On Oct. 8, Lindsay Alexander wrote a column opposing the approval of Amendment 2, which would legalize medical marijuana in Florida. Alexander’s concerns about Amendment 2 are misguided.
I have studied Amendment 2 and many other states’ medical marijuana legislation, and I can confidently say that she is mistaken about the amendment’s meaning and about the consequences for our state that passing Amendment 2 will have.
California was the first state to pass medical marijuana legislation. Proposition 215 passed in 1996, and it was a sparse bill that provided little regulatory guidance. The predictable result, as Alexander noted, was a poorly regulated system that allows virtually anyone to obtain access to marijuana.
However, much has changed in the ensuing 20 years. Since the passage of Prop 215, 22 other states have legalized medicinal marijuana. None of them have suffered the adverse consequences that California did.
