Florida Medical Marijuana in 2014
I hope everyone is doing their duty today and voting Yes on 2 for the legalization of marijuana in the state, the outlook it good I must say. Even most of the Trump supporters I know are voting yes on this matter, the ones that aren't usually the seniors in our state. What a glorious day it will be tomorrow if we pull this off. I have been focusing more on spreading our word through social media that this website, but after tomorrow we will go through a complete restructuring of our mission and this website. So get ready because it's about to be an exciting time to be a Floridian, so get out there and make history and make your voice heard!!
The state of Florida is finally getting around to possibly giving out medical marijuana licenses to growers this summer, this means we are now getting at least a little closer to gaining access to limited forms of cannabis oil that were passed into law last year by the Florida legislature.
The Department of Health will be in a charge of issuing the licenses to the prospective growers, however there is still a large barrier to entry if you intend to get in on the action. In order to get a license to be a grower you must have an established nursery business that has been running for at least 30 years, plus be capable of producing at least four hundred thousand plants to meet the demand.
Reportedly only about a hundred businesses in the whole entire state actually meet these requirements, in addition to that you also need the capital to purchase a bond and cover all the start-up costs for building a new nursery for the growing your marijuana plants. So for us little guys it still looks bleak as far as being able to grow marijuana in the state of Florida, it shouldn’t be surprising that our representatives in the legislature are making sure only their rich friends benefits from the legalization of medical marijuana.
However we will continue to fight into 2016 and hopefully get a new amendment on the ballot, this time the wording of the amendment should be much approved and not as restrictive as the last version.
Even though this current legislation in much needed it only allows certain strains of marijuana to be grown that are low in THC, they are essentially targeting children who are prone to epilepsy and other debilitating conditions. Studies have proven that low grade marijuana has been able to help stop their seizures, so this makes it difficult for a hard line politicians to say no when there are little children suffering.
After the passage of this legislation last year the selling of this type of marijuana was scheduled to begin at the beginning January 2015, however it has run into roadblocks because of administrative law Judge W. David Watkins who sided with one challenger last year. This decision made the Florida Department of Health to create a rulemaking workshop and form a committee to review the regulations, also lately the Baywood Nurseries in Apopka Florida has claimed that the policy is too vague and unfair. Claiming that the law favors the bigger nurseries, however that challenge has been rejected so it looks like applications from the big nurseries will soon be reviewed.
I totally don’t understand that if we are going to legalize medical marijuana in Florida why can’t these families just grow these strains themselves, making them pay a premium price to a nursery just doesn’t make sense. Families with sick children are already under a huge financial strain, and requiring them to dish out even more money for weed is just inexcusable.
Recently there was a study about risky youth behavior that was released on May 21st by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and it contains some very intriguing news, apparently more teenagers in the United States are now smoking marijuana more than they are cigarettes. The study shows that high school students polled are saying that more have admitted smoking marijuana within the last 30 days than those who have smoked tobacco, one thing the study shows is that the approach we've used to combat tobacco use works better than our policy towards marijuana.
So apparently those commercials that are informing us about how bad tobacco use is working more efficiently than outright banning it like we do marijuana, from 1993 to 2003 the number of teens smoking cigarettes is dropped from 30.5% down to 21.9% so this is quite a dramatic shift in teen behavior.
Plus there is another big contribution to the switch from tobacco to marijuana being people's primary source of smoking enjoyment , if you want to buy tobacco you have to show an ID card because convenience stores have very strict laws on selling tobacco products to minors. In many states they can be fined and even worse lose their license to sell tobacco products they are caught, so that also is a major contribution to this phenomenon.
As most marijuana smokers have noticed it is the young kids today who have the best weed connections because no one has to show an ID card to buy marijuana, it’s always the adults that have problems finding it but any high school kid can get you a bag if you ask them. So that there another reason why marijuana needs to be legalized in the state of Florida, we need to do it for the children as well as for the veterans of this great state.
