Nearly two of every three Florida voters favor allowing licensed physicians to prescribe marijuana for medical reasons, according to the results of a Florida Voter poll released on September 22.
Toni Leeman, Director of the Florida-based Coalition Advocating Medical Marijuana (CAMM) as well as Floridians for Medical Rights, said the results are consistent with other surveys demonstrating overwhelming support for permitting seriously ill patients to use marijuana under a doctor’s supervision. “Considering that we still are in the process of educating people [about marijuana’s medicinal utility,] I think those are good numbers and I think it points to success.” Leeman’s group is presently collecting signatures in each of the state’s 67 counties to place a medical marijuana initiative on the 1998 ballot.
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they would approve an amendment to the Florida Constitution legalizing marijuana for medicinal uses, the Fort Lauderdale-based survey said. Only about one in four, or 28 percent, said they opposed such use. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
“I’m confident that we’ll be able to get the signatures because there has already been so much interest in this,” Leeman said.
For more information, please contact Toni Leeman of CAMM at (305) 576-2337 or Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751.