What’s Next for FLCAN

Even though lawmakers did not take up the Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act in 2013, Florida CAN isn’t daunted or distracted from our mission. We are more determined than ever to see safe, therapeutic access to cannabis for people in Florida.

You can check out our reports about the legislative session but in short it was exciting, eye opening and encouraging. One southwest Florida lawmaker started our meeting by saying he KNEW cannabis was Safer than alcohol. A second owns a nursery business, he knows cannabis is an up and coming market and he wants in too. The battle was half won – at least they know the truth and for some of them its important. Now, getting them to act on the truth… another in a series of challenging things for CAN to accomplish.

For now, Florida CAN is ready for the next chapter.

The addition of Florida trial attorney, John Morgan, onto the list of Floridians actively working to change cannabis laws puts Florida squarely on course for some sort of legal medical cannabis scheme. Whether through an act of the Feds, through our state legislature or by popular vote in November 2014, legal medical access is coming to Florida.

To support the efforts of Floridians to change cannabis laws, we took a lease on a wonderful office just west of US 1 in Melbourne, FL. We need help now getting the place ready for the public. You can follow our progress here on our blog, on this page dedicated to opening the office, on our website or on Facebook.

Whether it is a gathering place for training, a collection site for petitions, a workspace for talented writers, graphic artists, would be video producers or a fun place to host a Sunday members-only pot-luck dinner, the office is going to be a great addition to the Florida reform efforts.

Our soft opening is June 19.  By the soft opening, we plan to have programs in place, jobs for volunteers and an idea what hours make sense for our volunteers and staff. We hope the public will embrace our July 14 grand opening. Our grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony will be at 12:30 July 14. We hope you’ll mark your calendar and make an extra effort to be counted among the faithful who will see cannabis safe, legal and available in Florida.

Mary Lynn Mathre of Patients Out of Time

Mary Lynn Mathre is co-founder of Patients Out of Time, Registered Nurse, Master of Science, Specialty Degree in Addictions Nursing and has been an Addictions Nurse over 2 decades.

She is also a veteran and extremely knowledgeable about the science behind cannabis and the endocannabinoid system, as Jodi pointed out.

Oil of Life

Days in Tallahassee 21
Remaining Committees 7
Remaining Days for the bill to be heard 26
Remaining days of funding 9

At the January presentation of the “Silver Tour” Mary Lynn Mathre spoke about cannabis as the Oil of Life. Mary Lynn was an early adopter; that’s what you call the ones who catch on early; I guess she is still an early adopter.

When I first met Mary Lynn, she was hosting a luncheon for patients from around the country who were involved in a Federal Class Action suit to allow therapeutic access to cannabis. As a registered nurse, she was the first medical professional I heard speak about cannabis. I was so overwhelmed. I knew cannabis was medicine for me; I’d even met hundreds of activist patients. But she knew the science behind why it made me feel better.

Mary Lynn Mathre and her husband, Al Byrne are trail blazers. Their organization, Patients Out of Time hosts a therapeutic cannabis conference biannually. The next conference, this April in Arizona may very well be ground breaking. Attendees will likely hear more about the Oil of Life.

Cathy Jordan joined me in Tallahassee for the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Southern Region conference on Sunday. Yesterday, we joined the Democratic Women’s Club of Florida for meetings and a visit with Vice-President Joe Biden. Today it was back in saddle, this time with Cathy in the lead.

From office to office, Cathy shared the narrative of her disease, championed soldiers -- for whom anti-depressants are deadly, and empowered everyone she met to speak loud and proud about their support for legal access to cannabis. With Cathy as the focal point and her amazing story of survival to set the stage, everyone who listened learned about the Oil of Life.

I did my very best to do justice to Mary Lynn’s description of this life giving medicine.

She explained, as human beings we need four things: we need to be able to have restful, restorative sleep; we need nutritious food; protection from disease and in a real sense. We also need to forget. The ability to forget the little wounds we inflict upon one another every day keeps a functional society and in the case of PTSD; forgetting is about survival.

Cannabis provides all these things to the body. Restful sleep, increased appetite, a necessary neuroprotectant – new science even shows that cannabinoids boost the natural immune response and the research on cannabis and the memory mechanism shows its incredible power to help transition people through those traumatic experiences into a healthier prospective. See her presentation at the Silver Tour at http://youtu.be/PAy47ShTohQ.

No one we spoke to in the last 48 hours disagreed with us. We said thank you to a couple co-sponsors, but otherwise, in every republican office, the aide we spoke with 100% agreed that cannabis is medicine. Our last office, an influential senate member’s legislative director was quite positive about the future of our issue.

One of my favorite new Representatives told me how many of his colleagues are telling him that if a cannabis bill to protect patients was on the floor, they would vote for it. We like that sort of hearsay; but, it does nothing to protect the patients who will face the choice of breaking the law or suffering.

We’ve learned a lot this session about how the legislature works, who can make things happen and what it is going to take to move this issue. Certainly, it is going to take each of us giving this issue the time it deserves. We’ll have to get over our fears and preconceived notions, and then take our issue to the lawmakers. FL CAN has a plan; we hope you’ll be part of the team that says, “Florida can change cannabis laws and I can help!”