Pubdate: Mon, 02 Dec 2013
Source: Tampa Bay Times (FL)
Copyright: 2013 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/
Website: http://www.tampabay.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Note: Named the St. Petersburg Times from 1884-2011.
Author: John G. Chase
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v13/n564/a06.html

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

Re: A shift in attitudes on marijuana (Nov. 26, letter)

This letter invites the question: What will it take to formalize the 
shift? Justice Louis Brandeis spoke approvingly of the 'laboratory of 
the states' as the test bed for proposed changes in social policy. 
Florida has a chance to become one of those states, and Florida 
voters need not wait for their Legislature to wake up.

Florida's Constitution provides that Florida voters can make law 
themselves by citizens' initiative. The first step to do that is the 
petition, now on the street, to put the question of medical marijuana 
on the November ballot. The petition needs over 300,000 more Florida 
voters to sign it in the next few weeks just to put the question on 
the ballot. If it reaches the ballot, it likely will pass, given the 
recent shift in attitudes.

John G. Chase, Palm Harbor
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom