http://www.mainstreet.com/article/family/family-health/floridas-marijuana-legalization-battle-gets-nasty
WE REALLY, REALLY NEED TO WIN THIS THING
Florida's Marijuana Legalization Battle Gets Nasty
By Marguerite Arnold
NEW YORK (MainStreet) — More than any other state this year, perhaps because of the high stakes in play and the dollars at stake, Florida's legalization battle is shaping up to be one of the most dramatic if not nastiest in the country.
While the issue of marijuana legalization plays a starring role, the undercurrents are very much driven by political power and money as well as the future of marijuana medical access in the U.S.
Related Articles
Also See: Florida Medical Marijuana Gets Big Boost
The bit players in the drama include some of the nation's most powerful political and business interests who appear to be more motivated by scoring votes and raising money and personal status than by patients' rights or new entrepreneurial markets for small business.
The result is a hypocritical display of pandering politics and attempts at power grabs characterized most recently by Governor Andrew Cuomo's attempts to become the "man at the kill switch" to control the state access issue in New York in June.
In the process, America's most interesting, entrepreneurial and budding market may end up universally sidelined by those who are queuing up on the other side of voter driven demand for legalization.
Part of the story is that Florida has a huge potential demand for both medical and recreational use. Potential ganjapreneurs are already setting up infrastructure in anticipation of a widely anticipated November victory.
It doesn't take the stoner version of Warren Buffet to see why.
The state's well-heeled seniors are becoming a demographic of aging Boomers with time on their hands, money in their pockets and age-related medical conditions that medical marijuana can treat like no other drug. This would be a drug (or many of them) just for this demographic that could also easily be funded by Obamacare if not Medicare (if not Medicaid) and for which there are many eligible patients.
Part of the story is the quagmire that is devolving given the seniority of those involved in both Florida if not national party politics. However, the issues if not individuals involved contradict the claim that this battle is a local or a partisan one, a flatly misleading that has already appeared in the national press given the direct impact already experienced.
There are in fact direct ties to the legalization business and body politic that extend from the Florida drama directly to New York, Nevada and beyond. How the marijuana policy goes in Florida, therefore may stamp the tone if not the issue itself on political platforms nationally heading into 2016 and the burgeoning industry.
Related Articles
The easiest way to understand the the marijuana legalization adoption and resistance is to merely follow the money.
Democratic House Representative and Democratic National Party Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a big part of the story. She represents Florida's 23rd Congressional District which includes well heeled and well off Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. She is also a major fundraiser for the national Democratic Party and the first Jewish congresswoman elected in Florida. Yet Wasserman Schultz has taken a stand against the state ballot initiative known as Amendment 2 to legalize marijuana for medical use in Florida in November. Lost in most discussions about the topic is also the fact that she is also a surviving cancer patient whose health care was funded directly by the taxpayers.
The level of discontent about her stated public position to the situation in Florida (she publicly opposes Amendment 2), if not her recent vote in the House against DEA and DOJ federal enforcement of prohibition in states where marijuana is legal, has led to an almost unprecedented public backlash by some of the party's most generous and successful fundraisers. As John Morgan, a powerful lawyer, Democratic Party fundraiser and significant financier of Amendment 2 told the Miami Herald in early June, "I will never give a penny or raise a penny for the national party while she's in leadership. And I have given and helped raise millions."
His threat was taken seriously. So much so, in fact that the DNC recently characterized Wasserman Schultz's comments as "speaking as a mom and a member of Congress on her personal concerns on a local issue." How her vote on a federal issue that directly impacts every state could be characterized that way is still unclear not to mention what the DNC's position is on the topic of national legalization. That said, clearly being associated with angry fundraisers forswearing further financial footwork for the party is clearly not high on the DNC list of political priorities.
Related Articles
Even for those who are not Democratic Party insiders, however, the reluctant foot dragging of both the DNC if not the statements and positions of Wasserman Schultz herself seem to look even stranger when put in context of both the national debate if not the murky swamp waters of the same in Florida.
Why?
Taking a strong stand in favor of sensible legalization is a winning issue with bipartisan voters both in Florida and nationally, despite unbelievable reluctance by party leaders and elders to engage unless forced to by direct constituent action. The success of the legalization drive by the ballot box in Nevada was the specific reason if not responsible for the timing of Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's change of heart this year. In a further irony perhaps no more complicated than home-turf and geography, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Governor of Wasserman Shultz's home state of New York has also been finally dragged into signing a (highly restrictive) medical marijuana bill that excludes all but manufactured cannabinoid products.
And this is just the party affiliated Democrats.
The identity if not association of the official opposition in Florida is, to some extent, affiliated with the Republican party; however, that connection does not really explain the situation or why certain people are taking the sides that they are on the issue.
