Fresh off the heels of Amendment 2, a wildly successful referendum that legalized medical marijuana in Florida this year, some activists have decided to keep fighting until all adults have safe access to marijuana. The group, known as the Florida Cannabis Action Network, has already collected about 10,000 signatures through their political action group known as Florida CAN, and is aiming to gather enough signatures for recreational marijuana to be added to the 2018 ballot.
According to Jodi James, Florida CAN’s executive director, the group needs to garner about 750,000 signatures in order to attain ballot access. Once that happens, and if the measure passes, then Florida lawmakers would be tasked with creating regulations regarding the growing, possessing and use of cannabis. “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,” James told Florida Today. “I believe I have an unalienable right to it“.
If the group is able to get the amendment on the 2018 ballot they will need to receive at least 60% of the statewide vote in order for it to become law. The full text of the proposed constitutional amendment is as follows:
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.
