Get ready for the second round in Floridas fight over medical marijuana.
Amendment 2 to expand medical marijuana in Florida got 58 percent on the ballot in November, close enough to the 60 percent threshold needed to pass. Supporters -- including trial lawyer John Morgan -- are already back trying to get a medical marijuana amendment on the ballot for 2016.
Florida generally trends red in off-year elections but the state is closer in presidential contests. Morgan and other medical marijuana supporters think more Democrats and independents will come out to vote in 2016 and help move their amendment over the top than was the case in 2014 when strong national Republican momentum helped sink Amendment 2.
But, even if Amendment 2 came close last time out, a new medical marijuana proposal might not start out as strong. Gravis released a poll on Monday which shows 64 percent of Florida voters want to expand medical marijuana, a far cry from polls taken a year ago which showed more than 80 percent support for medical marijuana.
Amendment 2 left a bad taste in the mouths of many voters. So did Morgans support of it, especially after a video of him rallying supporters behind it with a rambling, often obscene speech went viral.
In the meantime, the Florida Legislature is starting to tackle medical marijuana again. So far, still in its infancy, Jeff Brandes medical marijuana bill is getting far more attention than the Charlottes Web bill from last year. That could help convince some voters, who back medical marijuana but might have reservations about adding it to the state Constitution, that another amendment is not needed.
Some medical marijuana groups have called for Morgan to play a less prominent role in 2016 than he did last time out. That looks unlikely to happen. Morgan is already hard at work getting ready for the second round on medical marijuana and appears as willing as ever to claim his part in the limelight.
Still, with Brandes on board, medical marijuana is picking up steam in Tallahassee and there is plenty of buzz that the FMA will also switch sides and back expansion. If Tallahassee offers well-thought-out, highly regulated expansion of medical marijuana, that could greatly change any efforts to get another amendment on the ballot.
A month to go until the Legislature meets, the issue of medical marijuana isnt going away. This fight will go in Tallahassee and on the ballot next year, just in time for another presidential contest with Florida at the epicenter.
Tallahassee political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this analysis exclusively for Sunshine State News.
