Bill Cotterell

Capital Curmudgeon

What do you call a backlash that occurs before the event that prompts it?

A frontlash, maybe?

Opponents of Amendment 2 on Florida’s statewide ballot, the proposal to legalize medical use of full-strength marijuana, have mounted a hard-hitting pre-emptive strike. That makes sense — you don’t win playing defense — but the audacity of the attack is breath-taking.

Opponents of the amendment need only 40 percent of the vote (plus one) to stop it, and they plan to clear that low bar by associating medicinal use of marijuana with recreational pot smoking. This is the stuff of Woodstock, they argue, not Hippocrates.

They’re right, to a certain extent. “Medicinal” marijuana was a farce in California, and no doubt there will be some Dr. Feelgoods who will authorize “medicinal” pot, with a wink and a nod, for anyone with the money and the desire to get high. But the state managed to police pill mills and other white-coat drug dealers in the past, and there’s no reason to think the cops would be powerless to police pot.

Amendment 2 got almost 58 percent of the vote in 2014, falling just over 2 percent short of adoption. With higher voter turnout in this presidential year, and perhaps more young people voting, it’s likely to get 60 percent this time.

Except for completely non-controversial things, like extending a property tax break to widows and veterans, constitutional amendments are usually easier to defeat than to pass. If voters are not sure, the safe thing to do is vote against an initiative. And anything containing the word “marijuana” is going to raise doubts, even fears.

And those fears are fanned, shamelessly, in the new No On 2 TV spot.

“This is medicine —medicine — uh, medicine?” it says as colorful packages of candy flash on the screen. “With Amendment 2, this is what ‘medicine’ will look like, pot packaged like candy — up to 20 times stronger than it once was — marketed to kids, sold next to schools in nearly 2000 pot shops across Florida — no medical standards, no pharmacists, no prescriptions, and no way to stop it, unless you vote ‘No’ on Amendment 2.”

State-level election ads - USA TODAY

Cramming more sentence fragments into 30 seconds than Corey Clark could put in a Sunday sports column, this quick-hit barrage is enough to make Cheech and Chong vote against Amendment 2. It’s what legislators used to call “a parade of horribles.”

The idea of the advertisement — indeed, the impetus behind the whole No on 2 campaign — is to make voters question whether proponents of medical marijuana are really on a mission of mercy to help desperately sick people. Supporters of the amendment say their only desire is to give doctors authority to decide if marijuana could ease a patient’s suffering.

The No on 2 hit piece employs the time-honored tactic of finding a chink in the other side’s argument and magnifying it into a nightmare. Taken individually, each of the specters raised by the anti-campaign is debatable.

Pot packaged as candy, marketed to kids? State and federal government can regulate advertising tactics, which is why you hear all the disclaimers in those medicine ads on TV.

Sold next to schools? Have cities and counties lost their zoning authority?

Nearly 2,000 pot shops? That was an estimate by the Department of Health, based on Colorado’s experience. Could be more, could be fewer, but Hillsborough County and the city of Sarasota recently enacted a moratorium on licenses for medical marijuana shops, in anticipation of the amendment passing.

No medical standards, no prescriptions, no pharmacists? Again, will regulation of this medicine be turned over to Willie Nelson, if Florida passes a constitutional amendment?

The claim of “no way to stop it” is a bit more plausible, because constitutional amendments are not subject to legislative tinkering. The Legislature will have to adopt implementing legislation, and we’ve seen lawmakers blatantly defy the public will before.

Witness Amendments 5 and 6 of 2010, which adjured against rigging legislative and congressional districts to favor either party, or Amendment 1 of two years ago, which mandated purchase of conservation lands with tax proceeds from real estate development. Legislators obeyed those mandates with a dignity and ethical exactitude usually found in professional wrestling.

There will be powerful forces arrayed against medical marijuana if the amendment clears 60 percent next month, as polls indicate it will.

The governor isn’t exactly a Deadhead, and he’s not going to sign implementing legislation that leads to wide-open pot puffing. There will be court challenges — but when has there not been, when big money is at stake?

Still, the idea that there’s nothing “medical” about marijuana, that it would would lead to full legalization of the drug, is an effective message to drive home in a one-month campaign.

Bill Cotterell is a retired Democrat reporter who writes a twice-weekly column for the paper. He can be reached atbcotterell@tallahassee.com