Lawmakers Reach Deal on Medical Marijuana

After months of debate, state lawmakers have finally reached a compromise to regulate medical marijuana. 

On Wednesday, legislators unveiled HB 5A, a proposal to implement Amendment 2. State Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, introduced the measure Wednesday afternoon. By Wednesday evening, the House and Human Services Committee had approved the measure.
 
Had the legislature not acted on medical marijuana, it would have been up to the Florida Department of Health to regulate medical cannabis before July.
 
Under the new bill, medical marijuana treatment centers would be allowed to run up to 25 retail facilities, a number proportionate to the population of one of the five regions in the state. State lawmakers haggled over retail caps during the regular legislative session.
 
The caps on dispensaries would expire in 2020. Licensees would also be able to sell their dispensary numbers to other vendors, a new provision which was not in either the previous House or Senate bills to regulate medical cannabis. 
 
The compromise legislation would also expand the number of growers and vendors in the Sunshine State, requiring the Department of Health to approve 10 new growers by October. 
 
One of those licensees would be required to be a black farmer from the Florida Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.
 
State lawmakers haggled over retail caps during the regular legislative session. The issue was one of contention as the legislative session wrapped up last month -- and was ultimately the straw that broke the camel’s back, killing off the bill. 
 
State legislators seemed well on their way to passing legislation to regulate the drug during this year’s regular legislative session, but reached an impasse over the number of retail facilities MMTCs should be allowed to open.
 
House bill sponsor, Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, initially proposed an unlimited number of retail facilities, but when the Senate wouldn’t bite, changed his tune and then proposed upping the number to 100 dispensaries.
 
The Senate said that number was too high. 
 
With no agreement in sight, the legislation died, and legislators went home last month with no agreement on the issue.
 
The new bill still does not allow smoking, something medical marijuana supporters said would be a big problem down the road.
 
Orlando attorney John Morgan, who largely wrote the constitutional amendment, said he was fully prepared to file legal action to allow for smokeable medical marijuana.
 
“I will sue them to allow medical marijuana to be smoked,” he said. “It’s a bunch of people [in Tallahassee] who don’t understand what they don’t understand. When you’re dying the last thing you care about is the smoke from marijuana.”
 
Sen. Bradley said the bill was keeping in line with the will of Florida voters. 
 
“Our constitutional duty is to ensure the availability and safe use of medical marijuana in the manner prescribed by Florida voters,” said Senator Bradley. “This patient-first legislation will expand access to this medicine, while ensuring safety through a unified regulatory structure for each component of the process from cultivation to consumption.”
 
Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, who sponsored the House version of the bill during the regular legislative session, said the result wasn’t what either chamber was looking for, but a compromise they could deal with.
 
“Neither one of us got what we wanted, but both of us got something we could live with,” Rodrigues said. 

Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.