Mary Brandenburg - Misplaced Pages

American politician

Mary Brandenburg
Brandenburg in 2002

Member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 89th district
In office November 5, 2002 – November 2, 2010
Preceded by	Irving Slosberg
Succeeded by	Jeff Clemens
City Commissioner For the City of West Palm Beach, Florida District 3
In office 1998–2002

Personal details
Born	(1949-05-12) May 12, 1949 (age 75) Rochester, New York
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Pete Brandenburg
Alma mater	University of Florida A.A., 1969; Florida Atlantic University, B.A., 1972, M.B.A., 1980
Committees	Health Care Appropriations Committee (Ranking Democrat), Agriculture & Natural Resources Policy Committee

Mary Brandenburg (born May 12, 1949) is an American politician in the state of Florida. She was a representative in the Florida House of Representatives between 2002 and 2010.

Early life

Brandenburg was born on May 12, 1949, in Rochester, New York. She moved to Florida in 1957. She received her AA degree from the University of Florida in 1969 before attending Florida Atlantic University where she received her BA in 1972 and her MBA in 1980. She lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, with her husband, Pete Brandenburg.

Political career

Brandenburg was first elected as a representative in the Florida House of Representatives in the 2002 general election.

Political positions

Equality in adoption rights

Brandenburg has continually pushed for equality in Florida's adoption laws and has filed legislation to allow gay residents to adopt since 2007.

Salvia divinorum

In March 2008, it was reported that Brandenburg and Senator Evelyn Lynn had proposed bills to make possession of Salvia divinorum a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Salvia divinorum is a psychoactive herb which can induce strong dissociative effects. It has a long continuing tradition of use as an entheogen by indigenous Mazatec shamans, who use it to facilitate visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions. Salvia's sale and possession is currently illegal in a number of other American states and some other countries.

Brandenburg's House bill number was HB 1363. Lynn's Senate bill was SB340. There was also SB1612. All bills proposed including Salvia divinorum & Salvinorin A on Florida's Schedule I list of controlled substances. Brandenburg's bill was passed unanimously and became law on July 1, 2008. The bill provides an exception for medical use approved by the FDA.

Opponents of prohibitive Salvia restrictions argue that such reactions are largely due to an inherent prejudice and a particular cultural bias rather than any actual balance of evidence, pointing out inconsistencies in attitudes toward other more toxic and addictive drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. While not objecting to some form of regulatory legal control, in particular with regard to the sale to minors or sale of enhanced high-strength extracts, most Salvia proponents otherwise argue against stricter legislation.

Notes

The worldwide number of alcohol-related deaths is calculated at over 2,000 people per day, in the US the number is over 300 deaths per day.
Those advocating consideration of Salvia divinorum's potential for beneficial use in a modern context argue that more could be learned from Mazatec culture, where Salvia is not really associated with notions of drug taking at all and it is rather considered as a spiritual sacrament. In light of this it is argued that Salvia divinorum could be better understood more positively as an entheogen rather than pejoratively as a hallucinogen.

Citations

^ "Mary Brandenburg - 2008 - 2010". www.myfloridahouse.gov. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
Florida Legislature: HB 789 (2008)
Gresko.
Valdés, Díaz & Paul 1983, p. 287.
Florida Legislature: SB 1612 (2008)
Lopez 2005, Table 2.
NIAAA 2001.
Nutt et al. 2007.
Blosser.

References

Blosser, Bret. "Lessons in The Use of Mazatec Psychoactive Plants". The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center. Retrieved October 19, 2007.
Gresko, Jessica. "Is Salvia the Next Marijuana?". The Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 14, 2008.
Lopez, Alan D. (April 2005). "The evolution of the Global Burden of Disease framework for disease, injury and risk factor quantification: developing the evidence base for national, regional and global public health action". Globalization and Health. 1 (5): 5. doi:10.1186/1744-8603-1-5. PMC 1143783. PMID 15847690. - Table 2. Global burden of disease and injury attributable to selected risk factors, 1990.
MiSP (2006). "Follow the Money". Florida/Brandenburg. The National Institute on Money in State Politics. Retrieved March 11, 2008.
NIAAA (August 2001). "Number of deaths and age-adjusted death rates per 100,000 population for categories of alcohol-related (A-R) mortality, United States and States, 1979-96". Database Resources / Statistical Tables. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Archived from the original on August 7, 2007. Retrieved October 20, 2007.
Nutt, D.; King, L. A.; Saulsbury, W.; Blakemore, C. (2007). "Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse". The Lancet. 369 (9566): 1047–1053. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4. PMID 17382831. S2CID 5903121.
Siebert, Daniel. "The Legal Status of Salvia divinorum". The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center. Retrieved March 4, 2007.
Valdés, Leander J. III; Díaz, José Luis; Paul, Ara G. (May 1983). "Ethnopharmacology of ska María Pastora (Salvia divinorum, Epling and Játiva-M)". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 7 (3): 287–312. doi:10.1016/0378-8741(83)90004-1. hdl:2027.42/25229. PMID 6876852. Retrieved May 4, 2007.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

External links

Official Website of Representative Mary Brandenburg

Political offices
Preceded byIrving Slosberg	Florida House of Representatives District 89 2002–2010	Succeeded byJeff Clemens

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