HB 843 and SB 1030 Medical Marijuana, not the Morgan amendment for votes for Crist

[Kate Svagdis]

Please call reps and sense to support these bills ASAP. FL children with seizures need help.

Please read email rec'd from FL Sen Gaetz:

To Me

Feb 12 at 8:07 PM

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. February 12, 2014   Dear Neighbor, Over the past few weeks, I have listened to a growing number of Northwest Floridians who have strong opinions about the medical use of cannabis, or marijuana. In the grocery store, in church, in the emails I receive and during my door-to-door neighborhood walks, folks are sharing their questions and concerns. Part of the reason the issue is being talked about is that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-euphoric ingredient in some marijuana plants, has been found effective in helping children suffering from violent seizures associated with severe epilepsy. This substance is called “Charlotte’s Web” and it is not the marijuana that is smoked recreationally to create a “high.” Parents of children with frequent and severe seizures recently brought their sons and daughters to a hearing before the House Criminal Justice Committee. One of the dads from our area is a former law enforcement officer and now a respected lawyer. His wife is a nurse. If they were to even possess the CBD that would ease their child’s profound and perhaps fatal suffering they would be breaking the law. So they are caught – between the life of their child and their respect for the law. As a father myself, I am unwilling to require these parents to be criminals in order to get treatment for their children. As the father of Representative Matt Gaetz, I am proud of my son for his political courage in fighting for these families as they fight for their children’s’ lives.  This past week, Matt has received the support of Speaker Weatherford to introduce a stand-alone bill (HB 843) to decriminalize this non-euphoric CBD solely for the purpose of helping these children with medical conditions that cause seizures. Today, a group of Republican Senators led by Senator Rob Bradley filed a companion bill in the Senate, SB 1030. To become law, this legislation will have to pass both House and Senate committees and earn the votes of a majority of legislators on the floor as well as the Governor’s signature. As your senator, I will support this legislation as it moves through the committee process and I will vote for it should it reach the Senate floor. I recognize the position Matt and I have taken may be controversial in the minds of some of our Northwest Florida neighbors. It has taken time and prayer and struggle for me to arrive at my position.  I respect those with differing points of view.  Regardless of your opinion, I hope you will call, write, email or contact me with your questions, concerns or criticisms. Let me assure you that my support for compassionate use of CBD in these extreme cases is far different from the marijuana constitutional amendment being sponsored by trial attorney John Morgan in an effort to generate voter turnout for his employee, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist. That constitutional amendment misleads the public into a broad-based legalization of euphoric marijuana going far beyond acute medical justification. For more information on Charlotte's Web, please click on this link,http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-mariju..., to read an article published by CNN. Thank you for staying in touch with me. Your guidance makes me a better senator. I am deeply grateful to you for the privilege of a lifetime – speaking for Northwest Florida in the Senate.     Respectfully, Senator Don Gaetz   ### For more information about this or any other issue, please contact Senator Don Gaetz, by e-mail [e-mail], by letter, 4300 Legendary Drive, Suite 230, Destin, FL 32541 or call 1-866-450-4DON toll free from anywhere in Florida. To subscribe/ unsubscribe, please visit www.senatordongaetzreports.com

[Kate Svagdis]

democrats would do anything to steal votes

[Kate Svagdis]

edgar et al, jusy recd email from Sen merkey in OR (D) title Common Sense solutions! now where have we heard that before????????? Thank you, Sarah Palin!!!

[Kate Svagdis]

Amen to that conservative TEA voters at the polls and sweeping the House and Senate and governorships, and state leg. 

This bill is not the amendment Morgan is pushing-that's to get 'voters' to polls for brains-full-of-mush democrats.

These bills are for now-for help for kids with seizures. If it passes, morgan amendment could be moot.

[edgar a martin]

Medical Marijuana may be something that is truly humane...I don't know.  The point is that it is a desperate attempt to get people who are anti-Conservative to get to the polls (hopefully to  vote for people not acting in our/US/Constitutional interests)...it comes up now, as a distraction from the real issues of the day.  This is the time for the mid-term elections, which has become common knowledge, a time for Conservatives to become a sweeping majority in both Houses of Congress, and elsewhere.  So, this is a call to show up & vote for Conservative candidates (if you decide to vote for medical marijuana...OK (I don't see this as something that causes damage; and the growers will be under heavy scrutiny)...as I indicated before...I don't know the answer about that...I just want Conservative victories...which only happens when we show up & vote!

[Kate Svagdis]

Robert, OMG, yes the pregnant pig amendment to the Constitution!

Pigs have more rights than parents!

You are right about Pariente, Lewis, and Quince. People will not vote them out AND RPOF does nothing about advertising their positions to get them out of office. Pushed to the polls?? they are driven, paid, and given lunch!

[Robert Henderson]

Moral Values didn't have a chance in the current FL Supreme Court; 4 appointed by Crist & 3 appointed by Chiles! Barbara Pariente is an example of a radical New York democrat who unfortunately came to Florida! 

Since the foolish 'pregnant pig' amendment, opportunistic & unscrupulous democrats have trivialized our Constitution and bastardized the legislative process with their demagoguery to promote their own self-interests.

The increased number of gullible voters being pushed to the polls by democrats will probably ensure passage of the amendment, and they will all have blood on their hands and evil in their hearts! Too Bad!

[Kate Svagdis]

Morgan did get enough signatures and the court said it could go on ballot in November.

I hate smoking pot. I hate it, always have.

Smoking pot  effects me.

Someone being high can effect me and can hurt someone else. 

This is a modified oil without THC, the high, which a child take by the drop.

Ingesting oil by the drop only effects the person taking it, no high, no smoke, no craziness.

Please call Sen Bradley's office in Clay County and Rep Gaetz in Tallahassee to get more information.

[Robert Henderson]

Personally , I have no respect for either John Morgan or Charlie Crist, but did their Amendment get approval to be on the ballot? This Amendments looks to me like an effort to defraud the people!

I am definitely opposed to legalizing marijuana as the fools did in Colorado, but where are the medical doctors and FDA on promoting the use of CBD? If they favor it, what are they doing about it?

I am not passing judgment on the need for HB 843, but this whole thing seems to be unnecessarily complicated! It very often appears to me that our unalienable rights from God are being nullified by the more sacrosanct laws of man!  The Death of Common Sense plagues us!

[Kate Svagdis]

Amanda, have my glasses on now. Non-THC oil is to stop seizures in children. This is not BS. Have you seen seizures and the effects on children? They are awful in adults or children.

Morgan and Crist's amendment is for votes and profit.

I believe non-THC is being studied for disorders using THC 

'Until now, it hasn’t been possible to get CBD from smoking marijuana without the simultaneous and possibly counterproductive exposure to THC. The new plant could change that — and perhaps shift the medical marijuana debate as well. While THC will remain essential for some medical marijuana patients — to increase appetite, for example — the non-impairing version of marijuana with CBD could help many others, without inducing the pleasure-producing properties that cause so much unending controversy.

Read more: A New Marijuana Plant Without the High? It Could Be Good Medicine |... http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/04/a-new-marijuana-plant-without...

[amanda choate]

MaybecRick Scott should support the amendment instead of fighting it.