Not exactly another day at the politically partisan office. Who would have thought history–not ideological sausage–was going to be made?
But that’s what happened. For the first time the Florida Legislature voted to approve a marijuana product.
Indeed, what were they smoking in Tallahassee?
As it turns out, the Florida House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice was inhaling empathy. No, the grouse house hasn’t morphed into the grow house, but civility and compassion reigned as representatives heard testimony from those making the case that marijuana actually helped those in pain. As in brain cancer. For those subject to seizures. As in Dravet’s Syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy.
So, why not seriously look at a low THC strain with a track record of results?
* “People here in Tallahassee have realized that we can’t just have a bumper-sticker approach to marijuana where you’re either for it or against it,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar, the committee chairman who sponsored the bill.
Imagine, a non-bumper-sticker approach to a high-profile, societal issue.
* “Frankly, we need to be a state where guys like me, who are cancer victims, aren’t criminals in seeking treatment I’m entitled to,” added Rep. Dave Hood, R-Daytona Beach.
Imagine, brain cancer metastasizing the length of the political spectrum.
* “We’ve got a plant here on God’s green earth that’s got a stigma to it–but it’s got a medical value,” underscored Rep. Dane Eagle, R-Cape Coral. “I don’t want to look into their eyes and say I’m sorry we can’t help you. We need to put the politics aside today and help these families in need.”
Imagine, putting politics aside and doing what you can to help people in demonstrable need.
Nobody referenced John Morgan, Charlie Crist, Rick Scott or “Reefer (‘Women Cry For It! Men Die For It!’) Madness” outtakes. No one issued any red-meat, “drug-crazed abandon” quotes for the morality-tales-gone-loony crowd back home.
No, this wasn’t smoke and mirrors. It was a subcommittee that had checked law-and-order bona fides and any gateway-drug misconceptions outside chambers. It was also a what-if? moment.
What if subcommittees routinely turned into deportment departments? What if the rhetorical bombast, posturing and bumper-sticker mentality that works so well on the hustings was typically absent when it actually came to law-making? What if demonizing were no longer considered a viable strategy?
Imagine more than opposition lip service and zero-sum negotiating on issues ranging from Medicaid expansion and Stand Your Ground to state pensions, flood insurance, Common Core, casino gambling, solar energy, voter-fraud incidence, privatized prisons and environmentally sensitive growth.
Who knows, there might even be grass-roots support for it.