Perception is Reality

Day 7
Remaining Committees – 7
Remaining Days to be heard – 40
Remaining funding – 23

There is an old saying about never eating sausage after you’ve seen how they make it. Tallahassee is a bit like that.

Today was spent playing catch up. The House was consumed with redistricting and only a few committees had business in the Senate. Our constitution set the 60 days legislative session, apparently that is consecutive days, so while lawmakers are nowhere to be found, the countdown to the end of sessions proceeds.

Lawmakers are home for a long weekend, little to no business on Monday either; but our work continues.

The theme for the week was: in Tallahassee perception is reality. I’ve spent quite a bit of time exploring the idea, meditating on its meaning and trying to see through the mystery.

Perception is reality. For now, the perception is the public in Florida doesn’t care about medical cannabis. When the CNN Money special runs early in February showing Robert Platshorn’s Silver Tour meeting at a synagogue in Boca, when they get overwhelming calls and letters of support, or when they are faced with a life threatening illness of their own they will reconsider.

In my down time today, I did some research on the 1978 Controlled Substance Therapeutic Research Program. This bill, introduced by Representative Lee Moffitt had an interesting history. Like our bills, the 1978 bill was assigned to numerous committees. After a month of languishing it was sent to a subcommittee – never a good sign.

Then something changed. Suddenly, the research act was withdrawn from its committees and within days was calendared for a vote on the House floor. The Senate picked up the bill, withdrew it from all of the committees in the Senate and again it passed with little opposition.

Perception is reality. Had we been on the outside watching the 1978 bill, we would have been convinced it didn’t have a chance.

Representative Moffitt is best known these days for his work with the Lee Moffitt Cancer Research Center. I sought him out this week when I knew he was in the Capital. He agreed to meet with me next week to share with me what happened. Why did those 1978 lawmakers suddenly change their perception of the bill?

With your e-mails, calls and letters, we are changing the perception lawmakers have about cannabis. They are beginning to see the light.