Florida lawmakers are ready to move full speed ahead on a special session scheduled this week, so far without medical marijuana officially on the schedule — for now — but supporters of Amendment 2 remain hopeful legislators will take up the issue when they come back to Tallahassee on Wednesday.
Senate President Joe Negron released a memo Tuesday afternoon outlining the three-day special session, where lawmakers are supposed to take up issues related to public education spending, Enterprise Florida and the state’s tourism agency, Visit Florida.
Negron makes no mention of medical marijuana, but did add one caveat to the 500-word memo.
“Of course, there likely will be other ideas that Senators may present as the Special Session unfolds,” he wrote.
While Negron didn’t verbatim mention medical cannabis, it’s likely his comment alludes to legislation to regulate medical marijuana, which went up in smoke last month.
In order to for lawmakers to up the issue, they’ll need to first agree on a proposal to regulate the state’s medical marijuana industry -- and if this year’s legislative session was any indicator, that won’t necessarily be an easy feat.
The issue was one piece of unfinished business lawmakers never handled during this year's legislative session.
Legislators spent months debating and arguing over two proposals to regulate medical marijuana, but ultimately ended up leaving Tallahassee with no compromise after 71 percent of voters approved a constitutional amendment expanding the drug last November.
Legislators haggled over the bill into the late hours the Friday before the session’s end, disagreeing on exactly how many retail facilities medical marijuana treatment centers (MMTCs) should be able to open.
House bill sponsor, Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, proposed upping the number to 100 dispensaries, but the Senate said that number was too high.
Sources close to the legislative process told Sunshine State News one of the real enemies of passing the legislation ended up being the group which had worked so hard to approve Amendment 2 in the first place: United For Care and its legislative arm, Florida For Care.
It was Florida For Care’s lobbyists, they said, which pushed the issue of limiting the number of dispensaries for growers at the last minute in order to force the state to issue more licenses to get rid of medical marijuana “cartels," the original seven growers allowed to dispense the drug across the state.
Lobbying efforts were concentrated mostly on Negron, who ultimately said the bill was a no-go, killing it off.
As of early Tuesday evening, there had still been no deal reached on medical pot.
Key players in the issue like Orlando attorney John Morgan told Sunshine State News that they believe Negron was worried the seven original growers would have an unfair advantage over other MMTCs -- but said those fears were irrational since the dispensaries would end up beating out each other in the long run anyway.
“Joe [Negron] is misguided because I don’t think you should cap dispensaries,” Morgan told SSN. “Competition takes care of everything in a capitalistic society, [but] these lawmakers are not capitalists. They are people who have lived at the public trough their whole lives.”
If legislators can't work out an agreement over medical cannabis, it will be up to the Department of Health to figure out how to regulate the state’s medical marijuana industry before July 3.
Morgan, who supports lifting MMTC caps, said he was hopeful lawmakers would work out some kind of agreement, one way or the other, but trashed legislators for toying with the will of Florida voters.
“They have never done anything besides go up there and play board games like it’s a Monopoly game and it’s not real,” he said. “At the end of the day, the cream will rise to the top. They’re fighting something that doesn’t need to be fought about.”
Negron has long railed against marijuana and is said to have never supported the amendment.
Other members of Senate leadership, like Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, however, are said to have been pushing the issue behind the scenes with Senate Majority Leader Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and House Rules and Policy chairman Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes.
Florida For Care executive director Ben Pollara told SSN he hoped lawmakers didn't have dejavu over just how many voters supported the amendment to expand medical marijuana last fall.
“I hope lawmakers remember the results of last fall’s election, in which 118 of their 120 districts supported medical marijuana with a vote north of 60 percent,” Pollara said. “The people of Florida have been watching their inaction on this issue for too long and will be outraged if they leave Tallahassee this week without doing their jobs.”
Pollara and Morgan worked largely in tandem on the campaigns to pass Amendment 2 in both 2014 and 2016.
Morgan, too, said he was remaining positive that lawmakers could work out a solution to help provide relief to so many suffering Floridians.
"I think it’s better to be done legislatively, but.. it’s going to happen one way or the other," he told SSN. "I would rather it be done this way. I’d rather there be more licenses and competition. But if there’s not, it’s better done than perfect. It’s going to be done with or without [lawmakers]."
But like most things in Florida politics, Morgan didn't rule out the element of surprise when it came to medical cannabis.
"This is a group of people who adjourned one year and left town in the middle of the work week, so you can’t expect anything but the unexpected," he said.
The special session begins Wednesday.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
