Frank Gluck

USA TODAY FLORIDA Network

Voters this year will again consider whether Florida should join 23 states and legalize full-strength marijuana for medical use. The proposed Amendment 2 won 58 percent of the needed 60 percent voter approval in 2014. This time, backers of the proposed constitutional amendment have the benefit of hindsight in crafting their message and a presidential race expected to draw heavy, and significantly younger, voter turnout.

United for Care, the pro-medical marijuana group backed by wealthy Florida attorney John Morgan, has reworked the proposed amendment’s language to avoid critics’ earlier charges that the measure was too vague and open to abuse.

“They spent $6 million on TV and radio attacking us on loopholes, which I always thought were specious, and I maintained that throughout,” said Ben Pollara, spokesman for the group. “I think we did a really good job in redrafting this to address each and every one of those ‘loopholes.’ ” But opponents say the changes don’t go far enough. Tre’ Evers, spokesman for the “Vote No on (Amendment) 2” group that worked to beat the measure in 2014, called the changes “window dressing.”

“There is nothing new about Amendment 2,” Evers said in a written statement. “It legalizes pot smoking and high THC edibles that would create a California-style system of nearly 2,000 pot shops all across Florida. Everybody knows what a ruse California’s Medical Marijuana Treatment centers are and Amendment 2 creates that same kind of system for Florida.”

Medical marijuana back as more careful Amendment 2

United for Care will likely spend more than $5 million this year in television, radio and print advertising, Pollara said. In 2014, Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson contributed at least $5.5 million to the group opposing Amendment 2.

It remains to be seen how much money will flow into anti-medical marijuana efforts this time around. But Evers said opposition is likely to begin in earnest in the next couple of months.

Polls show continued strong support for medical marijuana in Florida. A Public Policy Polling survey published earlier this month found 65 percent overall support for the medical marijuana initiative.

And a heavy turnout, particularly of voters between the ages of 18 to 35, could bode well for the measure’s passage.

“Whether it’s an electorate that’s favorable to Donald Trump or that’s favorable to Hillary, it’s going to be a lot broader and a lot younger than it was in 2014,” Pollara said. “If you look at the exit polls, that was the No. 1 determining fact on how someone voted on medical marijuana, cutting across race, ethnicity or partisanship: it was age.”

Florida lawmakers have supported medical marijuana in limited circumstances.

In 2014 they approved the use of a non-euphoric form of marijuana used to treat seizures known as “Charlotte’s Web.” Despite approval, regulatory and legal issues have prevented patients from accessing the drug.

The Legislature this session approved – and Gov. Scott signed – a Right to Try Act, which would allow patients with terminal illnesses to experiment with certain drugs as prescribed by their physician. It remains to be seen how many Florida patients will take advantage of it.

Is medical marijuana already legal in Florida?

Pollara estimates that 500,000 Floridians might qualify for medical marijuana under United for Care’s proposed amendment.

Though lawmakers have been unwilling to endorse such a broad use of the drug, Pollara said their support for modest expansions has helped legitimize its medicinal use.

“The opposition, in some ways, did us a favor by the fact that the campaign in 2014 did not attack the concept of medical marijuana,” Pollara said. “They attacked the particulars of our amendment. So I think the concept of medical marijuana has been, and remains, popular among Florida voters.”

Frank Gluck is a reporter with the Fort Myers News-Press.