Rick Neale

FLORIDA TODAY

MELBOURNE The Eau Gallie-based Florida Cannabis Action Network hopes to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2018 ballot that would legalize marijuana in Florida for adults age 21 and older.

Florida CAN's political action committee, Floridians for Freedom, has collected roughly 10,000 verified petition signatures supporting the initiative, which would guarantee that these adults in Florida could possess, use and cultivate all parts of the cannabis plant, including seeds. The initiative will need about 750,000 signatures to make it onto the 2018 ballot.

"This plant will feed us. It will clothe us. We can build houses out of it. And certain disabilities, certain disorders, it will treat. And other disorders, it will cure. I have a fundamental right to it," said Jodi James, Florida CAN executive director.

"I believe I have an unalienable right to it," James said.

State lawmakers would regulate cannabis purchases and sales to ensure health and safety, according to the proposed amendment.

The cannabis campaign comes on the heels of November's decisive victory at the ballot box. Florida voters expanded the state's medical marijuana program by approving Amendment 2, in a 71 percent “yes” landslide. That's the biggest winning margin of any marijuana reform initiative in the United States during the past 20 years.

Medical marijuana questions linger after Amendment 2

Brevard County mirrored this trend: Seventy-one percent of voters supported Amendment 2 (222,733 votes), while 29 percent disapproved (91,632 votes), supervisor of elections records show.

Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada approved recreational marijuana in November, joining Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

"We’re going to try every method we can to put this on the 2018 ballot," James said. "Now, traditional wisdom says it'll do better on the 2020 (presidential) ballot. But 2020 is an awful long time to have people in Brevard County getting up to a $1,000 fine for cannabis possession, and people in Orlando getting a $100 fine. Three years is an awful long time to wait if you are someone who is living with a chronic disease that isn't covered under Amendment 2."

"So the sooner we can do it, the better. And that's why I'm in here seven days a week and do this for no pay, and have a whole team of people who come in here and do this all the time for no pay," she said.

If approved, the amendment would not override cannabis prohibitions set by probation or parole officers, private companies or homeowners' associations, James said.

Floridians for Freedom organized in August 2015. The PAC is based at the Florida CAN office in Eau Gallie, and James is the chairwoman. The PAC has netted $22,013 in contributions, Florida Division of Elections records show.

Marijuana activists gather at Wickham Park for cannabis fest

James said Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan’s involvement — and his millions of dollars — were key factors in passing Amendment 2. She said Floridians for Freedom has more than 100 volunteers collecting signatures across the state, but the PAC has no paid staff to serve as regional coordinators. She called this management level “a hugely important thing.”

Post-Amendment 2, the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Legislature will spend the first half of 2017 drafting medical marijuana rules and regulations. The state must start issuing identification cards and registrations within nine months of the amendment's Jan. 3 effective date.

James testified last week during a Florida Senate Committee on Health Policy workshop about implementing Amendment 2. During that workshop, the Florida Police Chiefs Association recommended that felons and people convicted of a misdemeanor drug offense within the past 10 years should be prohibited from possessing medical marijuana.

In Tamarac, Regulate Florida activists are collecting petition signatures supporting a four-page constitutional amendment intended to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol.

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter

Cannabis amendment

Full text of the constitutional amendment proposed by the Eau Gallie-based Florida Cannabis Action Network:

All people in the State of Florida twenty-one years of age and older shall have the right under state laws to possession, use and cultivation of cannabis. This right shall not be infringed except that the transfer of cannabis by purchase or sale may be regulated as necessary to ensure health and safety.

"Cannabis" in this section is defined as all parts of any plant of the genus Cannabis, whether growing or not, and the seeds thereof.

The provisions of this section are severable and if any clause or sentence of this measure, or an application thereof, is adjudged invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, other provisions shall continue to be in effect to the fullest extent possible.