So let's hope we can continue to make more steps forward and be ready for the 2016 election year, we almost did it last year it was really heartbreaking to come so close and miss it. The best scenario would be to do like Washington state where as soon as you walk into any recreational marijuana store you are carded at the door, the tax levels are at a reasonable rate and you can get a strains of marijuana with 17 percent THC and more for 10 dollars a gram. Which I believe is pretty much the perfect price for primo weed, there is no reason why we can't bring this to the Sunshine State in 2016.
Kids of course will still get access to marijuana but they'll have to jump through more hoops to get it just like they do with tobacco, plus these days kids are a lot more aware of the dangers of tobacco because they are warned with the ads that show them the consequences. When they show tobacco ads the dangers just pale in comparison to the anti-marijuana ads, the biggest danger of marijuana is making stupid mistakes like not going to class. The truth about marijuana has been suppressed for a long time now and it is time that people are finally realizing the truth, and we must continue to struggle forward to get it more into the public consciousness.
Well it looks like if you’re a terrorist in the state of Florida that you are safe from prosecution if you are a god fearing Christian, as was proven recently by the Jesus warrior Susan Hemeryck. Recently she made the news when she entered the Florida state capital in Tallahassee and was offended by the shrine to Satan that had been put up The Satanic Temple, but in her twisted little mind godless heathens are not allowed the same civil liberties as the rest of America. So she began to take apart the display and walk away with it to do god knows what, her heavenly plans were thwarted though she capital security stopped her and promptly has her arrested.
In her defense she stated that she was expressing her religious freedom by denying it to those who disagree with her, her case went to the prosecutor’s office who initially offered her a plea deal but she decided to fight it. Well looks like the prosecutors didn't want to touch this case with a ten foot pole because they just announced that they are dropping all charges against her. We all know if the tables were turned and one of us pot smoking godless heathens went and damaged a Christian display there would have been no leniency whatsoever, you would certainly be hit with some fines and community service and possible jail time. On top of that every church leader would be on TV whining how godis under attack in this country, and use it to scare and guilt trip their followers into pouring more money into their collection plates.
This incident is just another example of the Christian privilege that exists in our country, and especially down here in the bible belt of the Florida panhandle. A lot of people will get upset if you refer to any part of Florida being part of the Bible belt, but the truth is it extends all the way down to at least the Ocala area. Anyone who lives in Jacksonville can tell you how the Baptist church runs that town, and when I worked at a certain FSU department we had to say a prayer before our business meetings. Tallahassee has been ruled over by bible thumping state attorney Willie Meggs, ironically the same prosecutor’s office that gave this woman a pass on her act of vandalism. Willie Meggs is notorious from going on a rampage against local video rental shops trying to stop them from renting pornographic videos and DVD’s, ultimately he was unsuccessful but he put a lot of business owners out of business due to their legal fees. So it’s pretty obvious as to why she got off so easy, and now her and other Florida religious leaders are gloating on how god blessed them with this victory against the power of Satan. Well hallefuckingluah hope they are happy.
Well this blog has been lacking for various reasons last few months, one of which was the failure of our grass roots effort to legalize medical marijuana in Florida back in November. I came down with some serious health issues at the end of October that prevented me in participating in events leading up to the election. Even though I was following things along as best I could, I along with many others thought for sure we had it this time. Even towards the end of election night when the count had reached only 59% of Florida voter approving medical marijuana I thought we would pull it out in the end, it was like being in the fourth quarter of the Superbowl and all we needed was a field goal to win. But then all was lost when the kicker failed to get it through the uprights, such a sad ending after all the effort and money that was spent. However we can be proud of the battle of that waged on the behalf of all us that need medical marijuana for our ailments, and at least our voice has been heard and hopefully the politicians in Tallahassee will take notice now. So the real question is where do we go from here, the biggest step will be to prepare for the 2016 election and work to make the wording of the amendment even better. Allowing for patients to grow their own marijuana for personal use should be essential to the document, as too many businessmen are looking to profit off medical marijuana and exploit the patients just like the pharmaceutical companies during the past years. I don't really understand how politicians in this state can be against medical marijuana and then complain about all the pill mills in the state, when legalization would be a big step in reducing demand for the pill mills. Nothing will change though as long as we have the republicans in charge, as they only see the world through their narrow view. Florida has a lot problems that need to addressed, not just drugs but many environmental and education issues. But things will continue to stay the same until we use our voting powers to change those who are making the big decisions for us, it’s easy to feel hopeless in our current environment but we must press on if we are to make Florida a better state.
