HB 1139 and SB 1250, The Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act

Status of the Bills

HB 1139

Introduced and Referred to Committees:

·         Health Quality Subcommittee

·         Business & Professional Regulation Subcommittee

·         Appropriations Committee

·         Health & Human Services Committee

SB 1250

Introduced and Referred to Committees:

·         Committees: Health Policy (HP)

·         Judiciary (JU)

·         Criminal Justice (CJ)

·         Appropriations (AP)

What YOU CAN Do

·         Help the bill get a fair hearing in its committees. Call the leadership of both chambers and the committees to which the bills are currently assigned.

·         Call the chairman of the Health Policy Senate Committee:

Senator Aaron Bean, (850) 487-5004.

·         Call Representative Ken Roberson’s office, chairman of the Health Quality House Subcommittee: (850) 717-5075

·         Have the bill pushed through committee or heard in the General Assembly

·         Contact the Senate President Don Gaetz and tell him why we need this bill: (850) 487-5001

·         Contact the Speaker of the House Will Weatherford and tell him why this bill should be heard on the floor of the house: (850) 717-5038.

·         Sign on for Actoin Alerts at http://www.flcan.org.

What CAN Happen

Authorizing a qualifying patient to possess and administer medical cannabis, and possess and use paraphernalia for a specified purpose, etc. as of this year, if the bill passes. If the bill gets a hearing this year, then we can expect it to go much farther next year, with an even greater chance of passing..

Bipartisan Support

Medical cannabis has the support of all parties because anyone has the potential to need this medicine, and nearly everyone knows someone who could benefit or who could have benefited from this medicine.

Onerous and Daunting

Funny how after you’ve done this long enough, any crack in the wall seems like a major breakthrough. Many years ago, Rob Kampia made it very clear that MPP would never spend a penny to make cannabis legal in Florida. Rob said Florida was onerous. He wasn’t entirely wrong. Those who know Florida politics understand that we have 11 distinct media markets, and what plays in Boca has no business in Apalachicola.

This week, our work in Tallahassee was really successful. More and more the decision makers know it isn’t a question of “if” medical cannabis will happen, but “when.”

Florida Cannabis Action Network went out on a limb this session and rented a furnished apartment in Tallahassee. The apartment more than pays for itself; but only if we keep bringing in advocates from around the state to talk to their lawmakers and peers. This week John from Palm Harbor joined us.

John is closer to 80 than 70, but he made the four plus hour trip to Tallahassee alone. He tried to bring two different patients with him. One was hospitalized in the days prior to the trip. The second, fear kept him at home, fear of coming out of the closet, fear of being persecuted – just fear.

But John came, because he knows how hard it is for sick people to make the trip. At nearly 80 years old he has realized someone must speak for these patients who have so much to lose by exposing themselves.

Last week, a staffer looked at our bill and said, “Wow, this is daunting.”

Daunting? I think to myself, that is better than onerous, so I’m having a “You’ve come a long way, baby” moment.

But at the end of the day, this perfectly healthy person who we pay to do big things has a lot of nerve calling doing her job daunting. Daunting, daunting. What do you call an 80 year old man driving all the way to Tallahassee to speak for those who can not speak for themselves? What do you call get out of bed every day knowing that your future means never a pain free day? What do you call looking down the barrel of a gun to defend your country, then coming home missing a piece of your body or soul?


Florida CAN has been asking people to do what they can to make cannabis reform happen, we provide you with tools, but it is up to you to make this thing happen. Lawmakers may think this is daunting, but creating sensible policies is their job. If your life without cannabis might be considered challenging, or daunting, maybe even onerous, please, call your representatives office, tell them your story and stand next to your friend when they make the call. Together, we can make light work of a onerous, but worthwhile, task.

The 900 Pound Gorilla in the Room

So here we are, over 40 years since the passage of the Federal Controlled Substance Act and the overriding moral of the story seems to be prohibition still doesn’t work. About 10 years ago, when I was working with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a friend and I were working around the clock to help people understand the failures of prohibition. We sat in room after room with people working on the ancillary issues caused by prohibition. We felt it was easy to see the real damage was created by prohibition and the rest were symptoms. We called prohibition the 900 pound gorilla in the room that no one wanted to discuss.

