Great background on Medical Marijuana fight here in Florida –
An organization advocating medicinal use of marijuana asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to take pot off the blacklist of totally banned drugs with no medicinal value Tuesday, so the Legislature can set rules for its therapeutic use by patients with painful or crippling afflictions.
“This is a life and death situation for me, and I do have a right to life,” Catherine Jordan, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, said from her wheelchair at a news conference in the Florida Press Center. Jordan, president of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, said marijuana has kept her alive more than 20 years — so long that the Social Security Administration once declared she had outlived her eligibility for benefits, and made her come to an office to prove she was still alive.
She said doctors have attested to the drug’s value for her, but that she still can’t get it legally in Florida.
“My goal has always been not to be a criminal,” she said. “Florida has a medical necessity defense but I had to be arrested to use it.”
Jodi James, executive director of the Melbourne-based network, displayed a metal canister she said the federal government uses to send medically approved marijuana to Irvin Rosenfeld, a Broward County man with a rare bone tumor disorder. Next week, he will mark his 30th year receiving pot under a prescription for smoking 10 to 12 joints per day.
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