It\u2019s crunch time in election season, and in Florida, people on both sides of the medical marijuana issue Floridians will vote on in November are ramping up their efforts. As Matt Galka tells us, a strong voice in the Florida legislature is saying no.<\/p>\n\n

Pinellas County Senator Jack Latvala wants to make sure everyone knows he\u2019s against the Medical Marijuana Amendment 2 measure on the ballot in November.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want candy like this to be out in candy dishes and people’s homes where children can take advantage of it. I just see too many opportunities for abuse,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Senator \u2013 who is set to be that chamber\u2019s main money man \u2013 joined former Florida Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Bell in opposing putting pot in the state\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou create a fundamental right but the legislature is very constrained in the ability to deal with unintended consequences,” said Bell.<\/p>\n

Sen. Latvala also launched an ad urging people to vote “no” on the amendment.<\/p>\n

But supporters are pushing back.\u00a0 We reached Ben Pollara via Skype. He\u2019s leading United for Care\u2019s push for the Amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people who would benefit under medical marijuana under amendment 2 simply don\u2019t have access to it at all under current law,” he said.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg Senator Jeff Brandes also chimed in. He supports the amendment, and doesn\u2019t agree the legislature has done enough so far.<\/p>\n

“Now that the legislature has declared and the Governor has agreed that it has medical properties, I think we should allow doctors to practice medicine,” said Sen. Brandes.<\/p>\n

Latvala\u2019s ad cost him $100,000, but Yes on 2 people are optimistic it will be too little, too late.<\/p>\n

A recent Florida Chamber of Commerce poll showed nearly 75 percent of Floridians are in support of the medical marijuana amendment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s crunch time in election season, and in Florida, people on both sides of the medical marijuana issue Floridians will vote on in November are ramping up their efforts. As Matt Galka tells us, a strong voice in the Florida legislature is saying no. Pinellas County Senator Jack Latvala wants to make sure everyone knows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32868,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32860\/revisions\/32868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}