Good news for medical marijuana supporters in the Sunshine State: the Florida Supreme Court gave the seal of approval on ballot language for an amendment to legalize medical pot on Thursday.
The only thing that stands in the way of medical marijuana getting put on the 2016 ballot is reaching the 683,000 validated petitions, the state’s requirement for initiatives to be put to a vote next year.
In order for an amendment to be placed on the ballot, the Florida Supreme Court must first decide whether the issue’s language explains the amendment fairly to voters. Additionally, any proposed amendments must only address one subject matter.
"The language is clear and does not mislead voters regarding the actual content of the proposed amendment,” read the Supreme Court’s opinion, affirming the amendment met both requirements to be on the ballot.
People United for Medical Marijuana (United For Care), a pro-medical marijuana group largely led by uber attorney John Morgan, has shouldered the responsibility of collecting enough signatures to get the amendment on the ballot next year.
As of Thursday, the group needed to collect around 274,000 more signatures, according to the Florida Division of Elections. United For Care is currently aiming to collect over 1 million signatures to meet the petition threshold.
“We are confident that we will and that Florida voters will approve this amendment in the general election," United for Care director Ben Pollara said.
United For Care’s constitutional amendment petition would allow for the medical use of marijuana by a qualifying patient or caregiver. It would also prohibit physicians from being subject to criminal or civil liabilities under Florida law for issuing a prescription for medical marijuana.
Medical pot would only be allowed for use for those with “debilitating” medical conditions which would include cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, and for other conditions which a physician feels using medical marijuana would outweigh the potential health risks for a patient.
This isn’t United For Care’s first time trying to put medial pot on voters’ radars. Last year, the group fought tooth and nail to get voters to approve the amendment, but it ultimately fell three points short of getting the 60 percent voter approval to be legalized in the Sunshine State.
John Morgan has even begun funneling his own money into the campaign, which he has pushed consistently since last year. Recently, Morgan announced he would donate nine dollars for every dollar pledged to the campaign to legalize medical pot in Florida.
“For every $10 donated here, the campaign will get $100 that goes directly to collecting petitions,” said Morgan. “If you donate $100 here, the campaign will literally get $1,000 that will be used to ensure that we get medical marijuana on the ballot next year.”
Morgan said the campaign needs around $1.5 million to to pay the professional signature gatherers validating petitions. In 2014, Morgan spent millions of his own dollars to push the amendment, but his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.
If approved, medical marijuana could become a big industry in Florida, with experts estimating a $785 million market value.
United For Care will need to act fast to wrap up its petition gathering, since the deadline to collect petitions -- Dec. 31 -- is rapidly approaching. After that, election officials will match and verify the petitions against a list of voters by Feb. 1.
