2017 Legislation

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Title
2017 SB 8-A Medical Marijuana Bill in Florida
06/28/2017
Florida, 2017 Legislation
2017 County Commision Recommendations
05/18/2017

We want to prevent what happened with Big Pharma from happening with Big Marijuana in Florida. We want to avoid the pill mill scenario we experienced several years ago.  Given the number of people dying in our state from opioid abuse be it heroin or prescription drugs we do not want to add fuel to this fire by inadequately regulating ‘medical’ marijuana dispensary zoning, licensing and locations.


2017 Legislation, Testimony, County commissioner, Tampa City Council
Do Floridians want hard-liquor in our grocery stores and gas stations?
05/10/2017

DO FLORIDIANS NEED INCREASED ACCESS TO HARD LIQUOR?

  1. Florida is ranked #3 in the nation for fatal DUI crashes- Not just statistics- Deputy John Kotfila died saving another drivers life when a driver with a .27 BAC hit Kotfila head on.

 Image result for john kotfila jr    Karan Khullar     http://www.madd.org/blog/2016/october/Template-21.png …..

  1. Binge drinking or excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for 88,000 deaths in our nation.

  2. Alcohol related deaths rank 3rd for preventable deaths behind obesity and cigarette smoking.

  3. ONLY 18 states allow hard-liquor to be sold inside grocery stores.  (National Alcohol Beverage Control Association)

    1. Unrestricted: California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, South & North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, West Virginia, Maine, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Missouri, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Louisiana

    2. With restrictions: Florida, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Wyoming, Washington

    3. Beer Only: Utah, Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Connecticut

    4. Beer and Wine: Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana, New York, Maryland (grandfathered in liquor sales), New Hampshire

    5. NONE:  Alaska, Delaware, Rhode Island

PLEASE NOTE those states allow hard liquor in grocery stores have very strict and enforced DUI laws.

Floridians do not want or need HB-81.  HB-81 takes away the added security system that separate stores provide with camera systems and ability to card everyone who enters their store AND hard-liquor will be available 24/7.  

 

HB-81, 2017 Legislation
Tampa-Zoning
05/03/2017

My property value will decrease if a pot dispensary locates next door or in close proximately.  I already have camera and locked gate on my commercial property but believe I will need at least two full-time security guards.  This product is cash only sales.  I am concerned about the new cliental wandering through our neighborhoods.  As a small business owner, the increase security and insurance costs are going to greatly impact our profit and discourage us from expanding.  


2017 Legislation, Tampa City Council
Say no to booze in groceries
04/14/2017

Ask any Florida legislator if their phone has been ringing off the hook from constituents who can't get enough vodka or rum, and they would have to say "no." Then why are they pushing hard liquor into our grocery stores without public input or backing?
 
It appears the driving force behind this change are corporate executives at big box stores who will profit greatly. They don't care about Florida families and are too cheap to spend money building a separate entrance. The current separate entrance policy allows for ID verification at the door along with cameras monitoring every corner, provides an avenue to prevent underage drinking, and protects our friends in recovery from making an impulse purchase. Does anyone want our children growing up with liquor as part of the food shopping experience?
 
Binge drinking or excessive alcohol use is responsible for 88,000 deaths in our nation, and Florida is ranked third in the nation for fatal DUI crashes. Only 16 other states allow this type of distribution. Thirty-four states do not allow hard liquor to be mixed with grocery items.
 
Other than creating a one-stop shopping experience that includes alcohol, I can't think of any reason for passing this bill. Our state doesn't need it and the public, the few who are aware of this proposed change, don't want it.
 
Teresa Miller, Tampa


HB-81, alcohol, 2017 Legislation, miller
Amendment 2 Recommendations
04/02/2017

Medical Marijuana is a very political, emotional and complex topic.  Now that amendment 2 has passed implementing it as a medication seems to be even more contentious.  I am sure we can all agree the goal, as with any medication, is to provide guidelines to make it as safe and beneficial as possible while at the same time preventing abuse or misuse.  Attempting to regulate prescription medications has proven to be very difficult and the lack of strict guidelines led to over prescribing, wide-spread misuse, addiction and overdose problems that devastated families and communities throughout our nation. 


2017 Legislation
HB 81 CB 106 - Hard Liquor in our Grocery Stores
03/02/2017

Please review the following information to better understand how alcohol misuse impacts our families:

  1. Overview of Alcohol Consequences- NIAAA PowerPoint (easy reading)

Consequences

  • Physical Effects: Infectious disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Neuropsychiatric disease, Cardiovascular disease, Liver and pancreas disease, Unintentional and intentional injury Heart, liver, pancreas
  • Unintentional and Intentional consequences: fatal crashes, falls, drownings, burns, suicide, stabbing, shooting, HOMICIDE, assault, sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse.
  • Social harm: family dysfunction, unemployment, criminal conviction, financial, child & family neglect

Cost of Alcohol Abuse:

  • Globally, alcohol is third leading risk factor for premature death and disability
  • $223.5 billion in 2006- estimated costs of alcohol abuse in U.S.
  • Nearly 60% costs paid by government and others
  • 15% of U.S. workforce drinks enough alcohol to lead to workforce impairment

     2.  Teen Theft
Teen shoplifting, liquor a bad mix

  • Several Capital High School students agreed with Graham’s assessment, " that teens are taking advantage of it being easier to shoplift liquor" than beer or wine.
  • “You’re not an automatic suspect when you walk in a grocery store,” said one student interviewed Tuesday in the school parking lot.

Doubly illegal: Qualitative accounts of underage alcohol access through theft

  • … In addition to 9% of respondents who reported stealing alcohol from commercial outlets themselves, a total of 26% respondents reported occasions when their close friends stole alcohol.

