John “For the People” Morgan was the well-received guest at last week’s Tiger Bay Club of Tampa luncheon. He was there, to be sure, to talk medical marijuana–not slip-and-fall accidents or nursing-home abuse.
Early in his presentation, however, one of the servers dropped an empty platter that made a loud, disruptive noise. Bada bing: One workman’s-comp joke seamlessly inserted. Morgan was on his game. It was that kind of presentation, periodically leavened with humor. Here a Cheech and Chong reference, there a “brownies are kicking in” aside.
You can only imagine what this affably informal, Kentucky native would be like in front of a jury. Engaging. No slick shtick. Down-home but dead-on.
This is the Morgan, downsized and upgraded, who can’t truly be depicted on a billboard, a favorite forum for personal injury attorneys around here. This is the Morgan, obviously at ease with wandering from a script, who can’t be delineated from those ubiquitous, on-message “representing the people, not the powerful” TV ads. This is the chubby 57-year-old who wasn’t sent by Central Casting to play the part of the high-powered barrister who runs Orlando-based Morgan & Morgan, the largest consumer protection and personal injury firm in the Southeast. The one that has 240 lawyers, 1,400 employees and a $45 million annual advertising budget.
He spoke in populist parlance, sometimes a bit salty. More “aw s—” than “aw shucks,” shall we say. He confided that Ultima Morgan, his attorney wife of 31 years, is a Republican and that he, indeed, “sleeps with the enemy.” But they’re both all in on this amendment.
The attendees loved it. Some were surely late returning to work. Morgan talked–and talked–about why he has invested nearly $4 million to get that medical marijuana amendment, which would allow people with chronic, debilitating conditions to use marijuana if a licensed doctor recommends it in writing, on this November’s ballot. And why he is so passionate about it.
Morgan’s Motivation
“It works.”
That’s Morgan’s bottom-line response to why he is so involved in this medical-marijuana crusade that he calls a “mission of mercy.” It’s an end-of-life drug, he pointed out, that has been prompting countless hospice-nurse phone calls encouraging his deep-pocketed campaign. “We know that 350,000-to-400,000 people would benefit day one in Florida,” he underscored.
He also bristles at the “Reefer Madness” crowd’s fear-mongering but doesn’t see it gaining traction against truth. “Nobody dies from a marijuana overdose,” he emphasized. “The pharmaceutical industry knows it works.”
There’s another reason. It’s personal.
Marijuana helped relieve his dying father’s pain from esophageal cancer and emphysema and helped his paralyzed brother Tim’s pain. It’s the right–“compassionate” and “humane”–thing to do, he said. “You would give it to your pet.”
Moreover, his mission is grounded in a core belief. “We have a duty to take care of each other,” he noted without sounding preachy. “We can all do something from where we are. This is where I am.” He sees health care as a fundamental “human right.”
He also doesn’t trust public officials to do the right thing. He did a minor riff on politicians to illustrate his point.
“They’re more interested in the next election than in their next door neighbor,” he declared. “Public service? Every time I hear that I think: ‘Bull—-, bull—-.’ It’s about vanity. About being somebody. It’s about them, not about us. I will take this directly to the people.”
Pot Politics
He has, of course, been encouraged by the polls and surveys that uniformly show strong support for the medical marijuana amendment. He’s optimistic, but still wary because 60 percent is a formidable threshold, and off-year turnouts can be an electoral crapshoot.
“It’s become a Republican-Democrat issue,” he assessed, one that Republicans, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, will likely regret being on the wrong side of. “Disease and injury don’t pick political parties,” he stated. “I think it’s a mistake for the Republicans. Deep down, they know it’s right.
“If we had to polygraph every Republican legislator in the state, how many of them do you think smoked marijuana illegally?” he asked rhetorically. “The hypocrisy is beyond puke factor.”
While he’s bullish on the amendment’s chances–after getting all those petition signatures and a Florida Supreme Court seal of approval on amendment wording–Morgan is also realistic. As the campaign against the amendment ratchets up later in the year, potential opposition could come from several sources.
They include the “tunnel vision” sorts who might be over-reacting to a rehab situation in the family–and not necessarily aware, for example, that medical marijuana would be a much safer, less addictive alternative to painkillers such as oxycontin, a common gateway drug to heroin. He also mentioned “big pharma,” which makes money from chemotherapy and has unsuccessfully tried to duplicate marijuana in pill (“Marinol”) form. Also in the hypothetical mix, according to Morgan: for-profit correctional facilities and “maybe the Colombian cartel.”
“But nobody will put up this kind of money,” he added confidently.
Morgan Outtakes
* “I’m not going to spend almost $4 million of my own money to get Charlie Crist elected. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I like Charlie Crist, but I don’t like him that much.”
* “I’m not Machiavellian.”
* “Why are people scared of science? Why are people scared of the truth?”
* “How do you want to die, Daddy?”
* “The war on drugs was lost a long time ago. We treat addicts as criminals. We’re not as forgiving as we think we are.”
* “A lot of people have a lot of money, but no peace. This journey has given me a lot of peace.”