Medical marijuana issue to return to Nov. ballot

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Renee Petro believes medical marijuana may be a matter of life or death for her son Branden.  For him, seizures are a daily occurrence.

"That could be your child, your loved one. Imagine if it was - what would you do?" Petro said.

What she has done is fight.  She became an outspoken voice for medical marijuana in Florida co-founding the "Cannamoms."

"We're a group of moms that came together to fight for our children, but not just ours - for everyone else's children, and for everyone that needs this," she said.

Petro is confident that 2016 is the year Florida will join more than 20 other states that allow medicinal cannabis.

This week, John Morgan's United for Care announced it has enough signatures to put it on the November ballot. 

In 2014, Amendment 2 came up less than three percent shy of the needed 60 percent to pass, though it did receive more votes than either candidate for governor.

"For the money I put into this, if this happens my return on philanthropic, I'll never hit anything like it in my life because it's 400,000 people day one, but it's millions for the rest of my life.  It's important for me because I've seen it in my own family, I know that it works," John Morgan said.

"It's going to take an open mind and open heart, because people are suffering," Petro said.

People like her son Branden.

"We're not going to let down those that are suffering and I'm not going to let down my son so it is happening," she said.

FOX 13 did reach out to Attorney General Pam Bondi's office, in an e-mail her office responded:

"The proposed constitutional amendment is in the hands of Florida voters. We encourage each voter to read the full amendment carefully."

FOX 13 also contacted the Florida Sheriff's Association.  At this time it does not have an opinion, but its members plan to meet next week to discuss medicinal marijuana along with other upcoming legislative issues.