Could Legal Marijuana Tip the Senate for Democrats?
Cautious incumbents are using it to shore up support from progressive voters and challengers are seizing on the issue’s high popularity to knock conservatives.
When Senator Bill Nelson came out squarely in favor of Floridians’ right to smoke medical marijuana, it surprised many political observers in the Sunshine State. Nelson, a conservative Democrat who promotes his reputation as a ramrod former astronaut, has mostly kept out of the fray during the years-long battle over medical marijuana—both before it passed in 2016 with 71 percent of the vote and in the year and half since, as supporters have battled the state’s Republican leadership over how to implement the new law. “It’s just not in Bill’s constitution,” one marijuana advocate and former Nelson staffer had told me just the day before the senator’s big reveal.
But the timing of Nelson’s endorsement—as quintessentially stiff as it sounded: “I support, and have with my vote, medical marijuana recommended by a physician”—perhaps should not have been so surprising. Less than a week earlier, a judge ruled the state’s ban on smokable medical marijuana was unconstitutional. Governor Rick Scott, who is running to unseat Nelson in November, quickly appealed the judge’s ruling, placing him on the opposite side of 6.5 million Florida voters, 1.9 million more than had voted for President Donald Trump. Even Republicans in Florida saw the potential advantage that this could give Nelson.
So in late May, Nelson, perhaps thinking about two recent polls that had for the first time showed his supremely well-funded opponent in the lead, tried to put some daylight between himself and the governor.
“I think what it means is how far along this issue has evolved just over the last couple of years,” said Ben Pollara, a Democratic strategist who has worked for Nelson on his last two campaigns and served as campaign manager for the medical marijuana initiative since 2014. “It’s gotten to a point where somebody on the moderate-conservative end of the Democratic spectrum like Bill Nelson is not just coming out for medical marijuana but getting involved in a political fight and saying people ought to be able to smoke this stuff. It is no longer an issue with political downside; it’s an issue with almost entirely political upside.”
That’s a calculation that is playing out in a handful of tight Senate races this year, where an issue that has 68 percent support nationally offers a way for cautious moderates in red states—Democratic Senators Claire McCaskill in Missouri and Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, for example, both of whom could share the ballot with marijuana initiatives in November—to shore up support from the liberal wing of their party. In states like Nevada, where marijuana is already fully legal, it gives Democratic challengers like Jacky Rosen a ready coalition of bipartisan supporters.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/11/legal-marijuana-senate-midterms-2018-218964
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Frankly, I do not think it helps that much for pain.
I have peripheral neuropathy and the only thing that helps dull the pain is ... opiates.
It is expensive and you do not get much.
I am reluctant to try it but I will.
I'd do almost anything to get rid of this pain.
If they pull my script for pain meds, I don't know what I will do other than ask for an RX for a wheelchair. 
It has me very worried to say the least.
I don't care to live long without something that helps to dull the pain enough so I can get the rest I need and the ability to still do some things, some. 
I don't know if people are aware of this or not but living in pain causes you to live a shorter time due to the stress it places on the body.
It is no joke and it is not about getting some pills to get "high" on. If you have genuine chronic pain, the medications take the pain down a couple of notches but they do not get rid of it altogether.
As for this tincture, difficult to tell if it does anything much but only tried it once so far.
I think this is disgusting. They are trying to off those living in pain is my take on it.
I was at a support group this past weekend. A woman there was very disabled and she said she felt as if her legs were on fire.
She was getting 3 pills a day and her mother sent her to drug rehab!
I couldn't believe it and I said what I thought!
These people have not a clue you are so right. Vent around here any time at all, they don't mind!
