Medical marijuana legalization in Florida would cause crime rates in the Sunshine State to rise, according to the Florida Sheriffs Association, which has launched the “Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot” campaign against legal weed.
In a related report by The Inquisitr , one Harvard study claims that smoking recreational marijuana even in limited amounts causes significant brain abnormalities. On the political side, Iowa’s medical marijuana bill is actually very similar to the proposed laws in Florida. Supporters of marijuana legalization are pointing to how crime statistics are down in the city of Denver since legal weed became the norm in Colorado.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd is the president of the Florida Sheriffs Association, which is leading the fight against Florida’s Amendment 2 vote scheduled for this fall. If the amendment passes, then any Floridian suffering from certain chronic illnesses would be allowed to get a marijuana prescription from a doctor, which is quite a difference from the so-called Charlotte’s Web law that limits medical marijuana to a liquid pill with low doses of THC. So far it seems very likely that Amendment 2 will pass because the polls show Floridians are increasingly supporting medical weed for home usage. Of course, these type of results depend on the news source since a News 13 poll indicates only 53 percent support “legalizing medical marijuana in Florida.”
But Sheriff Judd claims that if people are allowed to legally get high, then crimes will get crazy:
“I see the guy that’s up all night with a baby that’s screaming, so he smokes him a blunt and a half and he thinks that’ll help and ends up bouncing the baby off the walls. I see the deputy that has to take the gun from the guy who is passed out as a result of having marijuana and other drugs in his or her possession.”
The police point to how Colorado’s recreational marijuana law has caused traffic accidents to skyrocket. Authorities claim that driving when impaired by the effects of smoking marijuana is just as bad as alcohol. Colorado has responded to this alleged crisis by creating a new ad campaign that reminds pot smokers to “sober up” before driving.
John Morgan, the main backer behind Florida’s medical marijuana legalization amendment, responds to all the controversy by saying that Florida will not have this issue since Amendment 2 specifically limits legal weed to a list which includes illnesses like cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Morgan also seems to be looking forward to when the controversy will end:
“The closer we get to the end, the more we start looking for peace, and we get to parts of life where we’re looking for peace.”
Do you think Florida’s medical marijuana legalization amendment would cause crimes rates to go up or down?