In honor of our good friend and commentator Hugh Downs.

When a law has outlived its purpose, it falls on the government to obliterate it. When a law is broken repeatedly, every day, by a significant portion of the population, it is not enforceable.

“Overall, 14.6 percent said they had used cannabis in the past year, while 8.7 percent said they had used the drug in the past 30 days.” [2017]
bit.ly/2wYH0qu Annals of Internal Medicine, online August 27, 2018.

Laws that are unenforceable allow enforcers to pick and choose whom they want to penalize.

Allowing enforcers to cherry pick their criminals is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

“Prohibition… makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibitory law strikes a blow at the very principles on which our Government was founded. ”

-Unknown (Attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

Laws that make ordinary, everyday activities illegal are unconstitutional because they are not only unenforceable, but they fail to meet their purpose.

Hugh Downs was on to this over 20 years ago, especially with hemp, and here we are at the official federal repeal of hemp prohibition. Once the rules are official, we can grow hemp like Henry Ford in Iron Mountain making composites, pitch, tar, oil, methanol, diesel fuel and more.

Hugh-Downs-ABC-News-on-Hemp Chapter 1
Hugh-Downs-ABC-News-on-Hemp Chapter 2

Florida could repeal the prohibition on all cannabis products, as has been done successfully in other states. Instead, the state continues to take a prohibition posture, with the Legislature protecting the interests of a few, and legal-use petitions being circulated, with one exception, protecting those same interests.

It’s time to allow people to use their own property to grow and use cannabis as they see fit and make some tax money from those who choose to buy it on the legal, regulated market. If the law doesn’t protect those who can’t afford it in the stores, then it doesn’t protect everyone equally. People can grow their own. They have for centuries.

Sign the petition that gives adults the right to cannabis.

Join Florida Cannabis Action Network in changing hearts and minds at the legislative level.