Well the primary election is now over and I went and voted like I should as a responsible citizen, I voted for Charlie Crist as the democratic candidate of course because he’s our guy who supports medical marijuana, so there really is no other choice. However after Tuesday the evil Rick Scott wasted no time in unleashing the hounds on Crist in a series of political ads attempting to attack his character, these ads are exploiting the fact that Crist accepted money from Scott Rothstein, who robbed a lot of people in an elaborate Ponzi scheme. The fact is that politicians accept money from all kinds of shady people, and it happens on both sides of the political spectrum. It's ironic that Rick Scott is complaining since he himself should be in a prison cell along with Scott Rothstein, I think people who rob Medicare along with elderly and sick people are the lowest scum on earth. That is reason #1 why Rick Scott will never get my vote, he has a lot nerve saying the governor’s office is for sale when he bought it himself with his ill-gotten money. Rick Scott’s claims of Charlie Crist taking money in exchange for judicial appointments is coming from the mouth of the fraudster Scott Rothstein himself, who is certainly not someone who should be taken seriously. It’s obvious he is making these statements in hopes that it will help garner him some favor from republican allies in his future appeals, let’s make sure that this doesn’t work by kicking Rick Scott to the curb where he belongs. Charlie Crist is not perfect by any means but he's supporting medical marijuana and that’s all the reason I need to vote for him right now, we might have lots of other important issues but Rick Scott isn’t helping with those either. Since Rick Scott has been employed I’ve lost my job and my health and unemployment benefits thanks for his policies, and it certainly isn’t going to get any better while he is in Tallahassee. He needs to be run out of town and let him get back to filling his bank accounts with money from his drug testing business, and whatever other shady businesses he is involved with.
Well there was great news for stoners and families in the state of Florida in recent weeks, our usually black hearted governor Rick Scott signed into law a bill to allow parents of very sick children access to the Charlotte’s Web variety of marijuana, I am actually shocked that Rick Scott has finally done something I approve of. It almost makes you think that he has a soul, and may even possibly have a conscience but let’s not get too farfetched. The point is that this is a great step forward in our journey towards legalization, details on how one can obtain it are still unclear for now. It would be ideal if these parents are able to buy the seeds and grow this special strain of marijuana for themselves, as it's almost assured that most of these people are strapped financially and can't afford to pay premium dispensary prices. It's hard to believe that just one year from now those of us with serious illnesses may possibly be able to get access to the medicine we need, I look forwards to being able to buy dabs and go around hitting it with my vape pen. These families are perfect people to fight for our cause, it’s like all the pieces are falling into place. I hope everyone remembers to show up at the polls in November, just remember on election day to wait until after you submit your ballot before hitting the bong! Anyway the parents of these children are magical weapons for the medical marijuana cause, because it’s very difficult for politicians to say no to sick children. Maybe this will convince some of them that the devil weed isn't as evil as we have been told, and it's time for our government to realize their mistake and make this magical herb available for all of us who need it. This case alone makes the case for medical marijuana overwhelming, anyone who opposes it now is really living in a state of denial. As the weeks march on the conservative will be making up all kinds of lies as to why it should still be illegal, and we must be ready to do battle with them as November comes near. The legislature is already bickering on how to allow this new medical grade marijuana for the kids, where I think the parents should be able to grow and have it mailed to them from states where it is already legal. Of course that will require the federal government to lay down their draconian arms and allow the post office to deliver the goods, for the kids I certainly hope that a solution can worked out in the near future.
