The campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Florida took it up a notch this weekend with coordinated phone banking and outreach in 13 Florida cities. The objective? Make sure everybody who signed the ballot petition follows through with a vote on election day.At a shady roadside church in the state capital, a handful of volunteers gathered with ice tea, a platter of sandwiches, and tablet computers full of phone numbers - everybody whose signatures helped bring Amendment Two to the November ballot. That's somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million Floridians.
"Our mission today is to call as many people as we can", said Organizer Jay Smith.
Smith was prepared for the work of trying to reach young marijuana advocates who are reachable only by cell phone when they are reachable at all.
Of those who did answer, some were no longer sure about medical marijuana. Many had to be reminded that the amendment was really on the November 4 ballot. And the casual voters were urged to send in for absentee ballots. Among the volunteers was writer and Navy veteran Ashley Gibson. Cancer is the curse of the women in her family.
"I see the pills. I see them get skinny. We are backwoods, southern Georgia, Florida women and we got a little meats on our bones", Gibson said. "And you see them sick and you don't see the feistiness in them. Then you see them smoke just a little marijuana and it calms them down or they feel better or they eat."
Polls show heavy support for medical marijuana in Florida. But approval will require heavy support - a 60% majority of Florida voters.