Group seeks to legalize marijuana in Florida

[Martha Focker]

good thing this is a public ballot initiative and not a law they get to decide on only in tallahassee.

 

[Captain Ginyu]

That may be the case; but if and when it passes, who's going to write it into law?

 

[MrBelvedere]

That may be the case; but if and when it passes, who's going to write it into law?

The way it works for FLorida state and pretty much every STATE is like this...

--There are two ways a "state laws" can be created--

1) Usually what happens is the politicians who are elected (Florida senators and Representatives) draft laws, then debate them. Many times the politicians don't even write the laws themselves, outside lobbying firms write the law drafts and mail the document to the senators who just put their name on it and pretend they wrote it themself! The documents are read on the Senate and Representative floor so at this phase it is officially "on the record". Sometimes the politicians debate for days, weeks, months, or years trying to agree to a compromise. At some point the proposed law document will be either put in the trash bin because it has very little support, or taken up for a vote by the elected politicians. IF the law passes, it's immediately sent to the desk of the Governer who makes the decision to sign it as approval, or if he doesn't agree with that he can veto it. If he signs the documents now it is officially a State Law.


2) Every day normal people like you or me can write our own document with our own ideas and language- and start a citizen-led Petition/Initiative. After we write the petition/initiative then phase 2 starts, we must gather 70,000 signatures from Florida registered voters. These 70,000 signatures are required to make it a valid petition with the Attorney General. Once those 70,000 signatures are verified legit, then Florida normal citizens have to do the hard part- collect 700,000 MORE signatures by a certain deadline! Once the 700k signatures are collected it officially becomes a valid voter initiative and you will see it if you go into the voting booth on Election Day. While standing in the booth you see the text of the initiative and you can choose to vote yes or no. IF 60% of the FL voters vote yes, the Initiative automatically becomes part of the State Constitution and cannot be changed by the politicians. . ...But, the politicians are sneaky sometimes so beware. Depending on how clearly initiative text language is it can be very hard to impossible for the politicians to "change it" or "enact regulations." Being the sneaky politicians that they are... the politicians may write new laws by themselves (with help of lobbyist) to try to circumvent the will of the voters. IF the politicians pass a law that tries to circumvent the voter initiative (aka Constitutional Law) they better be careful and not overstep their bounds. Some person or some group can challenge "politicians law/regulations" by taking it to court... And say "hey Judge, the voters have passed this new constitutional law, and all the politicians are trying to fuck it up!" After hearing the arguments, the court will make a decision. The voter initiative (which is now a constitutional law) always supersedes the "politician laws".

Hope that makes sense?

 

[Martha Focker]

once it's on the ballot and we vote that's it. the governor can't veto and congress can't change it. if they approve it to be on the ballot then it's a valid initiative.

or what he said ^^^

 

[kinesis]

Sheldon Adelson is the enemy...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/10/28/casino-billionaire-sheldon-adelson-is-behind-85-percent-of-floridas-anti-pot-campaign/

Apparently his wife is some addiction doctor and has interests in the addiction industry. Keeping it illegal is part of his interests.