State's push for medical marijuana rolled up in presidential politics

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. listens during an event hosted by the Foreign Policy Initiative, Friday Aug. 14, 2015, in New York.
AP

By Christopher Curry

Presidential politics and politics of pot are starting to overlap.

People United for Medical Marijuana, the political committee behind the medical marijuana referendum push in Florida, last week criticized Republican Presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and, to a lesser extent, GOP candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for comments indicating they would crack down on states with legalized marijuana.

During an interview on Meet the Press on Aug. 9, Rubio said he would be “open to” medicinal uses” of marijuana if the drug went through the full U.S. Food & Drug Administration process for drug approval and “you can come up with a proven medical benefit of that substance.”

Rubio also said he believes “the federal government needs to enforce federal law,” which still lists marijuana — along with drugs including heroin and ecstasy — as a Schedule 1 drug with no legitimate medical use.

He went on to say that at a time when alcohol has destroyed lives, families, marriages and businesses, “We’re going to legalize another intoxicant.”

In a statement sent out Tuesday, Ben Pollara, the campaign manager for People United for Medical Marijuana, said Rubio “has taken a position in clear opposition to the rights of the states to determine their own course on marijuana laws.”

“As a Floridian, it seems to me Rubio is proactively telling our state that he doesn't respect the will of the people,” Pollara said in that statement.

The Rubio campaign press office did not respond to an request from The Sun seeking a response to the political committee’s statement.

The statement also criticized Christie for comments made on CNN in April that he would “crack down and not permit it.”

In the statement, Pollara said “if you needed proof that elections matter, this is it” because Christie and Rubio plan on enforcing federal law that conflicts with state law.

The statement also went on to say that GOP candidate Jeb Bush and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton have indicated in statements that they would take the same “hands off” approach on the states that the Obama administration and Congress now have.

Asked in a phone interview Wednesday if the committee was now wading into presidential politics, Pollara said the organization sent out statements to inform supporters and other Florida voters that, even if the referendum is approved, some presidential candidates would “send federal troops” to Florida in 2017 to shut down medical marijuana just as it was beginning.

“We’re not going to endorse or oppose any candidates,” Pollara said. “You’re not going to see us in September or October of next year banging the drum for or against any presidential candidate. 

We’re going to be banging the drum for medical marijuana.”

He questioned if Rubio’s suggestion of vetting medical marijuana through the FDA process was realistic when its categorization as a Schedule 1 drug means there are significant legal and bureaucratic barriers to clinical trials. As for comments about the harmful effects of marijuana, Pollara said it is not a “totally benign substance” but remains more safe than the strong pharmaceutical painkillers many people with cancer and other diseases and conditions now have to take.

Right now, People United for Medical Marijuana is ratcheting up fundraising and petition-gathering efforts. The organization raised more than $770,000 in contributions in July, with more than $700,000 of that coming from the Orlando-based law firm of John Morgan, the campaign’s chair and its major financial donor back in 2014.

The group paid nearly $690,000 in July to PCI Consultants, the California firm hired to gather voter signatures and work on the petition drive.

On Friday afternoon, the group held petition gathering events in front of courthouses in at least Leon, Alachua, Hillsborough, Lake, Orange, Polk, Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Pollara said the courthouses were chosen as “symbolic” locations.

“We’re talking about sick people who are tied up in the legal system because we don’t have medical marijuana,” Pollara said.