Having come with three percentage points of passing Amendment 2, supporters of medical marijuana are calling for a new approach next time the initiative comes before Florida voters.
Several have called for Orlando attorney John Morgan to step away and allow new voices to come forward. Morgan, whose face is on billboards and buses promoting his law firm throughout central Florida, was a big financial backer of Charlie Crist’s gubernatorial campaign and of Amendment 2. The Morgan Law Firm, PA contributed nearly $3.6 million to get the amendment passed.
Over the summer, Morgan debated the amendment at political forums across the state. In July, a Quinnipiac University poll had 88 percent of Florida voters in favor of it. Then a video of an inebriated Morgan giving a profanity-filled speech after one of the forums to a group of college students was posted to YouTube. The momentum for medical marijuana took a decided negative shift, especially when those against the amendment began running their ads.
“Unfortunately for Amendment 2‘s supporters, Morgan became the story, not the Floridians whose sufferings would be lessened by medical marijuana,†wrote Jeff Henderson for Sunshine State News. Read Any Amendment 2 Medical Marijuana Do-Over Needs an AWOL John Morgan.
Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, said the night of the November 4 election after the results were known a new direction was needed, clearly a message that Morgan needs to step aside.
“Next time medical marijuana is on the ballot, organizers should put patients and medical professionals at the forefront of the campaign rather than relying on a well-meaning but much less sympathetic political donor as the chief spokesperson,” said Angell.
Progressive blogger Gaius Publius was even more direct.
He wrote, “I think John Morgan is sincere in wanting to see his signature cause become law. If so, he should continue to fund it — but he should get out of the spotlight, now. And if it’s up to me, if I were his ‘campaign manager,’ he wouldn’t just disappear. He would call the press and publicly leave the battlefield — let himself be filmed apologizing, then filmed walking away. If he really wants to do the most he can do, that’s the most he can do, and his issue deserves him doing it.”
Here is the “For the Reefers” video that may have sank Amendment 2:
