Just because former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla has kept
pretty much low key since his blistering loss to State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez in 2012 doesn’t mean he’s running away to Europe or hiding in a smoke-filled Little Havana Florida Room, plotting something or other.
He’s actually writing legislation again. Hallelujah!
Diaz de la Portilla, a former Senate Majority Leader, and University of Florida Law School Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, a former House Speaker, are vice chair and chair, respectively, of Florida For Care, a blue ribbon commission of doctors, patient advocates, law enforcement officers, educators and policy makers tasked with writing the legislative rules and regulations under which legalized medical marijuana would operate in the Sunshine State if Amendment 2 passes in November.
That’s right: Alex DLP will be the guy telling you how to smoke ’em if you get ’em.
Not that he would want you to. Diaz de la Portilla — who professes loudly to anyone that he has never done a drug in his life (if you don’t count Johnny Walker) — still opposes the measure. Mills, who defended the ballot language before the Supreme Court, is a fan, but Diaz de la Portilla will vote no Nov. 4.
Passage of the amendment is less certain now than it was months ago, according to polls that indicate approval may have slipped below the 60% threshold needed for a constitutional amendment.
Read related story: Medical marijuana opposition reaches out to Hispanic voters
But if it’s gonna happen, Dean DLP wants it to happen the right way. Any bill that follows will be one of the most important pieces of legislation written in Florida in a while, he said.
The 12-member commission has been characterized as a tactic to misdirect the public about the alleged loopholes in the proposed constitutional amendment. But they have been meeting for months to go over research and ever
y angle in an effort to be ready to, if the amendment passes, provide patients access to medical pot and protect communities from any negative side effects and widespread abuse at the same time.
Their mission is to define the regulatory structure under the Florida Department of Health that medical pot sales and production would operate under: Patient protection, guidelines for physicians, certification and requirements for the middleman caregivers, safeguards.
Some examples already offered: Minors prescribed medical marijuana must be accompanied by an adult guardian and felons should be barred from becoming distributing caretakers.
And, after Nov. 4, they want to have four public meetings — in Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa — to get input that will could also shape the future bill. The aim is to have recommendations finalized by early next year so the legislature has them in time for session.
In true DLP form, The Dean wants “to craft the premier medical marijuana legislation in the country,” he told James Call in a piece on The Politics of Pot blog.
Ladra is just glad he is doing something productive. His mind is a terrible thing to waste.
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