Health Care / Medicine, Marijuana

Slowly But Surely, Florida Medical Marijuana Moves Forward

Will the state puff-puff-pass the vote this November?

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Hilary Bricken

Hilary Bricken

The Sunshine State is moving slowly but surely in developing a very limited medical marijuana program. But not everyone is happy about it, and Amendment 2 proponents are beginning to feel the heat from the opposition.

From its inception, medical marijuana has been a tortured subject in Florida. Though the legislature passed the 2014 Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act (which allows for non-smokeable, low-THC, high-CBD marijuana), the Compassionate Use Program it supports has been nothing short of a total circus. Not only is the Program limited regarding who can access marijuana for medical use, but physicians have been slow to recommend cannabis to their patients for fear of the federal government taking away their license or because many Florida physicians still don’t see marijuana as a legitimate medical treatment. The Program permits only five nurseries in the entire state (each of which have to have been in existence for no less than 30 years!) to provide all of the state’s cannabis. Many claim the Program is wholly corrupt, and there have been multiple legal challenges from nurseries that didn’t win a Dispensing Organization authorization from the Florida Department of Health.

This March, there was some loosening of Florida’s cannabis regime when its legislature passed HB 307, which expands the state’s Right to Try Act to include medical marijuana. The highlights of HB 307 are:

  1. Terminally ill qualified patients, defined as those with conditions that, “without the administration of life-sustaining procedures, will result in death within one year if the condition runs its normal course,” may access marijuana with more than .8% THC;
  2. Upon the state’s registration of 250,000 active qualified patients in the compassionate use registry, the state can approve three more Dispensing Organizations that must include “a farmer who is part of the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association and is a member of the black farmers’ litigation group”;
  3. The bill creates more regulatory standards for Dispensing Organizations, including increased transportation, security, and packaging and labeling requirements, as well as quality assurance and pesticide testing standards;
  4. Local governments can decide for themselves whether to ban or regulate Dispensing Organizations; and
  5. The bill authorizes each of the five initially-approved Dispensing Organizations to operate as a dispensing organization if it posts a $5 million performance bond, if it meets the requirements of and requests cultivation authorization, and if it has expended at least $100,000 to fulfill its obligation as a dispensing organization.

Number 5 in the above list could prove critical if Amendment 2 passes this fall because its passage will give existing Dispensing Organizations a head start over new competition.

In spite of all of the above, at of the end of July, the state’s first dispensary, Trulieve, opened in Tallahassee. Trulieve also made the state’s first patient home delivery after its opening. Though Florida’s Program remains too restrictive to allow access to cannabis for many qualified patients, Florida is slowly but surely moving forward with medical marijuana.

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Now, cue Amendment 2 which represents Florida’s voter initiative for a more expansive medical marijuana program.

In “Florida Medical Marijuana: What You Need to Know to Have a Cannabis Business Later,” I wrote about what you can and should do now to set yourself up for success when Florida adopts a more comprehensive MMJ program. Though it is looking like Amendment 2 will pass, the opposition to Amendment 2 is starting to make its presence known (though it doesn’t compare to the first time around when opponents of the original Amendment 2 called edibles the new “date rape drug“). So far, the “No On 2” campaign released an ad claiming budtenders are “dope dealers with storefronts,” a Publix heiress donated significant money to defeat the initiative, and the Florida Medical Association formally opposed the measure at a medical conference sponsored by Big-Pharma.

Despite the mounting opposition, this second bite at the apple for Amendment 2 feels much different than the first time. The state itself hasn’t challenged the amendment and the opposition’s increasing desperation is coming off as even more superficial and unsubstantiated than the last time. Times have definitely changed and so long as fly-by-night “pot colleges,” shameless airport seminars, and self-proclaimed “medical marijuana business lawyers” and “consultants” promising gobs of cash with reckless abandon manage not to offend too many people this time around, we’ll likely see Amendment 2 pass in November.

Hilary Bricken is an attorney at Harris Moure, PLLC in Seattle and she chairs the firm’s Canna Law Group. Her practice consists of representing marijuana businesses of all sizes in multiple states on matters relating to licensing, corporate formation and contracts, commercial litigation, and intellectual property. Named one of the 100 most influential people in the cannabis industry in 2014, Hilary is also lead editor of the Canna Law Blog. You can reach her by email at hilary@harrismoure.com.

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