cannabisnews.com: Ex-Governor: Just Say No To Legal Pot





Ex-Governor: Just Say No To Legal Pot
Posted by FoM on October 01, 1999 at 09:51:53 PT
Christopher Boyd of The Sentinel Staff
Source: Orlando Sentinel
Note: This article may have been unclear in explaining an attempt to hold a statewide referendum on the medicinal use of marijuana. Floridians for Medical Rights did not collect enough signatures to put the issue on the 1998 ballot, but is is circulating petitions for a 2000 referendum. The referendum would allow Floridians to decide whether to permit the use of marijuana for medical treatment.
Published in The Orlando Sentinel on September 26, 1999.Former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez urged a conclave of the state's Republican mayors Saturday to take a hard stand against legalizing the medicinal use of marijuana.Martinez, who was President Bush's drug-policy adviser in the early 1990s, argued for a renewed campaign against drug use. And he lambasted campaigns, including one in Florida, to allow the use of marijuana in treating health problems.Even the controlled use of marijuana would set a dangerous precedent, he said."You can't allow a foot to get through the door, because the whole body will go through eventually," Martinez said. And he vowed to fight a petition drive to put a marijuana referendum on the 2000 Florida ballot."Should they get the signatures for that referendum, I will come out very hard against it," Martinez said. Floridians for Medical Rights, a Fort Lauderdale group, is leading the drive. The group failed to collect enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot this year.About two dozen members of the Florida Association of Republican Mayors met at Orlando City Hall to brush up on issues and prepare for next month's state Republican Party convention. They applauded Martinez.Martinez said the drug war is a never-ending campaign, and he chided those who would roll back the assault."There is a huge following that says if you legalize drugs you get rid of the problem," Martinez said. "There are even members of our own party who call for legalization. But you can't say that just because you can't stop the problem that you should legalize the substance."The former governor said that last month's arrests of more than 50 American Airlines baggage handlers in Miami on drug-smuggling and conspiracy charges were evidence that illegal shipments of drugs are still flowing into the United States. He said the federal government should attack the problem at its origins -- in Colombia and other key drug-producing nations."Somebody has to load drugs onto the airplanes in the first place," Martinez said. "Interdiction is the key to stopping those drugs."And Martinez told the mayors not to lose sight of the issue, even if the national spotlight has turned elsewhere."The issue won't go away; it won't finish," he said. "The drug war isn't a sprint, and you can't let yourself get bored. You have a new population of young people who are reaching the age of experimentation every day of the week. Remember that."Posted 09/25/1999 9:08 PM ESTEx-Governor: Just Say No To Legal Pot - 9/25/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3029.shtmlFloridians For Medical Rightshttp://www.medicalrights.org/Pubdate: 9/25/99Florida Association of Republican Mayors Discuss Drug War http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3027.shtml 
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