The Legislature for years fought medical marijuana — and Scott remained silent about it — until voters appeared ready to approve the measure. | Getty Images Poll: voters give Scott, Legislature poor marks on medical marijuana; want dispensary limits

MIAMI — Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature are getting poor marks from voters who believe the state has been too slow in implementing a new medical marijuana law overwhelmingly approved at the ballot box in November, according to a new poll.

The survey of 800 Floridians who said they cast ballots in 2016 — performed by the well-respected GOP polling firm Fabrizio, Lee & Associates — also found that voters want medical marijuana dispensaries limited and are almost evenly divided on whether marijuana should be legalized outright.


Among those who said they were among the 71.3 percent who voted for the medical marijuana constitutional amendment, there was support for limiting the medical marijuana centers — with 54 percent agreeing with the statement that they cast their yes vote based on the understanding that “the state would only allow a limited number of outlets or dispensaries where it is sold.” Only 30 percent said they wanted “an almost unlimited number” of medical marijuana dispensaries.

The poll, paid for by a conservative advocacy outfit called Smart Medicine for Florida, doesn’t define what too many dispensaries would be. The survey lands in the third week of the 60-day state legislative session as lawmakers tussle over a batch of bills that regulate how medical marijuana can be used, and who can grow and dispense it and where.

As lawmakers debate, they’re running afoul of public opinion, according to a survey memo authored by pollster Tony Fabrizio, whose past clients include Scott and President Donald Trump.

Pluralities of 2016 voters disapprove of the job both the executive and legislative branches are doing in implementing the state’s new medical marijuana law,” Fabrizio wrote in his polling memo. “Voters disapprove of the legislature by a 3-point margin, 40%-37%, and disapprove of Gov. Scott by an even greater 7-point margin, 41% - 34%.”

Fabrizio wrote that voters want to see more results more quickly.

“By double-digit margins, voters think the state is moving too slowly. 44% see it this way, compared to 30% who think the state is moving at the right speed and just 9% who think it is going too quickly,” Fabrizio wrote. “Those who voted Yes on Amendment 2 are even more likely to feel the state is dragging its feet in getting this done, with 57% who believe it is going too slowly compared to only 30% who think the state is moving at the right speed.”

The Legislature for years fought medical marijuana — and Scott remained silent about it — until voters appeared ready to approve the measure. When the first iteration of a medical marijuana constitutional amendment had a good chance at passing in 2014, Scott signed into law a so-called “Charlotte’s Web” bill that allowed for low-THC cannabis.

The amendment failed with about 58 percent of the vote. Lawmakers did nothing in 2015 and Charlotte’s Web implementation languished. Then, when last year’s amendment gained steamed, Scott signed another piece of legislation that allowed some terminally sick people the right to access medical marijuana.

Smart Medicine for Florida had Fabrizio ask 2016 voters if they supported outright legalization, which narrowly failed by 48–46 percent. That’s well within the poll’s 3.46 percentage-point error margin. There is no serious push in the Legislature to legalize marijuana and it takes 60 percent of the vote to approve a state constitutional amendment.

“Passage and implementation of Amendment 2 should never be about recreational use or putting pot shops on every corner,” Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the group, which has yet to incorporate as a political committee or disclose any financial backers, said in a written statement.

However, of those who approved Amendment 2, 60 percent favor complete legalization, according to the poll.

The proponents of the medical marijuana amendment, represented primarily by Florida for Care’s Ben Pollara, agree that voters don’t want medical marijuana everywhere, but “they did vote for reasonable patient access in light of the existing, restrictive law."

"What's lost in this debate is that the current statute allows the seven businesses authorized to grow marijuana in Florida to open unlimited 'pot shops' in our state," Pollara said.

Pollara said that the amendment gives the state six months to write rules and regulations and nine months to implement them so “things are more or less on track.”