Opinion: Governor, You Helped Defeat Amendment 3 Will the Legislature Now Act?

It takes sixty percent of the vote to approve a constitutional amendment in Florida, and on the surface, that may seem anti-democratic. But the founders understood that the last thing you want is mob rule, so they required constitutional amendments to receive a two-thirds vote.

This system has served us well, and it was a wise move by the governor to change the fifty percent threshold that was in place when he took office. Considering we don’t want mob rule and the state has struggled to prevent hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from being added to voter rolls, it seems like a reasonable precaution.

I suppose requiring people to bring a birth certificate or passport when registering to vote is a step too far for some, especially when it’s easier to just blame the federal government for not keeping track of who is in the country illegally. But I digress.

That said, forty-two out of sixty-seven counties voted for the marijuana amendment, which represented more than fifty-six percent of the vote. So, the people have spoken, and they expect you to honor your word and have the legislature act.

Those who have done their homework understand that medical marijuana is a scam. Imagine if your doctor told you that in order to purchase insulin, you had to pay him $300 a year, plus a state fee on top of that. Or better yet, imagine if you had to pay those fees just to buy beer or any other product. People would justifiably say you're insane.

So, the question remains: where do we go from here? It's simple, if we can put aside the fear-mongering and talk of big, evil corporations with monopolies.

There are more than twenty companies already licensed to sell marijuana, so the monopoly issue has been addressed. In fact, there’s already a law that allows cities and counties to outlaw cigarette smoking and vaping in parks and on municipally owned beaches—though, of course, not cigars, but that’s a topic for another day.

That law could be updated to include marijuana, or new legislation could make it illegal to smoke in public, except in the privacy of your own home. This should be an easy lift for the legislature.

You can also address the "can't grow your own" issue with legislative changes, and you can stiffen penalties for anyone convicted of selling or providing marijuana to minors.

Bottom line: the people have waited over a hundred years for the legislature to act, and they are tired of being scammed, coming and going. They realize you haven’t been governor for long, but they do expect you to act, given that you’ve stated time and time again that the best place for this issue to be addressed is in the legislature.
www.RexLeeReid.com

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