Bing, Bang, Boom goes your Bong

No, not really. By now, you have likely heard the news about the Governor signing a bill banning your bong. A lot is being said about the bill, but much of it is hyperbole or just plain wrong. Read more about the bill and its impact on you...

The bill was introduced by Rep. Darryl Rouson of St. Pete, a mouth piece for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Representative Rouson believes paraphernalia of all types to be “utensils of death.” As a proud recovering addict, we can expect more of the same as long as he holds office. 

The House bill, HB 49 took a long time to get a sponsor in the Senate (SB1140) but once filed, the bill took wings. Throughout the process, only the Florida Cannabis Action Network and our partner, Bob Platshorn of the Silver Tour spoke against the bill. Lots of folks were talking about the bill though. On April 13, 2013 even Steve Colbert got in on the conversation about banning bongs in Florida.

With only a handful of Senators and Representatives voting against the bill, it passed with different versions in the House and Senate. Last minute conferencing between the Chambers gave us the bill signed into law by Governor Scott on June 5. 

Here is what the final analysis by the state says, “Section 893.147, F.S establishes the following five paraphernalia crimes: Use or possession of Paraphernalia; manufacture or delivery of drug paraphernalia; delivery of drug paraphernalia to a minor; transportation of drug paraphernalia; and advertisement of drug paraphernalia.

The bill amends s. 893.147, F.S., to make it a first degree misdemeanor for a person to knowingly and willfully sell or offer for sale at retail any of the drug paraphernalia listed in s. 893.145(12)(a)-(c) and (g)-(m), F.S., and  a second or subsequent violation a third degree felony. The drug paraphernalia included are: Metal, wooden, acrylic, glass, stone, plastic, or ceramic smoking pipes, with or without screens, permanent screens, hashish heads, or punctured metal bowls; water pipes; carburetion tubes and devices; chamber pipes; carburetor pipes ;electric pipes; air-driven pipes; chillums; bongs; ice pipes or chillers. The bill provides an exception for pipes that are primarily made of briar, meerschaum, clay, or corn cob.”

You can read the final analysis of the bill yourself here. 

So, no, the government of Florida is not coming to take your bong away. If you are possessing a bong (or any other form of smoking device – yes, an apple could be paraphernalia) for any purpose other than smoking tobacco, that bong or pipe was already illegal. 

If the analysis you read says this bill passed, but nothing much changes, that is likely right. Smoke shops won’t likely be closing their doors, selling pipes at a drastic discount or even changing their inventory. After all, smoke shops only sell to customers who use their wares for lawful purposes!

In all the years the Florida Cannabis Action Network has fought for the rights of cannabis consumers, the health and well-being of patients and the protection of our right to speak and assemble, only a handful of Florida smoke shops have ever given a donation, publicly or anonymously to reforming cannabis laws.

Smoke shop owners sit back and reap the rewards while over 38,000 Florida adult cannabis consumers over the age of 21 are arrested each year for possession of under 20 grams of cannabis.

Lawmakers have managed to gag smoke shop owners at the peril of patients. Our friend, we’ll call him P to preserve his identity, spent a long time trying to find a safe supply of cannabis for his wife with MS. She (we’ll call her K) was diagnosed years earlier but had found herself wheel-chair bound for three-years. While P was able to access medical grade cannabis, finding the right delivery method for K was a nightmare.

P had to learn to roll cannabis for his wife, but the smoke was hard on her throat and the heat from the burning cigarette was uncomfortable. It seemed like a good idea to visit the local smoke shop for a better delivery device. How was P to know that you can’t even use the word cannabis in a smoke shop? He is a 60-plus year old republican looking for comfort for his sick wife and he is turned away by people who know the best products to assist P in finding a device that helps K. This family is willing to risk breaking the law to bring relief from muscle spasms, depression, and pain to K. 

At Florida Cannabis Action Network, we want you to be aware of the facts about cannabis, the harms of prohibition and have a front row seat for the creation of sensible cannabis policies in Florida that allow safe, legal access to cannabis. If you can help by sending this message to a friend so they know the truth about the bong bill that would be great. 

Here are a few other things you can do to get involved.

