Scott Powers
Medical marijuana champion John Morgan turned to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to push for a special session to implement the medical marijuana law and he called for the free market – not the Florida Legislature – to decide how many dispensaries there would be.
Morgan, who earlier this week had called for a special session after the House and Senate failed to work out a final implementation bill over the weekend, turned his pitch to social media, seeking to convince Gov. Rick Scott that the people of Florida will demand he call a special session to finish the legislative work to back Florida’s medical marijuana legalization.
The Orlando lawyer who chaired United For Care tactfully praised Scott, House Speaker Richard Corcoran, and Senate President Joe Negron. But he also reminded them that he spent four years pushing for medical marijuana and when he won, Amendment 2 to the Florida Constitution was approved with the largest voter margin of victory ever seen in a statewide medical marijuana initiative in America.
“Let’s get this done. Let’s come back to special session. Two or three days. Let’s do what’s right. Le’ts do the people’s work. They sent you guys there for a reason. they sent you there to do their work. They trusted you. And with 71 percent of the vote, there’s no doubt what’s the will of the people,” Morgan said in an eight-minute video. “Let freedom ring. Let capitalism prosper. Let’s put people before profit. Let’s do this for the people of Florida.”
The capitalism line was one Morgan, a Democrat and potential gubernatorial candidate, returned to several times in his speech, as if trying to offer himself as the champion of capitalism that Republicans had abused. The house and Senate versions ultimately collided, crashed and burned when the two houses could not agree on how many dispensaries would be allowed statewide, he said.
“Who cares?” Morgan, decried. “Once upon a time there were tanning saloons all over Florida, and then there weren’t. There were laser hair removal places all over Florida. then there wasn’t, because the free market ferrets it all out. The cream rises to the top, and the weak don’t make it.”
Morgan also made an open threat to sue if the final implementation bill does not include the opportunity for patients to smoke marijuana.
“The lack of smoke. That’s ridiculous,” he said. “And if it passes without smoke, I’ll sue for that, and win, because in my amendment it said, ‘Smoking is not allowed in public places.’ So everybody understood that smoke was to be allowed. It’s just another act of the Legislature ignoring the will of the people.”
