United for Care, the organization that brought medical marijuana to the ballot
in 2014, is launching an aggressive, statewide petition drive to put medical
marijuana back on the ballot in 2016.
The paid petitioning effort began this week and will
be in full effect by July 1. This new, paid effort joins a volunteer based
effort that has already collected tens of thousands of petitions since
mid-January of this year. Ultimately, 683,149 valid petitions need to be turned
in by Supervisors of Elections to the Florida Department of State by February 1,
2016 in order to obtain ballot placement for the 2016 vote. 10% of that figure
must be verified to trigger Supreme Court review.
"We collected over a million petitions in 2014 and
nearly 3.4 million people voted “yes” for medical marijuana. There is no
question in my mind that we will get medical marijuana back on the ballot for
2016," said Ben Pollara, Campaign Manager for United for Care.
The petition has only minor updates to its language
- clarifying issues related to parental consent and the kinds of conditions that
would qualify a potential patient, with a doctor's recommendation.
"The legislature had an opportunity to keep this off
the ballot by passing a law. They turned their backs on the patients of Florida
- but we can't and we won't. We're going to win this war and help suffering
Floridians in 2016," said John Morgan, Chairman of United for Care.
Morgan reiterated his commitment to seeing medical
marijuana placed back before voters, “I will do whatever it takes to get this
done. This is about compassion for hundreds of thousands of very sick people in
Florida.”
Registered Florida voters who wish to sign the
petition now, can fill it out, print it, and mail it in. Those who signed the
petition in 2013 and 2014 must sign the new petition again, if they wish to see
medical marijuana placed on the 2016 ballot. The petition can be found here: www.unitedforcare.org/petition