In an e-mail exchange today a new ally called prohibition the dead elephant in the room. In a Republican led legislature we don’t take stabs at elephants, but none the less ….

Whether you want to call it a dead 900 pound gorilla or a dead elephant the metaphor is working for me. I like the idea that we have gone from a big, damn beast – screeching – terrifying and something no one wanted to face, to a carcass. A stinking mess even. So how do you get a dead gorilla out of the middle of a room, unfortunately the answer may be – one piece at a time.

I’ve never been much of an incrementalist. I worked with cops calling for the end of prohibition and when you look at the likes of Al Capone and the corruption laid out in shows like the HBO drama Boardwalk Empire, you have to look twice at prohibition. But prohibition is a huge beast.

Our medical cannabis bill in the Florida House and Senate isn’t perfect, but it begins the process of cutting the dead gorilla into manageable pieces. Even I had no idea how illegal cannabis is in Florida. Statute after statute makes cannabis a little more illegal. So while HB 1139 and SB 1250 are only talking about medical access to cannabis and does nothing for the 40,000 people arrested in Florida for under 20 grams of cannabis, it does takes patients out of the criminal justice system and that is a good place to start.

We need good policies. We want cannabis policies that increase public safety, protect patients and provide the public with piece of mind. We need the stinking beast out of the room and we can do this, even if it means tackling the beast one piece at a time.





Day 8 of the legislative session
52 days left to bring safe, legal access to Florida in 2013.

Drugs can't surrender

Nearly ten years ago my husband and I attended a presentation by Cato Fellow, Sanho Tree. Sanho had been studying US eradication efforts in South America. The presentation to a classroom full of University ofCentral Florida NORML students was a frank discussion of the havoc our drug problem was wreaking on native populations. 

Sanho talked at length about the War on Drugs but tonight, one of his observations echoes in my mind. 

If this is a War on Drugs and the drugs can’t surrender, how we will we ever work out an exit strategy?

We’ve been in Tallahassee for a month now, two weeks during committee hearings, a week when lawmakers were at home and last week, the first week of session. From the moment the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate gaveled the session open, the legislature was on the move. On the agenda, everything but an exit strategy for the war on drugs and safe, legal access to cannabis.

If we want sensible drug policy on the agenda this year, we need the seven out of ten Floridians who support medical cannabis to do more than just nod in agreement. We need a division of letter writers, tossing Letters to the Editor to every paper in the state. We need skilled wordsmiths to hone their material and head out to the city council meeting to battle for a resolution supporting legal access to cannabis for patients in Florida. 

If you live in the panhandle, know someone in Niceville or can find a good way to reach out to people who live in President of the Senate, Senator Don Gaetz’s district we need you to put boots on the ground. We need to take hearts and minds in those rural counties between Panama City and Pensacola. The heart of North Florida is home to the man who holds the fate of our patients in his hand. Until Senator Gaetz and Speaker of the House Will Weatherford are properly motivated to move on reforming cannabis then simply will let another year pass. 

The drugs can’t surrender and neither can we. Patients need access to the best medicine and in many cases, the best medicine is cannabis. Where do you stand in the War on Drugs? There are many things you can do to help, but nothing helps more than a person visit to your state lawmakers office. Learn who your lawmaker is by clicking here.

Calling to register your support for the Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act (SB 1250 in the Senate and HB 1139 in the House) is really important and if you have a phone tree of friends, encourage them to call too. 

The battle cry – no surrender, no retreat.

Day 7 of the legislative session

53 Days remaining to provide safe legal access in Florida

Cathy and Bob Jordan work on Florida Cannabis Bills HB 1139 and SB 1250

Join Cathy and Bob Jordan as they travel to the Capitol to encourage support for HB 1139 and SB 1250. This is actually the fourth day of session.

Do you like Politics?

Here it is - time to be back in Tallahassee and that means, in part, the discipline of letting supporters know what we’re doing while we are here.

In preparation for the legislative session, I went to the local department store back home for a makeover. Coming from the school of thought "if the barn needs painting, paint it," we went for the full package.

During the barbershop style conversation, Tunde, the Hungarian cosmetician asked the usual questions. When I tried to explain what I do- she asked a pretty important question, “Do you like this politics?”

Do I like politics? No, what I like is the results of successful politics.

This year, as we head into legislative session, the battle cry is no surrender, no retreat.

