The 2021 Legislative season began with a series of committee weeks in January and February. Over a dozen marijuana/Cannabis bills were filed early. Experience lead us to believe the bills that would be signed into law this year, had not been filed yet.

Florida for Care leader Eric Stevens joined our legislative director, Jodi James, for a fact-finding mission in January. The Capitol is closed to tourists. Only the media is invited into the Capitol Complex without an appointment. All persons with appointments must be escorted by office staff and in order to speak at a meeting, you must sign up and be on the list. Lawmakers are being tested for COVID 19 before each committee week. The Senate is on a full lock-down, but the House members are taking meetings in their offices. The COVID concern is real. Two of the Tallahassee lawmakers tested positive this week, so they were excused.

January 21, 2021. HB 1 isn’t a Cannabis bill; at least not anymore. We don’t spend a lot of time demonstrating and marching for Cannabis these days. The outline of HB 1 would be devastating to issues that use public demonstrations for political capital.

On February 16, 2021, the Professions and Public Health Subcommittee heard from Dr. Bertha Madras on the dangers of high-potency THC. This is a harbinger of things to come. Click here to take action in support of decriminalizing Cannabis possession and regulating the cultivation, possession, and sales.

Equating an uncomfortable experience using Cannabis with psychosis diminishes the
day-to-day life of existence of people’s mental health