One Mind at a Time

Days in Tallahassee 15
Remaining committees 7
Remaining Days for bills to be heard 28
Remaining days of funding 15


The atmosphere in Tallahassee changed this week. The Speaker of the House released his budget appropriations and now the wheeling and dealing starts. It’s also harder to get appointments and the sub-committee meetings are coming to a close.

We created a statewide day of action today. While hundreds of people made phone calls today, I escorted Amy from Jacksonville around the Capital. We were popping in on the Jacksonville delegation in addition to the regular appointments I had scheduled.

Tallahassee has circles within circles and delegations are one of those circles. The Jacksonville delegation is made up of everyone whose district touches Duval County and will include other representatives from neighboring counties who share an economic interest. While it’s getting harder and harder for Representatives to make time for me, constituents may get a minute or two. At the very least, the Aide is happy to take your information and tell the Representative you stopped by.

Meeting with aides may not be our first choice, but knowing the aides, being on good terms and sharing your story with them is always a good idea. Representatives are term-limited, their aides aren’t. Many of the aides have worked in Tallahassee for years, they move from office to office. They understand how to make things happen and have their finger on the pulse of the building. Several aides have confessed to knowing someone who benefited greatly from cannabis. Several have confessed to burning a few themselves.

We arrived early for our last appointment of the day. With aching feet it was good to find a spot to sit awhile. A companion joined us in a lounge setting near the Representatives office. He struck up a conversation, first mentioning he’d seen me around the building. We chatted casually about long days away from home, over-achieving children, just small talk. His briefcase proudly displayed the Florida Chief of Police Association.

After a few minutes of socializing, I ask if he is still with the Association. After he proudly introduces himself, I tell him the Association is on my list of appointments this week. He asks my business – once I tell him – we had the usual reply. Hands out, pushing back, whooooo, not sure that we’re on the same side on that one. Twenty minutes later, when we were told the Representative wasn’t going to make it back for our meeting, we didn’t care.

Our new friend was a former drug cop and big agency guy working narcotics going back to the 70’s in South Florida. He is currently consulting with a Michigan police department that isn’t liking the medical cannabis dispensaries in their towns at all. I explained that is why we want police on board now, to help create a system that works for everyone.

Police know cannabis isn’t going away. We pushed through the gateway theory, he couldn’t argue with sugar being the first drug we use to abuse! We had an affable conversation. In the end it always comes down to medical cannabis being the first step and us wanting more.

I explained that once you started to look at this you realize without this medicine some people are going to die. We think those people need to be taken care of first, but who can look at the young people incarcerated and the time wasted on cannabis investigations without being moved to object. The right answer is regulating and controlling it. So, I asked, since that is what we want, a regulated and controlled system, where is the compromise? His answer, “A good medical cannabis access program.” Yeah, that’s what we thought too. See we can come together on this issue.

He started the conversation because I was familiar to him. He kept having the conversation because we were sincere, polite, thoughtful, non-accusatory and kind. In the end he called our mission God’s work. One day at a time, one mind at a time, we are winning this was just as surely as the Berlin Wall was destined to fall.

Our call in program went really well today. Hundreds of calls were reported.

The big issue of the day at the Capital is the removal of Senator Frasano as the Chair of the Criminal Justice committee. The leadership, the Governor and President of the Senate want to sell our prisoners to private prison companies, (the same jokers who spent tens of thousands on campaign contribution to leadership during the last election). Frasano was asking tough questions and standing up against selling our prisoners to the highest bidder. In the middle of a committee hearing the President of the Senate interrupted the meeting, fired the Chair and appointed a new chair person.

If we want to move medical cannabis in Florida through legislators who act like that when they are challenged, we have to be loud and proud.