When a Broward County jury ruled that 50-year-old Jesse Teplicki was not guilty of growing marijuana earlier this month because his need for medical cannabis outweighed the crime of actually growing the still illegal plant, cannabis reformers rejoiced. The victory meant a precedent was set and more victories cold follow…
Marijuana might not be legal in Florida yet, but that’s not stopping a Fort Lauderdale software company from being at the forefront of technology helping the more enlightened states keep track of how cannabis is processed and sold. BioTrackTHC is a five-year-old software technology firm that has managed to make…
Jesse Teplicki, who was arrested in 2013 for growing marijuana, was found not guilty by a jury on Monday. After just 30 minutes of deliberating, the jury delivered its verdict, making Florida history. Teplicki says he uses pot to treat his severe anorexia, and thus became the first man in…
Whoa. There are a lot of words here. Big words. Numbers too… decimal points… lot of really aggressive punctuation, brah…
Last year, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz took a decidedly un-progressive stance against Florida’s medical marijuana amendment. In a statement she said that Amendment 2 was “too broad” and borrowed talking-points from noted anti-medical marijuana voices such as Attorney General Pam Bondi, comparing the legalization of medical cannabis…
On the heels of Rep. Jeff Brandes introduction of the Florida Medical Marijuana Act in late January comes a new bill, this time introduced by fellow Republican Rep. Greg Steube. But where Brandes’ bill focuses in on trying to close off loop holes to keep medical marijuana only in the…
Florida was pretty close to legalizing the good green last November — a constitutional amendment that would have allowed medical marijuana failed by just two percentage points. But even though those stats make the Sunshine State look weed-friendly, the facts on the ground paint a different picture. A recent study…
In January 2013, an anonymous tipster lead authorities to the home of Jesse Teplicki. Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies found 46 marijuana plants there. Teplicki was promptly arrested and charged with a felony count of possession. Prosecutors gave him a probationary offer to keep him out of prison. Teplicki turned it…
“A vote for Amendment 2 is a vote for legalizing marijuana forever in the State of Florida,” Florida Sheriffs Association President Sheriff Grady Judd said in a vehemently anti-medical marijuana video released last April. With the video, titled The Devil Is in the Details, Judd’s anti-medical weed group No on…
A new bill looking to legalize medical marijuana has been filed for the upcoming legislative session. Rep. Jeff Brandes, a Republican from St. Petersburg, has introduced the Florida Medical Marijuana Act, which would authorize a doctor to use medicinal marijuana to treat patients afflicted with specific illnesses. Among the ailments…
Sunshine, beaches, alligators, corruption — you name it, Florida’s got it. But now there’s another reason to love this place: We have the 12th cheapest marijuana in the country. The average price of pot in Florida goes for $9.09 per gram, according to stats compiled by The Economist, which compared…
Don’t count out legal weed just yet. Although medical marijuana racked up only 58 percent approval at the polls this election year, supporters are already mounting a campaign to get a similar proposal on the 2016 ballot. The thinking is that a general election will draw more Floridians off their…
This past November, Amendment 2, which would have made it legal for those with debilitating diseases to obtain medical marijuana legally, needed 60 percent of the vote to pass. It fell short by 2 percent. It was as close as Florida has ever come to joining 23 other states and…
Florida For Care, the group that put together a bipartisan Blue Ribbon Committee to dictate regulatory standards had the medical marijuana amendment passed back in November, is hosting a couple of conferences they’ve dubbed “The Future of Medical Marijuana in Florida.” With Amendment 2 defeated in the polls in November,…
Update: Reached for comment by New Times, spokesman for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Gary Bitner, said that the growing and selling of marijuana on sovereign tribal land is “not on the Seminole Tribe’s radar.” Messages to the Miccosukee Tribe have remained unreturned. Florida remains one of the last few…
Back in October, New Times published a feature on people doing hard time for marijuana. One of the men profiled in the piece, Richard DeLisi, was sentenced in 1989 to 90 years for marijuana-related crimes, including trafficking and conspiracy to traffic. Aging and in declining health, the 65-year-old DeLisi’s fate…
Amendment 2 got more votes than Rick Scott, Jeff Atwater, and Pam Bondi. More Floridians voted yes on 2 than they did no. Yet, Florida remains a state without legalized medical marijuana. Simply because it couldn’t get those final two percentage points to push it over the top. What did…
So it’s go-time for Sunshine State supporters of medicinal smoking. For the first time, Floridians are going to polling places weighing a choice on the legalization of marijuana. By this time next week, Florida’s weedscape could look drastically different — or unfortunately the same. With such a possible historical swing…
As we enter the final stretch for elections, news had been quite somber for the passage of medical marijuana. After a year of strong initial polling that indicated Amendment 2 would be pushed through by voters, recent weeks have shown that the initiative was in danger of falling short and…
Last week, news broke that Amendment 2 was in serious danger of not getting the necessary 60 percent in order to pass. And now, with Election Day exactly one week away, another poll says it’s still not looking great for medical marijuana legalization. Gravis Marketing, a PR firm based in…
Recently, television stations have been airing an ad from anti-medical marijuana group No on 2 titled “It’s Nuts.” The ad claims, among other things, that voting yes on Amendment 2 will legalize pot and that kids will be able to get weed on their own “without their parents’ permission.” In…
For much of the past year, it seemed almost inevitable that medical marijuana would become legal in Florida. Polls showed that more than 80 percent of Floridians would support a constitutional amendment that’s on the ballot this November legalizing medicinal weed. So it was something of a shocker last week…