The organized opponents to medical legalization in the state start and pretty much end with a group of people who might well double, at least on the surface, as the whacky villains in a modern Cheech and Chong flick. The group's official name is rather ironically, Drug Free Florida. The group is founded, backed and run by a rogues gallery of individuals from the darkest years of pot prohibition (The "Just Say No" era of the Reagan Administration) who not only claim (like prominent Democrats on this issue) that pot is a gateway drug, but have in the past claimed it causes homosexuality and AIDS.
Related Articles
To date, the group has taken to slinging these rehashed, if not categorically and factually incorrect "pot shots" against medical marijuana as a topic if not the November ballot initiative. However Florida is not the first state campaign that at least some of these players have been involved in.
The extent to which Florida is actually only a pawn in a larger debate if not chess game was clarified last week when Nevada businessman Sheldon Adelson became one of DFF's biggest financiers, donating $2.5 million to the group. Adelson was also front and center on the other side of the issue when the gaming industry fought medical legalization in Nevada, a position that proved ultimately not only expensive but futile when state voters legalized medical cannabis by ballot vote in 2013.
80-year-old Billionaire Adelson works as Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation which operates both the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas.
But that's not all he's up to.
Also See: Medical Marijuana Efficacy Shown Through Multiple Studies
Adelson is also the co-founder of the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation which released a fascinating study in 2013, the same year as his home state legalized medical marijuana. The study found that CBD and THC helped ease spinal cord and brain swelling in lab mice. These are conditions similar to Multiple Sclerosis.
Related Articles
What also begins to look rather strange (if not self interested) is that the study, which was conducted by Tel Aviv University in Israel (an association that comes with Adelson's wife's long and established career as a serious medical researcher) along with the Weizmann Institute of Science and published in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology.
Also See: Will Cannabis Become Another American Outsourced Crop?
Israel is, some believe, the premier nation on the planet pioneering groundbreaking cannabinoid research and applications for medical use. Such research has been largely stalled in the U.S. because of the federal prohibitions that surround pot. Earlier this year the Israeli government also expanded access to the drug for chronically ill patients after 15 families with sick children threatened to immigrate to Colorado to find treatment. Israel has a nationally funded healthcare system.
Stateside, however, no matter his philanthropic efforts internationally, Adelson, despite the similarity of his "gateway" claims to high ranking Democratic politicians, prefers to fund Republican candidates for political office. He did so in 2012 alone to the tune of $150 million, mostly in losing races.
What seems to be clear however, no matter the supposed "ironies" about political messaging this year is that those who oppose medical marijuana on both sides of the aisle are being, at minimum, coy about their motivations.
Specifically Adelson, Wasserman Schultz and Cuomo seem queasy about "gateway" drugs at the heart of their reluctance to back more democratic access to the natural plant if not entrepreneurial market seems in fact to be at least partially creating if not beating a national highway to access for large multinational corporations. Companies who also have an eye if not already vested interests in the lucrative healthcare if not food market with an established reach to get there quickly once the issue of legalization for medical purposes (at minimum) hits a state-wide established medical infrastructure (as in New York State).
Related Articles
Not to mention the national ballot box.
This may seem like paranoid speculation, pot fueled or not at this point, as the domestic market is coming into its own particularly in the West if not on the East Coast after the November ballot initiative in Florida.
However as the saying goes, "with friends like these one hardly needs enemies." In the case of Florida, the apparent "enemies" of legalization have as much to lose, ultimately as the other side of the political aisle. Not to mention vested economic interests that seem to coincide at the bottom line if not the ballot box.
At least nationally.
And as much as the DNC would like to pretend that what goes on in the Sunshine state stays there, the battle lines and road warriors at the heart of opposition to Florida's November vote have already announced this issue is now one being fought on a national if not international playing field.
WE REALLY, REALLY NEED TO WIN THIS THING
Florida's Marijuana Legalization Battle Gets Nasty
By Marguerite Arnold
While the issue of marijuana legalization plays a starring role, the undercurrents are very much driven by political power and money as well as the future of marijuana medical access in the U.S.
Related Articles
- Pot Dispensary on Wheels Draws Regulatory Attention
- Denver Marijuana Startup Competition Attracts Tech Talent
- Not Your Father's Marijuana: Pot's Strength Has Increased Amid Legalization
- Marijuana Legalization in Colorado Gets New Report
- Marijuana Industry in Nevada Is Rife With Political Jockeying
Also See: Florida Medical Marijuana Gets Big Boost
The bit players in the drama include some of the nation's most powerful political and business interests who appear to be more motivated by scoring votes and raising money and personal status than by patients' rights or new entrepreneurial markets for small business.
