The closer we get to November, the more heated things are going to get here in the Sunshine State when it comes to the passage of Amendment 2 at the polls. Since the amendment was approved for the ballot after gathering over 650,000 signatures from registered Florida voters, they have been fundraising in order to get their message out loud and clear before Election Day gets here.
In 2014, there was equally loud opposition from Mel Sempler, who ran the “No on 2” campaign. He continuously bashed the amendment with claims that it was a front for full-on legalization and that it was never about the patients and many more lies – all of which did end up costing the amendment its chance to pass by only 2%. Last time, they spent over $7.5 million dollars in order to do this – and since the amendment was approved we’ve been waiting to hear from them again.
A press release from United for Care was sent out on Friday April 22nd stating that the “No on 2” campaign has officially announced its plans to raise $10 million in order to put an end to Amendment 2 once again. Earlier in the year when I questioned Ben Pollara (campaign manager for United for Care) about how they were going to handle the opposition he stated both that he had to “run his own campaign” and not worry about the opposition so much and also that they didn’t need to match dollar for dollar, but instead communicate the message better in order to win this year.
It appears that there is still little fear that the “No on 2” campaign will be able to win this time around – with the lack of opposition during the qualifying process to the fact that they have already received many endorsements from newspapers who opposed the amendment in 2014, things definitely appear to be on the right track for them.
“Mel Sembler can spend whatever he wants to try and deny sick and suffering Floridians relief in the form of medical marijuana, but the will of the people is stronger than his money.” – Ben Pollara from April 22nd Press Release
Not long after the press release came through my inbox was followed by a message from John Morgan also addressing the revival of their opposition. His message was short and simple:
“I’ve got a message for Mel Sembler: BRING. IT. ON. No amount of money and lies are going to stop us from winning this time. We will pass Amendment 2 in November. We will bring compassion to Florida. We will match their lies with the truth about medical marijuana.” – John Morgan
So there you have it – United for Care is preparing themselves for the battle to come. As long as we continue to spread the message – why we need to pass this amendment, who it helps now and who it might help in the future. Fighting the lies with truths is what marijuana reform is all about – we’ve been doing it for decades and we will continue to do so until it is no longer necessary.
