Love Is In The Air Remember that time in 2014 when medical marijuana got a half-million more votes than Gov. Rick Scott but was still defeated? No? Let's recap. Two years ago, Florida's biggest political issue, aside from Scott beating Charlie Crist and his loyal Vornado Air Circulator fan for a second term, was Amendment 2, a measure that would have legalized medical marijuana for people with debilitating medical conditions. United for Care and its chairman, Orlando attorney John Morgan, pulled in millions of dollars to fight for the initiative. Drug Free Florida, which counted on supporters like the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida Medical Association and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, hauled in its own share of cash, including a $5 million contribution from casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, to oppose medical marijuana. [continues 1564 words]
The Myths Behind 'Potent Pot' Heard the latest buzz about cannabis? Word on the street is that today's pot is exponentially more powerful, and thus more dangerous, than the marijuana available some 20, or even 10, years ago. The nation's drug czar says so. ("We're no longer talking about the drug of the 1960s and 1970s," John P. Walters recently warned Reuters; "this is Pot 2.0.") Law enforcement says so. (Speaking to the Associated Press in June, United States Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Mark R. Trouville, who heads the agency's Miami office, said, "This ain't your grandfather's or your father's marijuana. This will hurt you. This will addict you. This will kill you.") Pot dealers say so. (Advertising to your clientele that you sell only the most potent weed is an effective marketing tool.) Even most pot smokers say so. (Admit it. Who among you is going to tell your friends that you smoke schwag?) [continues 698 words]
Two weeks ago this wildly popular columnist wrote a squib defending the Orlando Sentinel, of all things, for their October series investigating deaths from the prescription drug OxyContin. Predictions that monkeys would take wing and swine recite poetry when Slug wrote a kind word about the Sentinel failed to materialize. In an odd twist, however, the Sentinel has gone out of its way to beat itself up for portraying a convicted felon as a modern Ward Cleaver. After "Drug deals" appeared in this space Jan. 29, the Sentinel went public Feb. 1 with the fact that David Rokisky, an ex-cop upon whom reporter Doris Bloods-worth lavished five stories, was not as he appeared. Turns out the paper's favorite "accidental addict" has convictions for drug conspiracy and forgery. But the Sentinel didn't know that until Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin, did a check on Rokisky and detailed their findings in a Dec. 15 letter to Sentinel managing editor Elaine Kramer. The Sentinel quoted Kramer saying that Feb. 1. [continues 533 words]
James McDonough is fuming. McDonough, Florida's first drug czar, is sitting on a makeshift dais in a ballroom of the Orlando Renaissance Hotel March 14 as part of a three-member panel convened for a town-hall meeting on substance-abuse policy. The panel was put together by groups for and against relaxing drug laws. McDonough, though, is clearly tired of answering questions from the former. "I do enjoy the occasional joint or so," says Brian Cregger, a University of Central Florida staff engineer and former vice president of UCF's NORML chapter. "There are good people out there who [smoke pot]." [continues 1276 words]
Not since the movie "Reefer Madness," with its absurdly exaggerated fear-mongering about marijuana, has the War on Drugs offered such a belly laugh. Now, courtesy of Florida's new drug czar comes "Killer Fungus Touted to Eradicate State Pot Crop!" Fresh from Washington, D.C., Jim McDonough is putting down roots in Tallahassee. This pusher of fungal fatuity is lobbying to introduce an invasive plant, a "mycoherbicide," to Florida. When the idea was challenged, McDonough wrote a memo blasting the state-employed scientists who caution against any such fungus fiasco. [continues 754 words]