With the election in November coming close each day we all have to prepare for the day that medical marijuana finally becomes legal in Florida, because even then the battles over Marijuana will not be over. There are still a lot of questions as to who will be allowed to grow Marijuana, and how licenses for running the dispensaries will be distributed. For those of us who have experience in growing there will be many money making opportunities opening up, I quit running grow operations years ago when the risk got to be too much. I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone to start growing with it still being very illegal and the penalties for being busted quite extreme, however there is no harm in making plans on how to put together your grow operation once growing medical marijuana becomes legal in Florida. We totally intend to use this site to share our knowledge of running successful grow operations to show you how to produce a successful crop of high quality kush, growing is not that difficult but there are a lot of details you have to pay attention to. For those intending to start their own grow operations come November it is best to start doing your homework now, and even investing in equipment because once it's legal there may be a shortage in essential supplies.
At least for the foreseeable future it will be required to run your grow operations indoors, which means that you will have to provide your own lighting for the plants. The problem with this is it will run your electric bills up very high, and one of the top ways that cops locate grow houses is by reviewing electric bills and looking for spikes in usage. So you really can only get away with a small operation of a few plants, this is unfortunate since sunshine is free. Once it is safe to grow outside we will have access to about thirty acres of prime north Florida farmland that we intend to use, and then the real marijuana farming will begin! Even though we don't recommend running a growing operation if you are careful you can do a test run of one plant, just be careful to not let anyone know about it. You don't want to get in trouble with the law over just one plant, I had a friend who nearly lost his house for having less than ten plants and they weren't even two inches high when he was raided. So go forward with extreme caution but start making your plans to be a medical marijuana warrior in the state of Florida, one day we have great tales to tell our children of how we fought the evil overlords during the dark days of Marijuana Prohibition!
Well this week was the deadline for the pot dispensaries to send their taxes to the state of Colorado, and the results from the first full month are way beyond anyone’s expectations. Even though the official numbers won’t be reported until sometime in March, John Hickenlooper the Governor is already projecting the taxes collected from legal marijuana to top 180 million over the next eighteen months. Now consider those numbers plus the millions being saved by the state by not prosecuting people for marijuana related crimes, in a couple of years from now the state of Colorado could easily have a cool extra billion in its state budget. That’s enough money to build a few new schools or improve infrastructure the possibilities are endless, I’m sure the lawmakers in the state will be salivating while they anticipate getting their hands on this money. NCIA executive director Aaron Smith stated in an interview “This is a watershed day, Colorado voters led the world in supporting a legal, taxed, and regulated approach to cannabis, and now they’ll reap the benefits of a prosperous new industry and tax base.” This is only the beginning of a new world in which marijuana will be legally available to those who desire it, and none of the problems that opponents have warned about have yet to happen. Even the girl scouts are rejoicing as they are selling a ton more of their cookies than normal, it’s a wonderful time to be a weed smoker.
This news should be even more incentive for other states to forge ahead with the legalization of marijuana, just think of all the revenues that Florida will gain on top of sales taxes with it being such a tourist destination. Pretty much everyone who has ever visited Disney World has dreamed to riding Space Mountain while blazed, well for most people it’s a dream because I have actually done that. It will also help so many of our farmers across the state of Florida as there is lots of prime farming land that would be perfect for growing marijuana, and help ease the economic crisis that happens when cold spells hit their orange groves. No matter how you put it the legalization of marijuana seems to have nothing but positives going for it, the opponents keep giving their shallow speeches against it but it is time for them to give up and realize that the legalization of Marijuana in Florida is inevitable.
There have been lots of recent reports of people with illnesses that can be eased with medical marijuana flocking to Colorado in order to get the medicine that they deserve, for one thing this is great because these people actually have a solution for their problems. On the other hand it’s terrible because they have to leave their homes and move to a place where they are strangers, and people really shouldn't have to come to these drastic measures just to get some relief from their medical ailments. We have seen no numbers but we wonder how many sick and elderly are planning to leave Florida for Colorado for this very purpose? The biggest stories focus on parents who have children who are afflicted with severe forms of epilepsy that have seizures so often it makes life unbearable, if you doubt this then you need to see the special by Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN that documents this medical phenomenon.
