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Nearly nine of every ten Florida voters are in favor of the medical marijuana amendment on this November’s ballot according to the latest Quinnipiac poll, but count Florida doctors out. The FMA doesn’t want voters telling them which medicines to prescribe.

The 400 member House of Delegates of the Florida Medical Association is just saying no to amendment two.  The measure passed without discussion says FMA legal counsel Jeff Scott. “It was on the consent calendar and it was not extracted.”

But not all doctors are saying no. Cary Pigman of Sebring is a State Representative and an emergency room doctor. In April he told a House committee “I’ve been working in the emergency room for forty years. I have never ever taken care of a marijuana overdose. In 40 years. Never. Ever.”

What the doctors are also saying is that the amendment would allow not just medical doctors, but chiropractors and optometrists to prescribe medical marijuana. They don’t like that idea.

The FMA’s Scott says the FMA is calling for marijuana to be removed from it’s schedule 1 classification so more research can take place.  “And if you remove it from the schedule one category, then that research can take place, and we can make a real determination on a scientific basis, whether this substance is effective as a medication or not.”

Q: “But until that happens, you’re opposed to what’s being voted on?”

“We’re on the side of science rather than popular sentiment” says Scott.

But Bradenton’s Kathy Jordan has been using marijuana legally to treat her Lou Gehrig’s Disease..Husband Robert says it makes all the difference in the world.

“If you take the cannabis out of the picture, she gets sick. You put it back in the picture, she starts getting better.”

The FMA did support the Charlotte’s Web legislation. The non euphoric marijuana should be available to select patients next year.

Some form of medical marijuana is legal  23 states and the District of Columbia. Recreational marijuana is legal in 2 states, with Alaska and Oregon voting on legalizing marijuana in November.