With only a couple of weeks left in this campaign season, Amendment 2 continues a precipitous slide to what looks like a resounding defeat.
If this happens, Florida will be the first state to turn back the national wave of medical marijuana.
Part of this may be attributed to the Legislatures approval of Charlottes Web, a non-euphoric version of marijuana that many parents believe has a potential to help control epileptic seizures in their children.
Though the proposed rule is being challenged, the Rick Scott administration is moving forward on the rule promulgation for CW, which is supposed to be in place by Jan. 1.
While proponents continue to beat the bushes for support, in fact three polls released just this week indicate that public support is going downhill rather fast.
Over the past several weeks, various polls have shown support generally in the range of 57 percent to 61 percent, but recent polls show support slipping to 55 percent, and yesterday a poll was released by WFTV/Channel 9/Bob Graham Center at University of Florida that shows support has shrunk all the way down to just 48 percent, which is 12 percent short of the 60 percent rule required for amendments to be put into the Constitution.
This lack of support is notwithstanding the publics desire for compassion for sick patients with debilitating illnesses, but also reflects deep concern about the poor wording of the proposed amendment.
Major loopholes have been identified by both the Dont Let Florida Go To Pot coalition organized by the Florida Sheriffs Association and VoteNo2.org.
The most glaring hypocrisy for the proponents has been the fact that their pot bus tour last week didnt go to senior citizen centers, hospices and ALF's, but instead went to college campuses.
This proves the intent of the proponents to get young voters to support this initiative despite the fact that few of them have any debilitating diseases.
Its really about telling them that if they vote for this amendment, theyll be able to go see a doctor, pay a small fee, and get a recommendation for pot that is now very high in THC, much more potent.
The other challenge that the public is not buying is the concern that children may be able to get their hands on some of the so-called medical pot.
Rather than getting it directly from a doctor, they're more likely to get it from an unscrupulous personal caregiver.
Though supporters say that the Legislature will create parameters for these caregivers, the reality is that no law will keep unsavory or greedy caregivers from violating the law and giving it to children or young teens.
For proof that this may happen just look to alcohol and cigarettes as two things kids are not supposed to partake of, but we all know that kids can get their hands on it, if they want.
That will also happen with med pot. Guaranteed!
Then the craziest idea in the amendment is that these caregivers can only give the med pot to five people. Thats right, they are limited to just five folks.
Who really believes that all of these caregivers will obey the law?
Thats like saying that back when we had pill mill docs that docs would give the addictive pills only to people that actually needed them and then only a small number of pills.
No one will really know if a caregiver gives pot to 10, 50 or even a hundred people. There just arent enough law enforcement officers in all of Florida to be able to keep tabs on that, which will then lead to certain abuse.
According to the Department of Health, there will be 250,351 of these caregivers, for about 417,252 patients statewide, but it actually works out to be about 1.25 million patients if each caregiver gives to just five patients.
Also, there are projected to be almost 1,800 pot shops (aka Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers) across the state. Thats way more than all of the McDonalds and Starbucks that we have now!
Do we really want our family-friendly state to look like pot-happy California or Colorado?
And recent studies just released by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and Harvard University show that young pot smokers will lose some IQ, exacerbate depression if its already prevalent, and generally be counterproductive to the development of their brains.
Eight newspapers around Florida have now opined against the amendment with more to come.
Please Vote No on 2.
Barney Bishop III, one of the most familiar faces within the state business community, is CEO of Barney Bishop Consulting LLC in Tallahassee.
