This week on Florida Matters, WUSF’s Carson Cooper hosted a discussion on medical marijuana.
A group called United for Care is behind the push to get a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana on the 2014 Florida ballot. The group is chaired by Orlando attorney John Morgan, founder of the law firm Morgan & Morgan, who is bankrolling the campaign.
“I believe that this is an area of what I call political philanthropy, where you see tens of thousands of people suffering for no reason, and you think, ‘Well, what can I do to make a difference?’” Morgan said. “This is my philanthropy for the next year or so.”
Kevin Sabet of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida said a better way to get the benefits of marijuana is in the form of a pill.
“We know that there are medical properties of marijuana,” said Sabet. “The issue is that we don’t have to smoke it to get those properties.”
In Colorado, medical and recreational marijuana are both legal. Charlie Brown serves as a city councilman in Denver.
“We were just beginning to understand the full impact of medical marijuana, and now we got hit with recreational marijuana,” Brown said. “We have to regulate both, and I can tell you, it’s a real challenge.”
You can listen to the entire show here. It will also air again on WUSF 89.7 at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday and on WSMR 89.1 at 10 p.m. on Monday.
--Health News Florida is part of WUSF Public Media. Contact Lottie Watts at 813-974-8705 (desk) or e-mail at lottiewatts@wusf.org. For more health news, visit HealthNewsFlorida.org.
