This message/bulletin is for Dr. Kordonowy's newsletter readers and the public at large- feel free to forward this to other Floridians. I am compelled to bring this information to your attention as our local press and the media in general want you to believe there is an actual real physician's movement behind medical marijuana; there isn't-quite to the contrary, in fact.

 

I want my readers and the general public to know that the House of Medicine (Florida Medical Association) in Florida is opposed to the Florida Constitutional Amendment 2 . This amendment is asking to allow "Medical" legal marijuana use in the state (ARTICLE X, SECTION 29. Medical marijuana production, possession and use).

 

I was present as a delegate during this year's Florida Medical Association meeting where it was unanimously agreed that doctors/physicians are formally opposed to this amendment proposition. This amendment as written is an open script to allow any "caregiver" to be a dope peddler as long as they have a printed note from a doctor saying it is "medically recommended" to allow a named person to have marijuana. That is not a sane legal marijuana law. 

 

Reportedly the people in favor of this amendment claim there is over a 60% "yes" vote anticipation when polling the public.  I have to ask these questions: 1) " Isn't it odd that the overwhelming majority of doctors in this state are opposed to this amendment which claims its intended purpose is for the medical use of marijuana"?  and  2) " if given that reality shouldn't we be suspect about the real reason for this law"?

 

I think we all know that this is a ruse to shortcut legalizing marijuana. The amendment was not started by physicians yet it supposedly is for medical use purposes. The public easily recognizes that John Morgan, one of the most successful personal injury lawyers and similarly interested parties are behind this amendment proposition. Can you begin to imagine the lawyer business to be generated off this amendment? How about how much revenue it could mean to the government in terms of taxable income, license fees, new court cases for intoxication citations, etc.  By giving the government more tax revenue the state government effectively gets to expand even more. This is the appeal for the legislature and other government beneficiaries to give marijuana the time it has already been given in Tallahassee. 

 

There is presently no indication to use the marijuana plant as a medical treatment for anything.  Furthermore the science in favor of its utility, especially when considering all the other current FDA medications for any touted use is just flat lacking. It is not true that doctors are asking for extended authority to recommend or use marijuana as medicine. Let's be honest about this amendment's objective. Please don't insult all of the citizenry and especially your doctors by accepting this amendment. When you get to vote on it, please give it a resounding "no" mark.  

 

We physicians quite frankly don't want the responsibility of all the negative consequences of accessing dope for what in reality will be non-medical reasons for use.  These negative consequences include:

• Diminished IQ achievement if adolescent children consume it (and they will more easily as they already do this now).
• Addiction incidence of 17-50% in regular users and 9% of any user.
• Impaired driving skills equal to legal intoxication with increased accidents (3-7 times).
• Bronchial illness and pulmonary complaints.
• Abnormal brain development and increased depression and anxiety
• Little documented scientific medical indication for smoking or eating the cannabis plant.
• Potential for increased seizures in marijuana users.
• Since legalization in other states and the dramatically higher concentration of the THC in present marijuana there are documented cases of overdose and death from the ingested forms of product being presently sold.  The THC content approaches 24% in recently documented dope journals.

If you care about:

• the health and development of children, the general safety of our public,
• supporting the doctors in this state,
• honest and productive debate about the legalization of marijuana based upon a failing anti-drug policy

 Please vote adamantly "NO" for this amendment in November.

 

 Dr. Raymond Kordonowy MD

 

I apologize for going direct to my readers on this issue but I want it made clear to my/our readers that Florida's doctors are not in favor of this amendment as written.  It is not written by doctors and is not intended to be a legitimate serious law about the use of a plant for medicine. Don't give the writers of this tripe the satisfaction of duping the citizen's of this state.