cannabisnews.com: Morgan Pours $2.8 Million Into MMJ Effort
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Morgan Pours $2.8 Million Into MMJ Effort
Posted by CN Staff on January 13, 2014 at 10:10:36 PT
By Aaron Deslatte, Tallahassee Bureau Chief
Source: Orlando Sentinel
Tallahassee -- With time running out to make this year's fall election ballot, Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan upped his game last month in a last-ditch effort to gather enough signatures to ask Florida voters to legalize medical marijuana.Campaign-finance records show the lawyer and his firm Morgan & Morgan poured $2.8 million into the effort this fall -- spending $2 million in December on a California-based signature gathering firm PCI Consultants Inc., which has blanketed airwaves with commercials and shopping malls and other public spaces with signature-gatherers.
Morgan's total giving includes an $909,000 loan from his law firm to the People United for Medical Marijuana organization. The new report shows Morgan's family and mega-law firm have now accounted for 83 percent of the legalization effort's entire budget.The group has until Feb. 1 to gather the more than 683,000 valid voter signatures to make the ballot, although the group has officially filed just over 375,000 and is significantly below the mark in swaths of the state like the Panhandle and southwest Florida.But it also has to collect enough signatures in 14 of Florida's 27 congressional districts -- equal to roughly 8 percent of the turnout in the last election. According to the Florida Division of Elections website, the effort has garnered just over half the signatures needed in only nine districts so far, mostly Democratic seats in the Orlando, Tampa and South Florida markets. Morgan said in an interview he had faith the company would deliver -- and that they've already collected more than 1 million signatures. "I'm going to have the signatures; it's just a matter of if they're valid," he said.The initiative is also still waiting on the Florida Supreme Court to declare whether its ballot language meets legal muster.Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi's office and the Legislature argued before the court that the initiative was misleading and could open the door to pill mill-like marijuana outlets everywhere.The amendment summary says it would authorize "the medical use of marijuana for individuals with debilitating diseases as determined by a licensed Florida physician."The actual ballot language defines "debilitating medical condition" as diseases such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C or "other conditions for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient."That could allow medical marijuana to be prescribed for anything, critics say.Morgan, a prominent Democratic fundraiser supporting Charlie Crist for governor this year, has denied the amendment would have such an effect, and has become the public face of the effort as well as its primary cash cow.The only other major donor has been Coral Gables philanthropist and Democratic fundraiser Barbara A. Stiefel, who has given $250,000. The Center for Policy Reform has kicked in another $90,000.Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)Author: Aaron Deslatte, Tallahassee Bureau ChiefPublished: January 13, 2014Copyright: 2014 Orlando SentinelContact: insight orlandosentinel.comWebsite: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/DSibHhC2CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #16 posted by afterburner on January 15, 2014 at 18:49:53 PT
Great Wise North Vote: Legalize vs. Police State
Marc Emery: Marijuana Legalization vs. the Conservative Party in Election 2015.
By Marc Emery - Monday, January 13 2014 
http://www.cannabisculture.com/blogs/2014/01/13/Marc-Emery-Marijuana-Legalization-vs-Conservative-Party-Election-2015The War on BC's Small Pot Farmer.
Canada busts the mom n' pop grow-op while fostering the rise of biopharmaceutical marijuana.
By Molly Lynch, 16 Dec 2013, TheTyee.ca 
http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/12/16/BC-Pot-Farmer/
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by Hope on January 15, 2014 at 09:26:03 PT
Comment 12
I voted....Wow! Those are extraordinary numbers. I like 'em!Thanks, Afterburner.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by FoM on January 14, 2014 at 12:06:22 PT
Afterburner
Thank you. I voted too!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by The GCW on January 14, 2014 at 11:35:38 PT
afterburner,
Thanks, I voted.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by afterburner on January 14, 2014 at 11:04:06 PT
Speaking of Polls: Check Yesterday's Katie Couric 
Are We Becoming a Marijuana Nation?
http://katiecouric.com/2014/01/13/are-we-becoming-a-marijuana-nation/Go Inside a Marijuana Store
http://katiecouric.com/videos/go-inside-a-marijuana-store/ Could Your State Legalize Marijuana?
http://katiecouric.com/videos/could-your-state-legalize-marijuana/Vote: Do You Support Legalizing Marijuana for Recreational Use?
http://katiecouric.com/features/vote-do-you-support-legalizing-marijuana-for-recreational-use/
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by Sam Adams on January 14, 2014 at 10:01:39 PT
thanks!!
thanks for voting, the number definitely came up, it was in the 50's before.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by Hope on January 13, 2014 at 22:08:45 PT
Thanks, Sam. 
I voted, too. It looks better even than earlier today. Sixty percent yes... not bad.:)
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on January 13, 2014 at 21:18:16 PT
I don't even know what you'll are talking about,
yet. But, I know it's funny.Contact!I was so serious, and looking in and just scrolling, I was smiling.The news has been kind of rough for a couple of weeks. Much ado.I'll go check the comments then read this article, if I haven't.Did I say, I hope it's not more sorrowful, sad, stupid stuff? I hope it's not.
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Comment #8 posted by The GCW on January 13, 2014 at 20:04:25 PT
And since We're stuck on funny: 419.99
US CO: 420 Mile Marker A Victim Of Pot Culture After thefts of signs, CDOT highway indicator says 419.99 There are 450 miles of Interstate 70 from west to east in Colorado, but Mile 420 ain't one. After sticky-fingered stoners repeatedly swiped the marker for the 420th mile, the state Department of Transportation resorted to desperate measures. Colorado, say hello to Mile 419.99. Cont.http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n037/a07.html?397-0-Remember when I first realized My local City Market grocery is store #420?
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on January 13, 2014 at 19:51:10 PT
FoM, 
Here's something else that's funny, or is it.Letter writer argus that cannabis is worse than booze because booze messes up an attacker more and so causes less damage to a victim, so a cannabis using attacker, being less messed up causes more damage. -so cannabis isn't as safe???I THOUGHT I HEARD THEM ALL, Can you believe that one?-0-CN BC: LTE: Pot Not Necessarily Safer Than Alcoholhttp://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n038/a05.html?397
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on January 13, 2014 at 19:42:23 PT
The GCW
That's funny. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by The GCW on January 13, 2014 at 18:06:35 PT
I only voted once.
I only voted once; I didn't do any illegal voting.
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on January 13, 2014 at 18:04:19 PT
Sam Adams,
Thanks, I voted.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by The GCW on January 13, 2014 at 18:02:29 PT
Sam Adams,
Thanks, I voted.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by The GCW on January 13, 2014 at 18:02:18 PT
Sam Adams,
Thanks, I voted.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on January 13, 2014 at 16:44:20 PT
Poll!
Could use some help - it's Fox News!http://www.myfoxboston.com>>>Should Massachusetts follow the lead of Colorado and legalize the sale of recreational marijuana?
[ Post Comment ]


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