Press Coverage

This was originally published on Blog Talk Radio with Raquel Okyay on Friday, September 4th, 2015. Thank you to all who called in and listened.

On Imploding the Illusion Fri. Sept. 4 from 9-11 PM est my Special Guest:Bill Wohlsifer will be explaining and answering questions about sensible Florida, Inc.’s Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol ballot initiative petition.

Bill Wohlsifer was the first Libertarian candidate in Florida to run for Attorney General, the author of the Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act, the CEO ofNationalHemp.org, as well as the primary author of the REGULATE MARIJUANA LIKE ALCOHOL ballot initiative. His law practice, William R Wohlsifer, PA, is located in Tallahassee, FL.

Special Guest Anthony Melé, will be on to discuss Hillary, servers, Benghazi, and national security. Anthony served as a Noncommissioned Officer on the US Army Staff at the Pentagon. He is an international security consultant and firearm dealer.

This is an interview Bill did with Front Porch Chat, concerning medical marijuana, with Randy Ross. A link to the YouTube video can be found here

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Here is a letter to the editor, originally published by the Tallahassee Democrat in March of 2015. The link to the original article can be found here.

Medical marijuana bills should be passed

The Florida Medical Marijuana Act (SB 528) submitted by Sen. Jeff Brandes (R) will expand Florida’s medical marijuana program in a safe, responsible and respectful way, offering natural and safe alternatives for treatment of cancer, other diseases and pain management.

Medical marijuana is not a new fad or way of promoting cannabis use. Cannabis has been safely used in health care and industry for thousands of years. The State of Israel has a proven medicinal cannabis program in use by over 21,000 patients and managed by 21 medical doctors.

Representative Greg Steube (R) filed a “similar bill” in the House, HB 683, which contemplates a more restrictive patient access to medical cannabis and does not allow for any smokable form.

Florida now has less of a concern than ever before of its state medical cannabis laws running afoul of federal marijuana law. Because of the passage of SB 1030, now sections 381.986-7, Florida Statutes, Florida was included in the list of states subject to a federal prosecution exemption for having approved the use of medical marijuana within such state prior to the U.S. Congress’ vote on its 2015 appropriations bill.

WILLIAM R. WOHLSIFER, ESQ.

Tallahassee

[email protected]

An article discussing the “Grand Rally In Tally”, originally published February 11, 2015 by Steven Peters. A link to the original article can be found here.

Patients, doctors, legislators and supporters of medical marijuana rallied at Florida’s capitol yesterday when an estimated 300+ attendees gathered for the Grand Rally in Tally in Tallahassee.

Robert Platshorn who was the lead organizer of the rally joined with NORML of Florida, the Law Office of Bill Wohlsifer PA,  Florida Can, L.E.A.P, Patients Out of Time, American Cannabis Nurses Association, Veterans for Compassionate Care, Veterans for Cannabis Access NORML of Florida Vets and other organizations to support a comprehensive medical marijuana bill.

Senator Clemens, Neill Franklin, Patients out of Time, Ellen Bukstel, Cathy Jordan and many others spoke through the bitter cold at the rally, which had to be moved indoors because of a wind hazard.

Because of the recent medical marijuana bills being introduced from various legislators, and pressure from their constituents, and perhaps because Florida lawmakers would rather see a bill come before a committee rather than have one on the ballot in 2016, a companion medical marijuana bill was introduced in the Florida House to pair with Senate Bill 528. Representative Greg Steube (R-District 73) filed House Bill 683, which is a much more restrictive companion bill than the SB 528 bill that was filed by Senator Brandes in the Florida Senate a couple of weeks ago.

Rep. Steube is coming up for re-election in 2016 and it appears that he may want to get ahead of the curb by adopting the (FSH) Florida Sheriff’s Association‘s points about how medical marijuana should be distributed and used. The FSH’s laundry list of points made it clear that they do not support United For Care‘s comprehensive and fair proposed bill, nor Senator Clemens bill that was submitted into the legislature. The FSH’s lengthy list of restrictions leave no doubt that their draft of medical marijuana guidelines for what they deem is acceptable or not, goes far beyond the scope of what their job entails. Indeed, it is the Sheriff’s job to enforce laws, not to create them.

There are many patients and supporters and patients of medical marijuana who don’t approve of Rep. Steube’s restrictive bill. They feel it is very limited in what illnesses the patient must have to be approved for medical marijuana.

Steube’s Bill would legalize medical cannabis only in non-smokable forms and only allow its use for HIV, AIDS, Cancer MS, ALS epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease Crohn’s disease, or a terminal illness where the patient has a year or less to live if the disease “if the disease runs it’s normal course.”

Representative Steube stated, “There’s not a single health organization that says smoking anything is healthy for you,” — “So if this is medicine, it needs to be non-smokable.”

Rep. Steube’s assertions are contrary to what medical professionals and a myriad of research studies claim, that in fact smoking marijuana has no ill effects on the lungs or body as a whole. 

