United for Care, the organization responsible for putting medical marijuana on the 2014 ballot, claimed Tuesday that it's less than 5,000 petitions away from doing the same thing again in 2016.

"We're already close to hitting 100,000 in the number of petitions we've actually collected," Ben Pollara, United for Care campaign manager, told Sunshine State News. "Barring a fire in our headquarters, we'll probably hit it this week.

Ultimately, 683,149 petitions need to be in the hands of the Florida Department of State by Feb. 1, 2016. The department must verify 10 percent of that figure to trigger a Supreme Court review -- that's 68,315 valid petitions.

The organization is far ahead of its progress on this date in 2013. It wasn't until October 2013 that the drive reached 60,000 petitions. In fact, the 2014 petition wasn't launched until July 2013, Pollara says.

"We collected over a million petitions in 2014 and nearly 3.4 million people voted 'yes' for medical marijuana. There is no question in my mind that we will get medical marijuana back on the ballot for 2016," he said.

Pollara said the effort wouldn't be necessary "if the Legislature hadn't turned its back on the patients of Florida."

Attorney John Morgan, chairman of United for Care who bankrolled virtually the whole of the 2013 drive, vowed, "We're going to win this war and help suffering Floridians in 2016."

Pollara said Miami Beach-based United for Care is getting a tremendously positive response throughout the state. "People understand, if a doctor can send you out of his office for a prescription for Xanax or Percocet, he can write you treatment with medical marijuana."

United for Care is asking supporters to 1) mail in a fully filled-out and signed petition; 2) make a donation of at least $3, if possible ($3 is the cost of one signed petition); and 3) volunteer to help with petition collection.

The paid-petition effort has been up and running for about a week, Pollara says. But the volunteer effort that began in mid-January has done the heavy lifting so far.

The 2016 petition has only minor updates to its language, clarifying issues related to parental consent and the kinds of conditions that would qualify a potential patient, with a doctor's recommendation.

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter@NancyLBSmith