Medical marijuana has been a bipartisan issue in Florida for the past several years. In 2014, 58 percent of Floridians voted in favor it—just shy of the 60 percent needed to pass. The same year, Republican Governor Rick Scott signed into law theCompassionate Medical Cannabis Act, allowing very limited uses to alleviate pain for cancer patients, Lou Gehrig’s disease, or epilepsy.

A medical marijuana amendment has a good chance of passing this year, found a new Florida poll released Tuesday.

According to the Public Policy Polling survey, 65 percent of registered voters said they support the medical marijuana constitutional amendment. The survey found 28 percent said they were opposed to it, while 7 percent of respondents said they weren’t sure.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A medical marijuana bill is headed back to the floor of the Florida Senate after being approved in the rules committee Monday.

The bill (SB 460) was debated on the Senate floor last week but was referred back to committee because of the number of late amendments sought.

When Sen. Rob Bradley introduced the bill in October, he wanted to expand the Right to Try Act to allow terminally ill patients to use nonsmokable marijuana of all strengths and doses. However, the Republican from Fleming Island has added regulations to resolve issues that have come up since the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act signed by Gov. Rick Scott two years ago.

CBE caught up with Scott Denholm, Executive Director at Metrc, Franwell Corporation’s Marijuana Business Unit that supplies Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tracking technology to its two state clients, the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement division (MED), and soon to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) and its licensees.

He was on a month-long tour providing small group training sessions for Oregon Liquor Control Commission licensees throughout February 2016 when we tracked him down.

After selling off unprofitable divisions of the Babcock Lumber Company, the Babcock family began exploring new industries to invest in. Their search ultimately led them to an unexpected destination: the fledgling marijuana industry.

“The 2014 ballot initiative in Florida spurred our interest in medical marijuana,” said James Clifton Whatmore, president of MAB Investments in Sarasota, Fla. “Legal medical marijuana was so hyped up, it was hard to ignore.”

MAB Investments made its first direct investment in a marijuana company just one year ago.
 
“I was drawn to the newness and growth of the cannabis industry,” Whatmore told Private Wealth.

OCALA, Fla. - An Ocala family has made the painful decision to pack up everything and move from Central Florida, across the country to Colorado for their young son.  They say Colorado’s medical marijuana laws play a big part in the reason why.

He’s only 5-years-old, but for a moment, put yourself in Shawn’s shoes. Being that child, is not easy. “From the time he was a month old. All we know is hospitals,” Dawn Zuzio, Shawn’s mother said. “Doctors. Specialists. Surgeries. It’s hard.”

It’s hard, Shawn’s mother said, because he lives with Chronic Lung disease, dozens of medications, epilepsy, a hole in his heart, autism, and a trachea in his throat. “The list goes on,” Zuzio said. 

This time, Florida’s vote on medical prescription of marijuana will be different.

At least, we hope so.

Amendment 2 on the November ballot, allowing physicians to prescribe marijuana when they think its medical benefits outweigh potential risks, almost passed in 2014. The proposal was placed on the ballot by a public petition campaign and got 57.6 percent of the vote, just shy of the three-fifths super-majority required for adoption.

Voters in 20 U.S. states could potentially legalize some form of cannabis use in the November 2016 election — part of a historic backlash to the century-old war on marijuana.

According to Ballotpedia, the encyclopedia of American politics, activists have submitted ballot measures for public vote in: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

After supporting an intense campaign to place a medical marijuana initiative on the Florida ballot in 2014, marijuana advocacy group Sensible Florida ended their Regulate Florida campaign, after acknowledging that the group will not be able to acquire the more than 650,000 signatures needed to qualify for the Nov. 8 ballot  by February.  

"We suspended the campaign in 2016 but we're shooting for 2018," Hiedi Handford, spokeswoman for the campaign, told Mic. 

A Jacksonville Beach marijuana arrest wouldn’t usually generate much attention or scrutiny. But almost six years after Christopher James Markus was jailed, the Florida Supreme Court will be deciding whether police arrested him illegally.

Markus, now 33, was arrested in April 2010 after police saw him and several other men drinking alcohol in public. When the three men were approached, the smell of marijuana was detected and Markus was observed flicking a marijuana cigarette under a vehicle, according to a police report.

Police attempted to detain Markus, but he ran or backed away from them into the garage he was living in on the 100 block of Second Street South. Police entered the garage and arrested Markus, who also had a knife on him, the report said.