-colored lights out into the street, sometimes all night long.
"We don't want to see billboards [and shops] normalizing marijuana as a medicine," she said.
Beyond the dispensaries, Ronshausen said the medical marijuana industry is fundamentally structured like Big Tobacco, a billion-dollar business model “built on addiction.”
"They're looking for lifelong clients," she said of Big Marijuana.
Ronshausen routinely compared Florida to Colorado, which has notoriously lax marijuana laws and legalized recreational marijuana in 2012. DFAF cited high traffic fatalities, coupled with the use of marijuana, as some of the dangers of widespread use of the drug.
"We have no idea what the impact is going to be with these high potency products," she said.
Florida For Care executive director Ben Pollara said Drug Free America’s comments were simply “scare tactics” used to shift the narrative in favor of an anti-marijuana stance.
“Florida has done nothing of the sort [of legalizing recreational marijuana] so it’s a totally false analogy,” Pollara told Sunshine State News. “That’s always part of these people’s toolbooks. Seventy-one percent of Floridians do not support legalizing [recreational] marijuana but they’re trying to change the topic so that the numbers are on their side.
Pollara said DFAF was grasping at straws to regain control after losing the fight over Amendment 2 in November.
“They continue to parrot these tactics because that’s all they’ve got,” he said.
Pollara and other pro-medical marijuana groups have gone head-to-head with DFAF in the state legislature this year over new regulations for the medical pot industry.
The best solution, DFAF believes, is through a House proposal which would ban edibles entirely and put a cap on how many dispensaries are allowed to distribute the drug statewide.
That bill isn’t popular with Pollara and Amendment 2 advocates, gathering staunch criticism for being “too restrictive” and going against the will of the 71 percent of voters who cast their ballots in favor of Amendment 2 last fall.
“[Rodrigues’] bill’s narrative is ‘Let’s do something for the 29 percent of people who voted no and respect the will of the minority versus the will of the majority,’” Pollara said.
Another less restrictive proposal is creeping its way through the Florida Senate, which would allow for edibles and a greater number of dispensaries. The bill would let patients order medical marijuana to be delivered to their homes.
The Senate proposal would also set up a research facility at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa to independently test marijuana and would ban the sale of medical pot to minors.
Overall, the DFAF says it worries the new proposals will side with the marijuana industry and forego “appropriate” safety measures.
“We are making sure these bills aren't catering to the medical marijuana industry,” Ronshausen said. "They [need to] look out for the public health and public safety for all Floridians."
Pollara insisted DFAF was continuing its attempts to cultivate an air of fear around the drug, which so many have been waiting so long to receive.
“These are just boogeyman tactics,” he said, vowing to push ahead with efforts to provide relief to suffering patients in Florida. “We are going to put people power pressure on these [legislator] folks. They don’t operate under a vacuum. They operate under the will of the people.”
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
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