Orlando attorney John Morgan was 9 years old in 1965 when a pot-smoking free speech activist at Berkeley said never trust anybody over 30. In November, Morgan and United for Care's campaign strategists may be more unsure about anybody under 30.

“The good thing about getting old is you can talk to people your age and tell them, ‘Look, we’re the ones who are going to benefit,’” from medical marijuana, Morgan said Thursday at a press conference in Orlando. “It’s going to be our wife, our husband, our sister who’s going to need this.”

United for Care’s medical marijuana amendment was verified by the state Division of Elections Wednesday, giving voters a second chance to make Florida the 24^th state that allows prescription pot.

It's not baby boomers or bust in November. But in 2014, a similar initiative was narrowly defeated when younger voters — a sharp focus in the campaign — failed to turn out in numbers that United for Care expected. Forty-two percent of voters said no to the measure.

Morgan started targeting the no votes after a revised petition was filed by United for Care in January 2015, closing loopholes.

“That 42 percent will undoubtedly understand that this medicine will not go into the hands of children without a several-step process, which includes a signed parental consent form,” Morgan said in a Daily Fray interview in July.

Opponents of medical pot two years ago involved a coalition of anti-drug groups and the powerful Florida Sheriffs Association, which took on Morgan in a series of debates.

The sheriffs figure to weigh in on the new amendment at their winter conference Jan. 31-Feb. 3 in Miramar Beach.

Morgan said voters age 60 and older will get the message about medical marijuana. The campaign will intensify roughly six weeks before the November election.

“The people who we are talking about, in large part, are people who are fighting for their lives … for their quality of life,” Morgan said. “This is not, ‘Let’s just go have fun.’ We are talking about the people who are sickest and most injured among us.” 

---

RELATED » California dreamin' for some medical marijuana hopefuls.
» United for Care keeps distance from Regulate Florida.

 

BLUE Ocean Film Festival