Accomplishments, Challenges and Opportunities: Florida's CSMP in 2011 and Beyond

Dear Fellow Legalization Advocates,

      As 2011 draws to a close, the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP) reflects upon another year in which we continued to illuminate the failures and foibles of marijuana prohibition, identified new allies, gained endorsements and created a conversation about the harms of prohibition which is ongoing and will not end until we reach our ultimate goal of legalizing the responsible adult use of marijuana in Florida. So let's take a look back at CSMP accomplishments in 2011:

 

Endorsements

 

     The CSMP gathered a bevy of endorsements from South Florida candidates and office holders in 2011. In April, Miami mayoral candidate, writer and musician Luther Campbell endorsed decriminalization, saying "Any arrest on your record can keep employers from hiring you. We need to focus on getting people to work, not nailing them for nothing."  In Miami Beach, comedian and mayoral candidate Steve Berke made decriminalization and his support for the CSMP's Miami Beach initiative a prominent part of his platform. In July, the CSMP presented more than 9,000 petititions gathered on Miami Beach to the City Commission. South Miami Commissioner Walter Harris appeared in support, held a sign in front of city hall and then asked the Miami Beach city commission to introduce legislation on their own to decriminalize marijuana  in Miami Beach.  Commissioner Michael Gongora surprised everyone when he stated to a meeting hall packed with supporters of the CSMP's Miami Beach initiative, "I am with you."

      

Driving the Conversation

 

     This year our work was covered multiple times by The Miami Herald; The SunPost; Examiner.com.; South Florida Gay News; Miami NewTimes; NBC Miami and JackHerer.com.  Thousands of Floridians and people from around the world visited the CSMP website.  The CSMP is the leading voice for legalization in the Sunshine State.

 

Challenges and Opportunities

 

        The presentation of the petitions to the Miami Beach City Commission in July was to be the end of a canvassing effort that began on the steps of Miami Beach City Hall in June of 2010.  Two obstacles quickly emerged. First, in August Commissioner Michael Gongora requested an opinion from City Attorney Jose Smith on behalf of the CSMP regarding the legality of our petition. It was no surpise when Smith, who in July made statements questioning the petiton while at the same time claiming not to have read it, issued a political opinion declaring his belief that Miami Beach could not do what many cities and states have done across the country over a period of almost thirty years and decriminalize marijuana.  The second challenge is that a coprorate donor who pledged to pay the  $1000 validation fee required to have the county supervisor of elections process the petitions has not been able to come through on their promise.  

 

     The first challenge is truly no obstacle at all.  The CSMP was conceived of and created by the collaboration of attorneys and law students who sought to find a way to change marijuana policy at the local level. We now have two tough as nails pro bono attorneys, Norm Kent, a longtime legalization advocate and activist, and Shawn Heller, the founder of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), ready to seize with the CSMP the opportunity to establish a precedent holding that Florida's cities are not bound by Tallahassee's failed policies.  When this is done, we can move on to decriminalize other cities in Florida and ultimately the entire state in the same way that multiple local initiatives in Massachusettes led to statewide decriminalization in 2008. 

 

Your Help is Vital

 

      To overcome the second challenge, we need your help. The CSMP raised more than $30,000 from individual and corporate sponsors to run an initiative in an important city where local codes make petitioning to amend the charter very difficult. The CSMP is an extremely efficient all volunteer advocacy organization that has never paid legal fees. With all signatures gathered for our Miami Beach initiative, we are now closer to making a real change in Florida's failed marijuana laws than ever before in Florida history.  Prohibitionists and those who profit from prohibition will be working hard, employing the same tired scare tactics and attempting to group marijuana, a harmless plant, with the heroine and prescription drugs that kill thousands of Floridians and Americans each year. The CSMP is ready to meet them head on.

 

      Please log on to the CSMP website at www.sensibleflorida.com and make a donation to support the CSMP's Miami Beach initiative. After a year in which a federal district court found the entire Florida controlled substances act to be unconstitutional and Governor Rick Scott's attempts to expand drug testing were similarly struck down, the CSMP and the marijuana legalization movement are poised to make huge gains in 2012.

 

     TOGETHER, we can make Florida a GREEN State.

 

                                                                                To Freedom,

 

                                                                                Ford Banister

                                                                                Chairman

 

P.S.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the Miami Beach initiative or the CSMP's statewide lobbying efforts at ford@sensibleflorida.com.