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The Maestro, John Morgan

For nearly half a decade, that delightfully maniacal, entertaining force of nature named John Morgan has made legalizing medical marijuana a big personal priority. We take Morgan’s motivation for this cause for what he says it is, but if he intended to use medical marijuana to showcase the pathetic hypocrisy and abandonment of philosophical principles so artfully accomplished by the Florida GOP on this issue, he could not have chosen a more perfect path.

Florida’s Constitution now contains language allowing its residents to use medical cannabis to relieve their pain and suffering. Even a first-year law student would understand that after the passage of a constitutional amendment, the legislature has a job to further determine how pot is grown, delivered, bought, and sold, and this should all be determined by statute. From there, the executive branch – the Governor or the Department of Health would do the job of regulating and rulemaking to provide any necessary further detailed regulation.

The legislature failed to placate Morgan, or at least avoided giving him what he wanted, when it tried to make available a form of medical marijuana with a strain of THC from a source known as Charlotte’s Web, so Morgan took the issue to the people again and by a stunning near 3-1 margin; voters embraced the concept of medical marijuana. What that means is debatable, but even the GOP’s biggest apologists could not create excuses to explain how the Republican-led legislature has failed in its legislative duties on this issue.

Next, the Kids will be Dancing!

You see, the tiny libertarian wing of the GOP and most legislative Democrats are all for medical marijuana. They likely would legalize recreational marijuana if they had the votes. However, the social conservatives and the business advocates in the Republican legislative leadership get a little nervous when they think about Pot. We won’t speculate as to what past experiences led these elected officials to their positions, but we are confident that each has their own story to tell and some of them actually have legitimate concerns like legal liability for driving, heavy equipment operation, and other life and work needs that could be complicated by medical marijuana.

We note that these same concerns can be applied to any other pharmaceutical opioid and other drug types as well as alcohol, so we are dumbfounded by the GOP’s fecklessness here. While nobody has argued that medical marijuana could lead to dancing, many have argued it to be a gateway drug to other illegal drugs. Most note that it is only a gateway drug if you keep it illegal and once legalized, it would be no more or less of a gateway than alcohol. Further, advocates note the massive legal, social and medical costs associated with alcohol and wonder why the GOP doesn’t share the same concern with it versus medical marijuana. Those with short memories may simply wish to google “Prohibition” to answer the question.  The stunning and devastating facts surrounding opioid addiction make the consideration of marijuana as an alternative all the more compelling and the GOP’s failures in doing their job on medical marijuana that much more offensive.