The raging battle over medical marijuana is about to be decided.

And so are two other lower profile state Constitution amendments: one dealing with natural resources preservation and the other with judicial appointments.

Voters in Tuesday’s election are being asked whether Florida doctors should be allowed to prescribe marijuana for debilitating diseases and other conditions. They’ll also decide whether a third of  the document stamp tax revenue on real estate transactions collected over the next 20 years will be used to conserve land and protect water.

The third amendment asks voters to allow an outgoing governor to appoint judges to vacancies that won’t exist until the new governor takes office. It’s targeted at 2019, when three Florida Supreme Court Justices are set to retire on the next governor’s inauguration day.

Each proposed amendment needs the approval of 60 percent of voters to become law. Polls show that medical marijuana – the most closely watched of the three – is in deep trouble.

Medical marijuana's in trouble

A final pre-election Bay News 9/Tampa Bay Times/UF Graham Center poll released Thursday showed that only 46 percent of likely voters support medical marijuana, while 43 percent said they are voting against it.

Millions of dollars have been spent in the fight for and against medical marijuana, much of it by Orlando attorney John Morgan on the “for” side and Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson on the “against” side.

Morgan has contributed more than half of the $7.6 million raised by People United for Medical Marijuana, an organization he chairs that’s dedicated to get the amendment passed.

The attorney says he supports medical marijuana so people like his brother Tim Morgan, a quadriplegic, can get legal access to cannabis for comfort and pain relief, but he has run up against the Florida Sheriffs Association and other powerful opponents.

One of those is Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, the immediate past president of the FSA.

“There are key words (in the amendment) we call loopholes that will allow people to abuse this, which will allow anyone who wants to obtain marijuana to obtain marijuana,” Judd said in an Central Florida TV appearance with Morgan.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi argue also argues that the amendment is too broadly written and would allow for virtually limitless “other conditions” doctors could use to prescribe marijuana.

Morgan counters that marijuana can be a miracle herb for those suffering most and says opponents are using scare tactics to get people to vote against it.

“This is not the de facto legalization of marijuana,” he said in the TV appearance. “… When we talk about debilitating illnesses, we lay it out on the ballot. ALS, HIV, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma. Debilitating illnesses and injuries.”

But even Morgan acknowledges the potential for abuse by unethical doctors who could “start giving out marijuana to people who don’t need it.”

“Now look,” Morgan said, “you’re going to have bad lawyers, you’re going to have crooked cops, you’re going to have crooked everything. At the end of the day, what the people of Florida have to decide is do they trust their doctors.”

$10B for conservation?

Amendment 1, the Florida Land and Water Conservation Initiative, would dedicate 33 percent of the doc stamp tax on land transactions to an environmental trust fund for 20 years. The money – as much as $10 billion - would be used to buy recreation lands, clean up parks and beaches, manage forest lands and waterways and protect wildlife habitat.

Not surprisingly, the amendment has widespread support from environmentalists, campers, kayakers, cyclists and animal rights groups. It also enjoys bipartisan support among elected officials.

Critics say committing a dedicated funding source to land acquisition would make the state budget too inflexible and could lead to shortages for other priorities or local municipalities.

“Imagine, if every group that wasn’t satisfied with the amount of funding their special program got during the recession decided to do a constitutional amendment and mandate a certain amount of spending, how impossible it would be to balance our state budget?” said David Hart, executive vice president of Florida Chamber of Commerce.

How judges should be appointed

The Republican-initiated Amendment 3 is called Florida Prospective Judicial Vacancies and would change the requirement that a governor cannot fill a judicial vacancy until the outgoing judge’s term expires.

Three of the seven Florida Supreme Court justices are expected to retire simultaneously in January 2019, on the same day a new governor will be taking office. The amendment would allow the outgoing governor to appoint their successors.

The justices are R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince, and they’re considered the court’s liberal wing. If the amendment passes, the outgoing governor – probably Republican Rick Scott or Democrat Charlie Crist – could choose their successors before leaving office.

State Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, sponsored the amendment and said his legal scholars concluded the current law is unclear about which governor can make the appointment.”

“Even if the appointments could be made on the incoming governor’s inauguration day in 2019, the Supreme Court would likely not be fully functional for weeks,’’ Lee wrote in an opinion piece distributed to several media outlets.

Opponents say the impending crisis manufactured and argue that the power of appointing making “prospective” appointments of judges or justices should not be given to someone who is leaving office.