The result is a hypocritical display of pandering politics and attempts at power grabs characterized most recently by Governor Andrew Cuomo's attempts to become the "man at the kill switch" to control the state access issue in New York in June.
In the process, America's most interesting, entrepreneurial and budding market may end up universally sidelined by those who are queuing up on the other side of voter driven demand for legalization.
Part of the story is that Florida has a huge potential demand for both medical and recreational use. Potential ganjapreneurs are already setting up infrastructure in anticipation of a widely anticipated November victory.
It doesn't take the stoner version of Warren Buffet to see why.
The state's well-heeled seniors are becoming a demographic of aging Boomers with time on their hands, money in their pockets and age-related medical conditions that medical marijuana can treat like no other drug. This would be a drug (or many of them) just for this demographic that could also easily be funded by Obamacare if not Medicare (if not Medicaid) and for which there are many eligible patients.
Part of the story is the quagmire that is devolving given the seniority of those involved in both Florida if not national party politics. However, the issues if not individuals involved contradict the claim that this battle is a local or a partisan one, a flatly misleading that has already appeared in the national press given the direct impact already experienced.
There are in fact direct ties to the legalization business and body politic that extend from the Florida drama directly to New York, Nevada and beyond. How the marijuana policy goes in Florida, therefore may stamp the tone if not the issue itself on political platforms nationally heading into 2016 and the burgeoning industry.
Related Articles
- Pot Dispensary on Wheels Draws Regulatory Attention
- Denver Marijuana Startup Competition Attracts Tech Talent
- Not Your Father's Marijuana: Pot's Strength Has Increased Amid Legalization
- Marijuana Legalization in Colorado Gets New Report
- Marijuana Industry in Nevada Is Rife With Political Jockeying
The easiest way to understand the the marijuana legalization adoption and resistance is to merely follow the money.
Democratic House Representative and Democratic National Party Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a big part of the story. She represents Florida's 23rd Congressional District which includes well heeled and well off Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. She is also a major fundraiser for the national Democratic Party and the first Jewish congresswoman elected in Florida. Yet Wasserman Schultz has taken a stand against the state ballot initiative known as Amendment 2 to legalize marijuana for medical use in Florida in November. Lost in most discussions about the topic is also the fact that she is also a surviving cancer patient whose health care was funded directly by the taxpayers.
The level of discontent about her stated public position to the situation in Florida (she publicly opposes Amendment 2), if not her recent vote in the House against DEA and DOJ federal enforcement of prohibition in states where marijuana is legal, has led to an almost unprecedented public backlash by some of the party's most generous and successful fundraisers. As John Morgan, a powerful lawyer, Democratic Party fundraiser and significant financier of Amendment 2 told the Miami Herald in early June, "I will never give a penny or raise a penny for the national party while she's in leadership. And I have given and helped raise millions."
His threat was taken seriously. So much so, in fact that the DNC recently characterized Wasserman Schultz's comments as "speaking as a mom and a member of Congress on her personal concerns on a local issue." How her vote on a federal issue that directly impacts every state could be characterized that way is still unclear not to mention what the DNC's position is on the topic of national legalization. That said, clearly being associated with angry fundraisers forswearing further financial footwork for the party is clearly not high on the DNC list of political priorities.
Related Articles
- Pot Dispensary on Wheels Draws Regulatory Attention
- Denver Marijuana Startup Competition Attracts Tech Talent
- Not Your Father's Marijuana: Pot's Strength Has Increased Amid Legalization
- Marijuana Legalization in Colorado Gets New Report
- Marijuana Industry in Nevada Is Rife With Political Jockeying
Even for those who are not Democratic Party insiders, however, the reluctant foot dragging of both the DNC if not the statements and positions of Wasserman Schultz herself seem to look even stranger when put in context of both the national debate if not the murky swamp waters of the same in Florida.
Why?
Taking a strong stand in favor of sensible legalization is a winning issue with bipartisan voters both in Florida and nationally, despite unbelievable reluctance by party leaders and elders to engage unless forced to by direct constituent action. The success of the legalization drive by the ballot box in Nevada was the specific reason if not responsible for the timing of Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's change of heart this year. In a further irony perhaps no more complicated than home-turf and geography, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Governor of Wasserman Shultz's home state of New York has also been finally dragged into signing a (highly restrictive) medical marijuana bill that excludes all but manufactured cannabinoid products.
And this is just the party affiliated Democrats.
The identity if not association of the official opposition in Florida is, to some extent, affiliated with the Republican party; however, that connection does not really explain the situation or why certain people are taking the sides that they are on the issue.