•     Send a letter to the editor about the bong bill, the need for medical cannabis or another cannabis related topic. Here are important things for you to know about getting published from an expert! You can follow the letters that are getting published on the front page of our website. www.FLCAN.org
  
•     Schedule a meeting with your local representative’s office. Over 70 % of Floridians support legal access to cannabis for patients. Whether you are talking to your city official, county commissioner or state Representative, seven out of ten people will agree with you on some level. Here are several hand outs you can print at home and take with you to the meeting.
  
  
•   Tell a friend- Florida CAN makes it easy for you to tell your friends about our hard work. Your friends – like-minded supporters of liberty, compassionate liberals and fiscal conservatives alike all have a vested interest in the success of the Florida CAN.

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.

Florida’s Quest to Legalize Cannabis

The annuals of cannabis history remind us of the role Floridian's played in securing legal safe access for patients using cannabis. Florida courts were the first to recognize cannabis as a treatment for HIV, AIDS and glaucoma. The late Bob Randall Cathy spearheaded the creation of the Federal Compassionate Access program. Bob was joined by Elvy Musikka and Irv Rosenfeld, Florida residents who were among the first legal users since the passage of the Controlled Substance Act.

While early Florida efforts made the way for reforms in other parts of the country, the states own drug mania, fueled by the founders of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the Jeb Bush administration, led to the most regressive laws in the nation. Current Florida laws make possession of one seed, or one leaf, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, loss of driver's license, drug treatment, and urine testing while under community control. Florida remains among a handful of states that continue to disenfranchise felons long after the completion of their sentence and a mere 21 grams or three-quarters of an ounce is a felony.

Cathy Jordan (Bradenton) and Angel Hernandez (West Palm) know how important it is to change the laws in Florida. Cathy has been living with Lou Gehrig's disease for over 20 years. This living miracle attributes her every breath to the use of cannabis. Patients with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease are known to lose lung function and often need feeding tubes when throat muscles fail. Smoking cannabis and subsequently coughing, keeps her lungs clear and muscled strong. Angel, a 33 year old MS patient has documented his increase in function since using cannabis therapy. When a St. Lucie County Judge ruled his 6 grams of cannabis was worth of one year probation and drug testing Angel was forced into an impossible situation. For Angel, not using his medicine is akin to a death sentence, using his medicine, a jail sentence.

There are four ways to change Florida cannabis laws. Our challenge becomes making sure everyone with an interest in this issue is working on at least one path to reform.

The Florida Legislature meets for two months each year beginning in March for a 60 day session. The bicameral legislature must pass the same bill through both bodies before it can be signed by the Governor. Since 1978, only one Florida lawmaker, Democratic freshman, Representative Jeff Clemens has taken the plight of patients seriously. His bill, HJR 1407 died in the Criminal Justice Subcommittee. Which means the Florida House and Senate is poised to pass through another legislation session without addressing the needs of patients or reducing the penalties for possession. While we are done for this legislative session efforts to get a bill in both the House and Senate continue.

Two political action committees are pursuing petitioning efforts. The People United of Medical Marijuana have been collecting signatures to put protections for cannabis use in the Florida constitution; while the Florida Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy is petitioning communities to make possession a civil penalty. Florida law allows for amendments to the Constitution by petition and the strong home rule protections make local municipalities a high value target.

For patients like Angel, who are facing criminal penalties or charges,legal teams are asking the court to agree cannabis is a medicine and invalidate criminal penalties.

One person could end the suffering of patients, remove the threat of prosecution and save the state tax dollars with the stroke of a pen; FL Statute 893.0355 delegates the authority to reschedule cannabis to the Florida Attorney General.

Legislature, petition, courts and the Attorney General- Courageous Floridians made the way for over 33% of the country to live under laws protecting patients and their caregivers. We welcome a new generation of reformers to become part of the Florida Cannabis Action Network - All about Cannabis, All about Action, All about Network with one goal, bringing sensible cannabis policies to Florida.

That’s a Felony Folks

I was looking at a brief in Join Together, an on-line journal chronicling changes in drug policy, about raising the tax on cigarettes one dollar per pack. Ten dollars on a carton, in addition to the already high taxes in some markets means the illegal trade of cigarettes is about to blossom.

As a teen-ager I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio, a small town outside of Dayton on the verge of Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We were close enough to the borders of Kentucky and Indiana to take advantage of the discounted prices for alcohol and tobacco. We knew to buy a dozen cartons of cigarettes when we passed through – saving five or six dollars per carton, the cost in North Carolina – if you were going that far was even cheaper.

