Medical Marijuana Amendment Draws FMA's Opposition

The Florida Medical Association (FMA) announced on Monday it was strongly opposed to Amendment 2, a proposal to expand medical marijuana in the Sunshine State. If the amendment gets 60 percent of support on the November ballot, it will pass.

Providing compassionate care to our patients is something we do every day, said Dr. Alan Pillersdorf, the president of the FMA, on Monday. We believe the unintended consequences of Amendment 2 are serious and numerous enough for us to believe they constitute a public health risk for Floridians. The lack of clear definitions in the amendment would allow health-care providers with absolutely no training in the ordering of controlled substances, to order medical marijuana.

As an association that represents more than 20,000 physicians, we have come together to reject an amendment that does not have the proper regulations in place, approves an unsafe method of drug delivery and puts a substance that has drug-abuse potential in the hands of Floridians, if approved in November. FMA also rejects a process whereby initiatives to approve medicines are decided by methods other than careful science-based review, Pillersdorf added. We recommend that other physician organizations and their members responsibly reject this amendment, which would provide improper access to cannabis and cannabis-based products.