TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - John Morgan was in Tallahassee Thursday morning to file suit against the State of Florida on behalf of the citizens and medical marijuana patients of Florida.
He announced that the lawsuit had been filed electronically at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.
In a press conference, Morgan explained that his fight was not for recreational marijuana but was for medicinal use of the plant. He said that patients with ALS, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy rely on the medicine.
"The constitutional amendment that we put before the voters defined medical use. Medical use was very clear," Morgan asserted, "that a patient and a doctor would determine what's best for them. What's happened here is, the statute has decided to redefine medical use."
He said that the Florida legislature was overstepping their bounds. He cited that there were 400,000 people who were counting on the medicine and by limiting use, legislature was also eliminating the people's choice in the matter.
"And so the statute has placed their judgement in place of the doctor's and what the constitutional amendment stood for," Morgan said.
Back in 2014, Morgan was at the forefront of the battle for medical marijuana in Florida and played a major part in helping Amendment 2 get passed in 2016.
But now Morgan says that the Florida legislature has ignored the original goal of the amendment in favor of money and donors.
The medical marijuana advocate condemned the state's legal handling of smoking marijuana, saying that the only place they should've addressed it is in regards to smoking the plant in public.
He read out the original legislative intent of the amendment:
"'This section makes clear that the amendment does not require that the smoking of marijuana be allowed in public, unlike the proper use of medical marijuana in a private place, which is not illegal.'"
"That's the intent. That's what we said before we started," Morgan said. "So if I was going to give a first grader a test, and if I was to say to that first grader, 'listen here, if you go to a swimming pool and it says no swimming unless life guard on duty', the question for that first grader would be, 'can you swim with a life guard on duty?' The answer is yes."
"If smoking is not allowed in public, is it allowed in private? And the answer is as clear to all of you as it would be to any first grader taking first grade logic," Morgan asserted.
When asked why he was filing the suit, Morgan asserted it was because, "I'm right."
"I find myself here today and I shouldn't have to be here. And I think it's crazy what legislature has done to give me this platform. Because I'm right and 71 percent of Florida knows I'm right. So I'm gonna take this wherever it leads me."
Eventually the conversation turned to Morgan's rumored run for Florida Governor, but he gave no clear answers, telling the press that he was keeping his options open.
"When I go to the races, usually you have to bet on the race before the race starts, but I'm gonna have the advantage of letting the race take off, come all the way around and I don't have to make a decision 'til the horses are all coming down the stretch," Morgan explained. "So that's how I'm looking at all this."