One of the primary examples featured in the media is Greta Botker who at only seven years old has been on a long list of dangerous and expensive pharmaceuticals such as Felbatol, Keppra, Prednisone, Onfi, and Depakote. She has been on strict diets and even subjected to brain surgery, none of these things worked to relieve her from these seizures except medical marijuana. There are some guys in Colorado that are growing a strain of marijuana called Charlotte’s Web that has low concentrations of THC, so the user doesn’t get much of a high but still has the effect of slowing down the seizures that these children are experiencing. For this reason the Charlotte’s Web strain is nothing short of a miracle drug, not only should they be able to sell this strain but they should be allowed to ship it to anyone in the world that needs it! I certainly hope in the future that parents with sick children will be allowed to grow this for their personal use, since it really is of no use to us regular potheads. Since is seems like medical marijuana is heading to Florida later this year, hopefully in 2015 parents in this state will also have access to Charlotte’s Web and it also be grown in facilities around the state. The focus has been on its ability to help children afflicted with epilepsy, but there certainly have to be other ailments that it can also reduce of the suffering of its victims.
Well it’s been one week since the superbowl and I think I have now recovered enough from the righteous party we had to write about it, I like most folks it seemed was pulling for Peyton Manning and the Broncos to get another superbowl ring. However that was not to be as the Seattle Seahawks totally dominated the game from beginning to end, it’s hard to believe that any team in the NFL could shut down Peyton Manning like that. You have to give it up to the Seahawks they played great and won for what will forever be known as the superbowl of weed! It’s been hilarious reading all the jokes people have been making about two states where marijuana is legal being in the superbowl, and even funnier how all the players and commentators totally avoid the issue. The Denver Broncos will be ok for they have all that righteous legal weed available to them back home to make the loss not hurt as bad, and the Seahawks can also huff as many blunts as they want now since they don’t have to worry about drug testing for a few months. What I wonder is how much weed was smoked in that parking lot before the superbowl, and I bet many hundreds if not thousands of pounds made their way to New Jersey via fans that were traveling there. We already know for sure that pop star Justin Beiber brought some with him on his flight from Toronto, that kid has been just been going apeshit with his partying lately so he needs to smoke more weed.
Now that we know that legalizing weed results in NFL teams going to the superbowl this should be even more incentive for us to legalize marijuana in Florida, since all three of our NFL teams are in piss poor shape. The Miami Dolphins were the only ones who had any moderate success, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was a total disaster. However if we can get our teams stocked up with lots of quality chronic that would surely attract all the star players in the NFL, they all already come here in the off seasons for the hot babes and cocaine. Anyways I would like to give a big congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks for the dominating performance they gave last Sunday, and let’s hope that the state of Washington can get their act together and get legal weed set up to be sold to the masses by the end of this year.
Well I don’t know about the rest of your stoners out there but I am a huge football fan, and I especially love smoking big blunts and having a drink while watching NFL football most of all. Now some may say that college football is better because it’s not about the money, but people who think this are very naïve. If you have ever had any experience working with a college football program like I did at Florida State University you learn real quick that it’s also all about the money, if you want proof just look how quickly they turned on Bobby Bowden after just a few losing seasons and the donations to the university stopped coming in. At least the NFL are not hypocrites in that they openly admit it’s all about the money, nowadays a star player in the NFL can commit any crime short of murder and they will be forgiven. This past weekend was a lot of fun watching the NFL playoffs as they were both very exciting games, personally I have been rooting for the Denver Broncos because I greatly admire Peyton Manning and would like to see him get another Superbowl win before his career ends. Even though he will have his hands full with the Seattle Seahawks I remain confident that he will pull through and get his second ring, no one was giving the Denver Broncos a chance against New England and look how they man handled them.
Has anyone else noticed that the two states with NFL teams going to the Superbowl happen to be the ones that have legalized marijuana? Now this is going to make things very interesting indeed, I bet right now there are thousands of pounds of high quality kush making their way to New Jersey via the fans traveling there for the game. There is no better way to finance your trip across the country for America’s greatest football game than to sell some quality bud at your destination, the marijuana coming from Colorado is so sticky I bet even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will be tempted to take a hit. It certainly can’t damage his reputation any further than the hits it has taken lately, in fact it may bring him in a new legion of voters in the state and across the country. We all hope that this will be one righteous Superbowl and I’m certain many blunts will be smoked in that parking lot before game time, someone make sure that Richard Sherman takes a couple of hits before he begins talking to the reporters after the game.
