Cannabis\u00a0is now\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0litmus test for belief in personal freedoms and whether politicians are (or are not) elected to serve the will of the people.\u00a0The voters have spoken, recent\u00a0polls confirm. Apparently,\u00a0Florida politicians are listening. \u00a0<\/p>\n A few months ago, the Smart and Safe adult use initiative was filed. It has already garnered nearly enough signatures to be reviewed in the Supreme Court and\u00a0continue\u00a0its way to the 2024 ballot. Unfortunately, Florida\u2019s strict single-subject rule doesn\u2019t allow for more than one subject to be addressed on any ballot initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n To solve this, a home cultivation voter initiative is set to launch in the next in the next month.<\/p>\n These\u00a0subjects\u00a0already poll high with voters, including a majority of Republican voters. But the\u00a0gap between voters\u2019 sentiments and politicians\u2019 actions is\u00a0narrower than ever, as the passionate freedom fighting of the pandemic has shone\u00a0a bright\u00a0light on this\u00a0singular\u00a0gaping disparity\u00a0over a\u00a0plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n Medical freedom is an overarching theme, and the days of cannabis being somehow the one exception are behind us.\u00a0In the south, we prefer voters\u2019 will be fulfilled in Tallahassee rather than through amending the Constitution: and a few politicians are leading the charge to do just that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite years of advocacy by patients and parents, many Florida patients are still unable to access the legal market due to expense or inaccessibility. If the medical program isn\u2019t fixed before adult use makes it to the ballot in 2024, it\u2019s likely to take a back seat to recreational and eventually disappear as it has in Colorado and other states that have legalized before us. Some Florida politicians seem dedicated to avoiding those same pitfalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n These conversations include reciprocity, telehealth, employee protections, research, and discounting State fees for medical recommendation cards for vets and children (which is currently double the price of adult recommendations). It\u2019s also likely that the legislature will directly address home cultivation as part of broadening the current medical program.\u00a0<\/p>\n This will reduce costs and increase the ability to access personalized medicine for Florida\u2019s low income and disabled populations. A parent like myself with a child diagnosed with brain cancer would be able to juice non-psychoactive raw plant material (which is one of the world\u2019s most effective anti-inflammatories) for a tenth of the cost as the current market provides.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n There are a million examples of how and why. But\u00a0at the end of the day, the truth is that most voters just want freedom.\u00a0It\u2019s relieving to know we\u2019re no longer having to fight tooth and nail to have our voices heard, especially while already fighting for our children\u2019s or loved ones\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n If freedom is important to you, you should be watching this journey closely. The most we can all do at this moment is to call and write into our elected officials to let them know this is what voters want: freedom.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moriah Barnhart is a pediatric cancer mom, a member of FDACS\u2019 Hemp and Medical Marijuana advisory boards, and co-founder of the nonprofits CannaMoms and WISEFlorida.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n JOIN THE CONVERSATION<\/strong><\/p>\n Send letters to the editor (up to 200 words) or Your Turn columns (about 500 words) to<\/em>letters@tallahassee.com<\/a>. Please include your address for verification purposes only, and if you send a Your Turn, also include a photo and 1-2 line bio of yourself. You can also submit anonymous Zing!s at\u00a0<\/em>Tallahassee.com\/Zing.<\/em><\/a> Submissions are published on a space-available basis. All submissions may be edited for content, clarity and length, and may also be published by any part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n Cannabis\u00a0is now\u00a0the\u00a0litmus test for belief in personal freedoms and whether politicians are (or are not) elected to serve the will of the people.\u00a0The voters have spoken, recent\u00a0polls confirm. Apparently,\u00a0Florida politicians are listening. \u00a0 A few months ago, the Smart and Safe adult use initiative was filed. It has already garnered nearly enough signatures to be …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44598"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Moriah](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2023\/01\/19\/PTAL\/a36fa731-a1b1-4777-95ad-153e31172713-Moriah_Barnhart.jpg?width=300&height=395&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp\")
<\/figure>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"