Last year I declared Florida attorney John Morgan to be ‘Philanthropist of the Year.’ The award seemed fitting considering how much of his own money John Morgan put up for the 2014 Florida medical marijuana campaign. The last number I heard was that he donated between 4-8 million dollars for the campaign, which was just two percentage points away from passing. John Morgan is back at it again for the 2016 cycle. He recently announced that he would donate 9 dollars to the campaign for every 1 dollar donated by someone else. You donate $10, he chips in $90. You donate $100, he throws in $900. Per the Orlando Sentinel:
Orlando lawyer and medical marijuana champion John Morgan has promised to match donations to his political action committee on a nine-to-one match so that a $100 donation turns into $1,000 for the effort to fully legalize the drugs (sic).
In a fund-raising effort put out by United For Care, which is pushing to get medical marijuana on the 2016 statewide ballot, Morgan declared, “For every $10 donated here, the campaign will get $100 that goes directly to collecting petitions. If you donate $100 here, the campaign will literally get $1,000 that will be used to ensure that we get medical marijuana on the ballot next year.”
Morgan stated the campaign needs to spend about $1.5 million to pay professional signature gatherers to pass enough petitions to collect signatures to get the issue on the ballot.
According to the campaign’s donate page, John is willing to do this until all of the money is raised to pay signature gatherers, or December 31st, whichever comes first. I tip my hat to Mr. Morgan and his team. Finding someone who puts their money where their mouth is is a rare thing in the cannabis world. It’s truly a breath of fresh air!