Indiana had great places to buy beer. Apparently, we weren’t the only one who took advantage of the border to get cheap beer – all the stores limited the amount cases you could buy. Luckily, there were plenty of stores to buy from before heading back across the border.

We bought beer and cigarettes for our own consumption and the savings we made were all part of funding the road trip. The people who chose to bring the legal products, beer and cigarettes back to Dayton and sell them (at cost or at a profit, it doesn’t matter) were criminals.

So what about the 9 billion dollars we can raise with that cigarette tax? Well, I still live near an Air Force base and I’m here to tell you, those service boys buy cigarettes on base at the commissary and sell then to friends without base privileges. That is a felony folks.

Diverting a legal drug into an illegal market is a crime.

As consumers, we have to be a reasoned voice that our lawmakers hear. I don’t smoke cigarettes but I know that when we place such a high premium on products, an underground marketplace is created. Underground economies, such as the illegal drug market, may fuel communities, but it also fuels violence. Illegal economies settle disputes with guns.

The tragedy of our good intentions is that when we increase the taxes, or worse yet prohibit the commodity, you create an uncontroled market. The economics of buying low and selling high is the American way. Trouble is that is a felony folks.

Would 2010 be soon enough?

I spoke with Mitch with Creative Loafing today. He is writing a story about the medical marijuana initiative. PUFMM, the Florida Political Action Committee circulating the initiative still lacks the signatures necessary to make the 2010 ballot. Mitch was looking for my thought on the cannabis situation in Florida.

Florida law makers should be ashamed of themselves for not having made cannabis legal already and it is time they went on the record. Patients who use cannabis really are caught in the crossfire. 2010 is not soon enough! For once I named names. I told Mitch about the South Florida Representative - Mark Pafford, who says he thinks we should get control over cannabis by taking it off the illicit drug market.

Tomorrow, a young man goes on trial in St. Lucie county because he refuses to plead guilty to possession of 6 grams of cannabis. Cannabis helps him treat his MS. Possession of cannabis should not be a crime. While the Florida Supreme Court allows for a medical necessity defense, the judge in the case refuses to let him present it. I wonder if the fine people of St. Lucie county believe this is how they intend their tax dollars be spent. Is a young man with MS the culprit we need to be protected against?

Most people caught with cannabis will plead guilty. Law enforcement, prosecutors and defense attorneys will bill hours getting the plea deal. The defendant will hang their heads, profess a bit of shame, take their punishment and go home (where they will promptly put their feet up, crack a beer or pour a scotch while rolling another joint). There is no justice in the war on drugs.

Message from the Lighthouse - or Plant Your Seeds

This isn't the first time I have painstakingly agonized over how to em-passion people to take action to end the war on drugs.

I remember struggling in the dim light over an electric typewriter in my dollhouse sized apartment in Elkhart, Indiana. President Bill "I didn't inhale." Clinton had been elected and there was a movement afoot to change marijuana laws.

Each year- just before April Fools day, fliers circulated pointing us to Ann Arbour Hash Bash, rumored to be a virtual utopia for pot smokers. Any fool knows an April Fools day joke when they see it - but High Times assured loyal consumers that change was coming. Who knew the Hash Bash was real and the "just say no" message to the Dare Generation would destroy so many lives.

My solution- a chain letter - A Message from the Lighthouse, bringing hope and lighting the way. The letter asked people to keep the chain alive by sending a copy to six of their friends and one to the White House. It reminded recipients we could overgrow the government by simply planting our seeds.

My distribution plan was simple - 50 copies hand delivered in the lot at the Rosemount Horizon (Chicago IL). The Grateful Dead was playing (3-9-93) and the crowd was like-minded. A year later, a friend in Ohio, knowing my interest in changing marijuana laws, sent me a copy. That circle was complete but the legalization of cannabis was a long ways off.

In 2000, when Phish played their Millennium Show in the Everglades, I was there. Still planting seeds, this time as a director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network. We spent four days educating concert goers about the virture of cannabis, hemp's value in a green economy and ways to stay safe while advocating for a sane marijuana policies.

Another decade has passed since that New Years weekend and the War on Drugs has claimed more victims, the violence has surpassed our wildest estimations and the estimated revenue from regulated cannabis is enticing.

Cannabis legalization can happen in my lifetime.