Our medical cannabis bill is not perfect. We’ll need stakeholders to help us create the best – patient friendly law the country has seen. With the help of states like Washington and Colorado, we can help Florida lawmakers see that regulating and controlling cannabis has always been the right approach.

This is an uphill battle – but our cause is just….

We may not like politics; we may not always believe that these efforts are worthwhile; but, when we are here in Tallahassee, I know we are on the right path…. keep the faith, it may be darkest before the dawn but this is the Sunshine State – when we win – it will be dazzling.

Why the Drug War Puts Drug Dealers in our Middle Schools

Survey after survey, from schools across the country are telling us the same story, echoing what our own children are telling us; it’s easier to get some illegal drugs than alcohol or cigarettes. Often students will assert that they can get marijuana within 15 minutes to an hour. How did we get to this point? It’s not from a lack of effort, or funding. We were willing to fund what ever the never ending drug war seemed to require (asked for). 

Well  folks, the fact is that when a society prohibits the use or possession of something that is in demand, the distribution system changes and costs go up. Way up! The reality is, when you prohibit something you’re saying, “No one can have this. No one can sell it or produce it etc., without the threat of criminal penalties.” You’re giving up any real control.

Under prohibition, demand won’t disappear and users will have to pay more to continue buying and using. Eventually they’ll pay a lot more. They’ll have to, because the manufacturing is risky, the distribution is risky, and sales are risky. Everyone in the loop is now a criminal and subject to serious penalties. Everyone in the chain must make enough of money to balance their risks of being arrested and jailed, or robbed and beaten, or worse. The prices go way up. With high profits at stake criminal organizations stand to make a lot of money providing parts or all of these services. Their profits probably won’t be used to build new schools in your neighborhood or fund neighborhood healthcare. Legal sales of regulated and taxed substances could fund these types of things.

 When the criminal justice system (which is now at a much higher risk of corruption from these impressive profits made by people willing to work outside the law) manages to incarcerate these new entrepreneurs, they’re replaced the next day with others who see the opportunity worth taking the risk. Meanwhile we pay for the jail time, and court time, and support for his or her family now that they’ve lost a bread winner. It doesn’t seem like any of this prohibition has helped us out in the least! A thoughtful person can easily make a good case that this series of ill-advised laws passed over the years have done little except exacerbate the situation. More drugs being used, more arrests, more spent on prisons enforcement, eradication, gang problems, corruption, etc. have been the result.

These “entrepreneurs” (drug dealers) can be quite clever when it comes to protecting themselves from the law. It’s common for a mid level dealer (that means there is a lot of them) to work with local kids under 18 to “help” with his sales/distribution business. Since the advent of the zero tolerance laws passed in school settings, these students risk much more than they realize. Who do you think these local kids will contact to expand their sales? Their friends, your kid’s school chums.

So what do we do?

·         Educate, educate, educate. Real information, honest discussions. Join a group like FLCAN and educate yourself, your friends and family.

·          Change our laws to regulate these banned substances. Then we gain control. Control over quality, strength, storage, distribution (we card folks for beer, right?) and more.

·          Reconsider our drug testing policies in schools. The results of the testing have prompted the use of “harder” drugs that pass through the body more quickly than cannabis. Drug testing may keep “at risk” kids out of band, or football or any other extracurricular, the exact activities that help kids stay away from drugs. Let’s see if what we’re doing is working or not. 

L   Learn from history. We’ve been here before with alcohol prohibition. We saw the results of prohibition as we looked back at alcohol laws' consequences in our history. Prohibition bred the gangs, the drive by shootings, the turf wars, the corruption of government and police, the increasing production of whiskey instead of beer and much more.

 This doesn’t look like a drug war. It looks like a gift to those who are willing take a little risk to make a lot of money and not pay taxes on it. It looks like a gift to private prisons. It looks like a way to control people of color who are arrested far more than white people who actually use more drugs per capita. It works to disenfranchise certain aspects of society when they lose their voting rights.

Now we’re seeing the unintended consequences of our generation’s prohibition, “The War on Drugs”.  What is sad, is we never saw the results we were trying to achieve.

·         It’s up to us to say, “Enough, this isn’t working, it’s costing us a fortune, it’s risking our kids and our future!” What else needs to be said?