The Lakeland Police Department opposes this initiative, which appears on Attachment 1.

The initiative does NOT:

• Require a prescription



• Require that the physician recommending use be licensed in Florida



• Establish guidelines for use



• Establish an age limit for use



• Require any special medical condition



• Limit quantities



• Ensure purity or dosage consistency

The initiative DOES:

• Allow children, convicted felons, and even jail inmates to smoke, sell and grow marijuana.



• Allow anyone, any age, to use marijuana for any so-called "medical purpose", including headaches, backaches, pimples, and anything else the user can think up.



• Provide immunity for any and all drug dealers who grow, transport, sell, or in any way provide marijuana.

What's REALLY going on here?

• Efforts to legalize marijuana are supported by a group of very wealthy Americans. (Billionaire financier George Soros has been the biggest supporter, donating more than $16,000,000 to legalization efforts.)



• Proponents of legalizing marijuana launch massive media campaigns which play on the fears and sympathies of voters. (Proponents callously take advantage of cancer and HIV patients by claiming that marijuana eases their suffering.)



• Proponents seek to avoid the FDA-approval process. (Legitimate drugs go through rigorous testing by the FDA. Marijuana has never been shown in controlled scientific studies to be safe or effective.)



• Marijuana is not a harmless drug. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), marijuana has a significant number of negative effects, including:



• Decreased motor coordination, reasoning, and memory;



• Higher level of carcinogens than tobacco; Inhibits the reproductive system;



• Impairs the immune system; and



• Causes birth complications.



• Increased use of marijuana is often correlated with increased use of more dangerous drugs. Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reports that 60% of children who smoke pot before age 15 move on to cocaine.



• Illegal drug use is not a victimless crime. (Drug use and crime go hand in hand. Drug use affects self-control and alters normal thought processes, increases aggressiveness and releases inhibitions in the user. This leads to changes in behavior which contribute to criminal activity.)



• Persons convicted of marijuana offenses are NOT crowding Florida's prisons. (In January 1998, only 14 of Florida's 65,000 prison inmates were incarcerated for a primary offense of possession of marijuana. All 14 had prior criminal histories. There was no one in a Florida prison with only one conviction for a marijuana offense.)



• The California Experience (In November 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act". The Act allows marijuana to be grown and smoked for "any illness for which marijuana provides relief". The effect of the Legislation has been the virtual legalization of marijuana.)



• The Oregon Experience (In 1997, after 24 years of very liberal marijuana laws, Oregon re-criminalized marijuana use, increased tolerance of marijuana by juveniles as one motivation for the change.)



• It is true that marijuana's main active ingredient, THC, is effective in relieving nausea and inducing weight gain in cancer and AIDS patients. For this reason, the FDA approved "Marinol", a synthetic pill-form of THC, in the 1980's.

Attachment - Proposed Ammendment

Back to Top