The organized opponents to medical legalization in the state start and pretty much end with a group of people who might well double, at least on the surface, as the whacky villains in a modern Cheech and Chong flick. The group's official name is rather ironically, Drug Free Florida. The group is founded, backed and run by a rogues gallery of individuals from the darkest years of pot prohibition (The "Just Say No" era of the Reagan Administration) who not only claim (like prominent Democrats on this issue) that pot is a gateway drug, but have in the past claimed it causes homosexuality and AIDS.
Related Articles
- Pot Dispensary on Wheels Draws Regulatory Attention
- Denver Marijuana Startup Competition Attracts Tech Talent
- Not Your Father's Marijuana: Pot's Strength Has Increased Amid Legalization
- Marijuana Legalization in Colorado Gets New Report
- Marijuana Industry in Nevada Is Rife With Political Jockeying
To date, the group has taken to slinging these rehashed, if not categorically and factually incorrect "pot shots" against medical marijuana as a topic if not the November ballot initiative. However Florida is not the first state campaign that at least some of these players have been involved in.
The extent to which Florida is actually only a pawn in a larger debate if not chess game was clarified last week when Nevada businessman Sheldon Adelson became one of DFF's biggest financiers, donating $2.5 million to the group. Adelson was also front and center on the other side of the issue when the gaming industry fought medical legalization in Nevada, a position that proved ultimately not only expensive but futile when state voters legalized medical cannabis by ballot vote in 2013.
80-year-old Billionaire Adelson works as Chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation which operates both the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas.
But that's not all he's up to.
Also See: Medical Marijuana Efficacy Shown Through Multiple Studies
Adelson is also the co-founder of the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation which released a fascinating study in 2013, the same year as his home state legalized medical marijuana. The study found that CBD and THC helped ease spinal cord and brain swelling in lab mice. These are conditions similar to Multiple Sclerosis.
Related Articles
- Pot Dispensary on Wheels Draws Regulatory Attention
- Denver Marijuana Startup Competition Attracts Tech Talent
- Not Your Father's Marijuana: Pot's Strength Has Increased Amid Legalization
- Marijuana Legalization in Colorado Gets New Report
- Marijuana Industry in Nevada Is Rife With Political Jockeying
What also begins to look rather strange (if not self interested) is that the study, which was conducted by Tel Aviv University in Israel (an association that comes with Adelson's wife's long and established career as a serious medical researcher) along with the Weizmann Institute of Science and published in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology.
Also See: Will Cannabis Become Another American Outsourced Crop?
Israel is, some believe, the premier nation on the planet pioneering groundbreaking cannabinoid research and applications for medical use. Such research has been largely stalled in the U.S. because of the federal prohibitions that surround pot. Earlier this year the Israeli government also expanded access to the drug for chronically ill patients after 15 families with sick children threatened to immigrate to Colorado to find treatment. Israel has a nationally funded healthcare system.
Stateside, however, no matter his philanthropic efforts internationally, Adelson, despite the similarity of his "gateway" claims to high ranking Democratic politicians, prefers to fund Republican candidates for political office. He did so in 2012 alone to the tune of $150 million, mostly in losing races.
What seems to be clear however, no matter the supposed "ironies" about political messaging this year is that those who oppose medical marijuana on both sides of the aisle are being, at minimum, coy about their motivations.
Specifically Adelson, Wasserman Schultz and Cuomo seem queasy about "gateway" drugs at the heart of their reluctance to back more democratic access to the natural plant if not entrepreneurial market seems in fact to be at least partially creating if not beating a national highway to access for large multinational corporations. Companies who also have an eye if not already vested interests in the lucrative healthcare if not food market with an established reach to get there quickly once the issue of legalization for medical purposes (at minimum) hits a state-wide established medical infrastructure (as in New York State).
Related Articles
- Pot Dispensary on Wheels Draws Regulatory Attention
- Denver Marijuana Startup Competition Attracts Tech Talent
- Not Your Father's Marijuana: Pot's Strength Has Increased Amid Legalization
- Marijuana Legalization in Colorado Gets New Report
- Marijuana Industry in Nevada Is Rife With Political Jockeying
Not to mention the national ballot box.
This may seem like paranoid speculation, pot fueled or not at this point, as the domestic market is coming into its own particularly in the West if not on the East Coast after the November ballot initiative in Florida.
However as the saying goes, "with friends like these one hardly needs enemies." In the case of Florida, the apparent "enemies" of legalization have as much to lose, ultimately as the other side of the political aisle. Not to mention vested economic interests that seem to coincide at the bottom line if not the ballot box.
At least nationally.
And as much as the DNC would like to pretend that what goes on in the Sunshine state stays there, the battle lines and road warriors at the heart of opposition to Florida's November vote have already announced this issue is now one being fought on a national if not international playing field.