In what has been a surprise to me as well as a lot of other people, John Morgan and his group United For Care have just announced that they were successful in getting enough signatures to get Medical Marijuana legalization on the ballot in November 2014. Last I heard was they had surpassed 200,000 signatures but it didn't seem like there was enough time to get the rest, but you have to give it to them they accomplished what seemed like an impossible task. However there are still more hurdles to overcome before the issue is officially on the November ballot, the main hurdle is the Supreme Court is reviewing the wording in the document to make sure it makes sense to the voters. Of course this is all a lot of red tape to make getting legalization on the ballot as difficult as possible, how many times have we seen issues on the ballots that were worded so badly that you didn't know what you were voting for? So it would be very hypocritical for the Florida Supreme Court to strike this down because of claims that the average voter wouldn't understand it, but as we all know the Florida government are professionals when it comes to hypocrisy.
We however do not need to let this discourage us as this is an enormous cause for celebration, and it's hard to believe that things are still looking good for Medical Marijuana being on the November ballot. Polls have shown time and again that the majority of residents in Florida support the measure, so as long as we get it on the ballot and get the potheads to lay off the blunts long enough to vote we should be good! It's been many years in coming and just one year ago it seemed like this would be an impossible dream, but if we keep the faith and support the cause justice will prevail in November. This will be the greatest gift we can give to our sick and elderly in Florida, think of how many will no longer have to suffer because they can't use a harmless herb that can give them relief from their pain. The pharmaceutical industry would rather them take dangerous prescription opiates to relieve their pain just so they can fatten their bank accounts, having no concern for the detrimental side effects it will have upon the their patients. Not to mention that the drugs they currently have to take are hideously expensive, but now the sick and elderly of Florida may possibly have a safe and easily accessible alternative medicine.
Well in a situation that shows how much that Republican Tea Party candidates are total hypocrites, one of their own was recently busted up in Washington DC buying an 8-ball of cocaine from undercover agents. On October 29 Florida Republican Rep. Henry "Trey" Radel agreed to meet with men whom he thought were going to sell him cocaine for $250, but once the sale was made they revealed that they were actually undercover agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency. Today Rep. Radel showed up in DC Superior Court today and pleaded guilty to his misdemeanor crime and was sentenced to one year of probation, and he also stated that we was going to enter a drug rehabilitation program in his home state in Florida.
Now I’m not one to come down on someone who is doing a little bit of coke in their free time, even if he is a member of congress. The problem here is that this guy is a complete hypocrite; he won his election promoting the Tea Party platform and their agenda of racism and anti-drug policies. He has opposed and argued against any measures of making medical marijuana legal whether in the State of Florida or the nation as a whole, all while keeping up his fake clean cut image of the white right wing Christian Obama hating family man that conservatives love so much.
Many people are now calling for his resignation and I’m reluctant to join them because I don’t feel like crucifying anyone for a little weekend drug use, if he is able to perform his duties I feel a person should be able to unwind whether its smoking a blunt or doing a few lines or getting some lap dances at Mons Venus in Tampa. However this guy is one of the people who have been opposed to our cause from the start, and he is not the only one out there standing in our way.
I have several friends now who constantly smoke weed and do other drugs but will then argue that we shouldn’t legalize it in the state of Florida, and they will say this with a joint burning in their hand! I try to point out the irony in their statement but it doesn’t seem to register at home, some of them I know oppose it because if weed was cheap and legal that would cut out their major source of income!
However I like most pot smoking Floridians are tired of all the crap you have to go through just to get some weed, and dream of a day when we can just go down to the corner store and pick up a few blunts and not just the wraps. It will be interesting to see the fallout Rep. Henry "Trey" Radel gets from his arrest, I’m sure the Teabaggers are not going to be happy with him. The last thing I’m going to say about this is $250 for an 8-ball of coke? Either DC prices are very expensive or this dude was getting seriously ripped off!
