Dangerous Snails, Flesh Eating Seaweed? Florida Needs Marijuana

Giant vicious snails, hurricanes, and flesh eating seaweed washing up on huge swaths of coastline, are just some of the newer issues Florida is facing. Florida is beset with plagues this summer. Perhaps it is a mystical sign to listen to the people.

Florida citizens went to the ballot a second time in 2016 and voted to approve medical marijuana. Despite winning a marjority in the previous election, Governor Ron DeSantis said it didn’t count, in 2016, 71% of the voters said they wanted medical marijuana. Since the vote, the Governor and legislature have been dragging thier heels on implementation. Maybe this is why nature is punishing the state with some downright weird things.

Florida is an odd place, between the hashtag #floridaman and the south part of the state having pythons who EAT alligators, you expect it to be a bit “different”. But currently they have two (sort of three) crazy things which could be seen as divine punishment. The first is the sargassum belt, a 5,000-mile-long snake of seaweed circling Florida. This April, sargassum levels in the Caribbean Sea reached a new record, with the belt growing to an estimated 13 million tons, according to a bulletin from the University of South Florida Optical Oceanography lab. It has starting to wash up on the tourist-oriented shores of the Sunshine State. Researchers said combined with the Florida sun, it could be a perfect environment for vibrio bacteria to cultivate, which can cause flesh-eating infections.  This is doesn’t count the smelly mess stretched across the golden goose of the state’s economy.

Hurricane season is here and already there is one brewing the Atlantic. Florida has been hit so hard  property insurance rates are predicted to jump at least 40 percent this year, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Next is snails, large 8-inch ugly snails. They are a species of invasive giant African land snail which can transmit a parasite and do massive amounts of agricultural damage. Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services ordered a community to be placed under quarantine. The agency shared the species is “one of the most damaging snails in the world, consuming at least 500 different types of plants” and can reportedly eat plastic, street signs, stucco, and other inorganic material. Their shells are reportedly able to puncture car tires.

Florida has had snails (frogs), darkness (hurricanes & hail), locusts (sargassum).  In the original Bilble story what is left is water to blood, flies, boils, locusts, and the death of the firstborn.  Voters should be paying attention before the next one hits.

A constitutional amendment to legalize the recreational use of marijuana could be on the Florida ballot next year. The proposed amendment is generating support.  But The Tallahassee Democrat reported Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody moved to block a recreational marijuana initiative from the 2024 Florida ballot.  Many saw the effort as the attorney general preparing the field for a Gov. Ron DeSantis presidential campaign.

Perhaps the Governor and the state governing bodies should just listen the people and provide what was legally voted and approved for the government to fulfill.

Source: https://thefreshtoast.com/cannabis/dangerous-snails-flesh-eating-seaweed-florida-needs-marijuana/