Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was one of the biggest opponent of medical marijuana in 2014; this year, she announced that she was not going to play a similar role in next year’s election. Days after this was announced, Florida’s Supreme court decided to stop a hearing that was supposed to be about the medical marijuana issue. Instead, they will be working on reviewing the measure to make sure that voters are able to fully comprehend the language.
Earlier last week is when Bondi, while not changing her stance on medical marijuana, announced that she was not going to try to oppose the issue. Instead, she is going to keep her mouth completely shut and allow the Florida Supreme Court decide whether or not to destroy the ballot measure or let it reach the November election. It may seem as if Bondi wanted to come out against medical marijuana again for 2016, but she did not “feel confident enough” that she would have a strong enough effect on the Supreme Court’s rulings.
“Based on the Court’s decision in 2014, I have not filed a legal challenge to the current amendment, but my concerns with it are the same,” Bondi stated.
In 2013, Bondi went on a full-fledged attack against the group’s first initiative because the United for Care was trying to legalize marijuana in “limitless situations.” She was not very successful in removing medical marijuana from the 2014 ballot, but her rabid attacks against medical marijuana were able to inspire many anti-marijuana voices. With her gone from this year’s movement, there is much more hope for medical marijuana to be approved than there was a year ago.