       3.  Florida Ranks 3rd in the Nation for DUI Fatalities
2015 DUI Arrest by County
2014 Summary State DUI arrests and Fatalities
      4.  16-18 other states allow hard liquor in grocery store ailses.
               2016 Issue Briefs for State Policymakers- Healthy Alcohol Market

 


2017 Legislation, HB-81
2017 2 15 Amendment 2 Implementation
02/14/2017
2017 Legislation
Marijuana and Pregnancy
02/01/2017

Marijuana use during pregnancy can be harmful to your baby’s health. The chemicals in marijuana (in particular,tetrahydrocannabinol or THC) pass through your systemto your baby and can negatively affect your baby’s development.


Pregnancy, 2017 Legislation, CDC
2017 CDC Summary
02/01/2017
CDC, 2017 Legislation
Marijuana and Driving
01/15/2017
2017 Legislation, driving, CDC
Marijuana and Public Health CDC
01/15/2017

Some people think that marijuana is not truly “addictive” or that people can’t become “hooked” on the drug, but research shows that about 1 in 10 marijuana users will become addicted. For people who begin using before the age of 18, that number rises to 1 in 6.
Marijuana use directly affects the brain — specifically the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, decision making, coordination, emotions, and reaction time.
 


CDC, 2017 Legislation, addiction
Parent should know and understand
01/15/2017
CDC, Teens, parents, 2017 Legislation
The Clinical Conundrum of Medical Marijuana
01/06/2017

Detailed Information
. Patients freely share their “medicine” with family and friends, and parents are self-diagnosing, and subsequently dosing their children with high-concentration marijuana products for conditions that may simply not exist (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, etc.); or allow their medical cards to expire and continue to grow their own.
The use of marijuana for medical conditions, including pain, needs robust studies, and subsequent products need more regulation and consistency for public consumption. Colorado is an example of the societal effect across a wide spectrum of arenas that comes with rampant cannabis use, particularly in youth use and impaired driving fatalities. The problems Colorado is seeing completely transcend “responsible use” or “marijuana as medicine.” 

 


Potency, Studies, driving, Finn, MD, 2017 Legislation
Who is really using marijuana under the guise of a medicine?
11/15/2016
2017 Legislation
Complexities in understanding and addressing the serious public health issues related to the nonmedical use of prescription drugs
09/01/2016

A common theme among every article in this issue is the overlap be- tween NMUPD, excessive drinking, and marijuana and other forms of substance use. In every investigation, nonmedical users were observed to have a history of using alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and other psycho- active substances. Kalyanam, Katsuki, Lanckriet, and Mackey (2017)
Kalyanam, J., Katsuki, T., Lanckriet, G., & Mackey, T. K. (2017). Exploring trends of non- medical use of prescription drugs and polydrug abuse in the Twittersphere using un- supervised machine learning. Addictive Behaviors, 65, 289–295. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.addbeh.2016.08.019.


Studies, Research, Prescription, epidemic, 2017 Legislation
Cannabinoids for Medical Use A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
06/20/2015

A systematic review of the benefits and adverse events (AEs)
 
A total of 79 trials (6462 participants) were included; 4 were judged at low risk of bias. Most trials showed improvement in symptoms associated with cannabinoids but these associations did not reach statistical significance in all trials. Data about AEs were reported in 62 studies (127 reports).
 
There was an increased risk of short-term AEs with cannabinoids, including serious AEs. Common AEs included dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, somnolence, euphoria, vomiting, disorientation, drowsiness, confusion, loss of balance, and hallucination.
 
Four (5%) trials were judged at low risk of bias, 55 (70%) were judged at high risk of bias, and 20 (25%) at unclear risk of bias (eAppendix 13 in Supplement 2) The major potential source of bias in the trials was incomplete outcome data. More than 50% of trials reported substantial withdrawals and did not adequately account for this in the analysis.
 
Common AEs included asthenia, balance problems, confusion, dizziness, disorientation, diarrhea, euphoria, drowsiness, dry mouth, fatigue, hallucination, nausea, somnolence, and vomiting.
 
There was no clear evidence for a difference in association (either beneficial or harmful) based on type of cannabinoids or mode of administration. Only 2 studies evaluated cannabis.  There was no evidence that the effects of cannabis differed from other cannabinoids.
 
An additional limitation of many included studies was their very small sample sizes.
 
Future studies should assess patient-relevant outcomes (including disease-specific end points, quality of life, and AEs) using standardized outcome measures at similar time points to ensure inclusion in future meta-analyses.
 
Future trials should adhere to the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) reporting standards197 and ensure that appropriate methods are used for randomization, allocation concealment, patient and outcome assessor blinding, handling of withdrawals, and avoiding selective outcome reporting.


meta-analysis, Research, 2017 Legislation
Ed Wood- FL per se law
02/01/2015

Based upon the foregoing evidence, this author has a clear preference for zero tolerance laws to deal with the increasing scourge of DUID.  The increasingly accepted Libertarian view is that such laws criminalize personal choices that cause no harm to citizens other than the drug consumer.  Laws requiring probable cause be first established before requiring a blood sample theoretically alleviate this concern, but are unconvincing to opponents of zero-tolerance laws.  Adoption of New Zealand’s approach is suggested as a means of gaining acceptance of zero tolerance laws without unduly harming Libertarian sensitivities.


Wood, Potency, 2017 Legislation, THC levels, THC
Futile Search
02/01/2015

The fact is that there is no level of THC in blood above which everyone is impaired, and below which no one is impaired.  This is not because we need more studies; it’s because of human biology. Consider the following three factors.


Wood, Potency, 2017 Legislation, THC levels, THC
Public Health Policy- Hookah
03/06/2013

2013 University of Maryland summary of Hookah legislation by state.


Public Health, Hookah, policy, 2017 Legislation
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