The Florida Sheriff's Association said on Tuesday it opposes a medical marijuana bill filed last week in the state legislature, but does so a tad less heavy handedly than you might expect.
They came out full bore against Amendment 2, which would have legalized medical marijuana, and which voters nearly passed last November, of course. But this time around their opposition actually has slightly more nuance than the Reefer Madness-y tone they took a few months ago.
Their slight openness stems from consumption methods; after all, our top cops know only one method of consumption makes you want to stare at a lava lamp while listening to Pink Floyd's Animals instead of going to church.
"You don't smoke medicine," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told reporters Tuesday.
Last week he told reporters he'd be open to allowing it to be taken topically (like as an oil you rub on your hands) because "few people are going to be sitting around on Saturday night thinking, ‘Oh my God, let’s sit here with our strobe lights or whatever and let’s get oil and rub it on our hand.”
The bill, which St. Petersburg Republican State Senator filed last week, would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for a list of conditions or for patients experiencing symptoms like chronic pain. It would give counties the authority to decide whether to allow vendors to legally sell it within their boundaries.
Brandes said he didn't support Amendment 2 because he thought it was too broad, and such a law ought to go throughout the legislative process so lawmakers can fine tune it.
“Throughout my campaign for Senate I kept saying, look, I don't support Amendment 2 because the legislature should run it through the legislative process," he told SaintPetersBlog's Janelle Irwin on her WMNF radio news talk show. "And I really wanted to see it…vetted, I wanted to see it transparent, I want people to be able to add amendments, I want public comment, I want the debate and the discourse that happens in a legislative process that is very different from the take-it-or-leave-it offer that you get with a constitutional amendment.”
Gualtieri said Brandes' bill had "loose language" that might allow "de facto recreational use."
It's unclear what will become of Brandes' proposal. The sheriffs are obviously a powerful group that can apply pressure to lawmakers. Plus, the bill still lacks a House sponsor (anyone?).
Obviously it's one we'll be keeping an eye on to see if it goes anywhere, or if it'll instead be on the ballot in 2016.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2015.