Bush Doctor

Hi Readers (double entendre), don't you just hate it when you're on your third does of chemo for the day and the fuzz snatch your stash of medical MJ before you can use it to keep your lunch down?

That situation may sound hypothetical but one sure thing about youth and health is that neither last forever. And when we are at that point where life is a struggle, shouldn't we have access to the things that make it a little easier? America thinks so. That's why medical access to marijuana is now the law in 18 states and the District of Columbia.

If you're a fan of social media you know that barely a day goes by without an article on some new use for it. Medical marijuana has been shown useful in treating dozens of diseases and conditions. It has a safety record that would leave you civil litigators dreadfully under-employed. And unlike many of today's pharmaceutical wonder drugs which cost thousands, sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars, medical MJ is affordable and can even be produced directly by the end user and no to little cost.

But if you're looking for compassionate use access here in the Sunshine State you're looking for love in the wrong places. It's not a matter of public opinion. 70% of Floridians support allowing medical access to marijuana, and this support cuts across party lines and demographics.

Critics point to the lack of substantive testing and scientific method over many of these claim, which is kind of funny considering experts like Professor David Nutt call the prohibitions on testing “the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo”.

“The laws scare off funders and most scientists are scared because they think if they break the law, they might get arrested,” he told The Independent. “I’m sure at some point someone’s going to arrest me. There is a sense of repression to the point that most people won’t do it.”

For a while this year it looked like we could actually make some progress in the Florida Legislature. The Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act was introduced, but alas it went nowhere. It should be obvious to everyone that if we want progress on this issue we cannot depend on Florida's crusty and regressive government.

Thankfully we have a well organized and funded effort to put this issue on the 2014 ballot as a state referendum. The newly formed organization, United for Care has some real political bigwigs behind it. It also has a Godwhacker. You may see me out on your streets this summer, collecting the necessary signatures. I'll be the one on rollerblades in Daisy-Dukes.