Others who have studied the link between marijuana and lung cancer point to an often overlooked difference between marijuana and tobacco — certain compounds in marijuana have been shown to have anti-cancer effects.

“This may be the reason why marijuana smokers are unlikely to develop lung cancer”, explains Donald P. Tashkin, MD, a lung specialist from the University of California.

In fact, published in 2006, one of Dr. Tashkin’s own studies found that while heavy tobacco smokers experienced up to a 20-fold increase in lung cancer risk, the most frequent users of cannabis were no more likely to develop lung cancer than the average person.

Despite Rep. Steube’s claims about smoked marijuana, there is no doubt that the Senate bill filed in January by state Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg is a much better piece of proposed legislation. 

Sen. Jeff Clemens, who was in attendance at the rally was one of the guest speakers and stated, “we can all work to get these bills improved before and after they are passed.”

Bills which are introduced receive many changes prior to the final draft of the proposed bill. Much of the current bills that are submitted will no doubt change in committee, as is the case for almost all bills, especially those receiving as much attention as these.

When bills go to committee, and if they do not move further, these bills may in fact die in committee, which will allow medical marijuana on the ballot for the presidential election in 2016.

It appears that with the number of medical marijuana bills proposed, it’s anyone’s guess as to which bill will be the ‘magic bullet’ that makes everyone happy. Certainly having public input from medical marijuana supporters must be considered for any bill to move forward in the legislature, though at this point it’s uncertain that any legislators heard the ralliers’ pleas at the event.

With 58% of the vote in favor of last years medical marijuana bill that was on the ballot in Florida, this time around, we’ll have to wait and see if in fact lawmakers in Tallahassee can put the will of The People and compassion for patients before politics, and consider a comprehensive and fair medical marijuana bill drafted forall patients, not just a select few who would benefit from its use.

If these bills fail in the legislature, Ben Pollara and John Morgan of United For Care have pledged to get their proposed bill on the ballot in 2016.

When running for an elected position a qualified candidate should not lay victim to the biases of nonprofit political groups, no matter what letter follows that person’s name. Just like the other two establishment candidates Bill Wohlsifer met every prerequisite to run for the position of Attorney General, yet had his name left off of the presumptively official voter guides published by the League of Women Voters. This occurred even though Mr. Wohlsifer completed the same questionnaire as the other candidates, and had turned it in with enough time to be included in the literature.

When a person or entity releases voter guides to the voting public in taxpayer funded buildings they should be required to include all candidates who have met the state qualifications, and worked with the groups to give them any information they need for their publications. If this fails to occur than the Division of Elections has done nothing less than committed fraud and assisted in directly alienating candidates who have been willfully ignored by the groups who hypocritically preach tolerance and brag about their goals of equality.

If a nonprofit group, such as the League of Women Voters, claims to be nonpartisan the literature they produce should reflect this claim. Nonpartisanship should not be cleverly disguised behind the thin veil of bipartisanship, by shielding themselves behind the lie of nonpartisanship they are using their influence with the expressed and intended interest of interfering with the outcome of an election by silencing a portion of the voters and claiming they have the right to do so. This alone should cause them to lose their standing as a nonprofit organization.

If these groups want to distribute their biased literature they must relinquish their nonprofit status, then by utilizing grassroots channels, such as going door-to-door, paying for mail outs with private funds, or attending public functions and handing them out to passersby, their practices will be within the law. Until their nonprofit status is taken from them, and they continue to use taxpayer funded buildings and offices for the dispensing of their propaganda they, and the counties who allow them to act in such a manner, are in violation of Florida statutes forbidding them from supplying such information which is considered suppressive toward certain candidates.

Florida citizens have no choice to pay taxes to support buildings such as libraries and public schools. This applies to all people. Which means all people should have their voices represented on any and all guides being distributed at tax-payer funded locations and events. There should be a requirement that the names of all qualified candidates in every race is presented on any literature being distributed at these locations.

It is due to an apathetic nature of the Division of Elections, and the general wariness of politics by the general voting public that groups have been able to get away with blackballing qualified candidates. It is due to this fact that Bill Wohlsifer has found himself forced to file six separate complaints with the Secretary of State against matters affecting all of elections throughout the state of Florida. This is a waste of time and personal expenses to any candidate who is attempting to run a professional and successful campaign.

When a voter watches a debate or reads an article that does not include all candidates they will be on the ballot, the reader/voter may be tempted to disregard the omitted candidate(s) believing that these groups see them as not important enough to include in their guides. This is the desired result of people who are attempting to keep the public from being truly engaged and educated in the voting process. Groups that engage in these actions should be found guilty of “steering” by an ethics committee, stripped of their nonprofit status, and forced to reprint all of the guides that left out qualified candidates as part of their punishment.

Matt Wright is a writer and political activist living in south Florida. He has a BS in communications and is currently working for the Bill Wohlsifer for Attorney General campaign. To hear more from Matt you can follow him on Twitter at @mrwright79 or like him on Facebook.