A Republican Florida senator stood before the Senate Committee on Health Policy Wednesday to make the pitch for a strict system to regulate the new medical marijuana industry in the Sunshine State.
Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, urged lawmakers that his bill, SB 406, was the right step toward hammering out a set of laws and regulations for the drug, whose expanded use became legal this year.
Bradley’s testimony was part of the first steps towards creating a set of laws and regulations for putting the voter-approved Amendment 2 into place after it was overwhelmingly approved last November by a vote of 71 percent.
Speaking before the committee, Bradley urged caution as the state proceeds with the medical pot industry -- and said it was important legislators take the matter seriously.
"This is not the selling of lawnmowers & office supplies,” said Bradley. “This is a Schedule 1 controlled substance.”
SB 406 would outlaw smoking medical marijuana and would limit medical marijuana for Florida residents only.
The proposal would also place caps on the number of marijuana dispensaries, expanding the number of businesses by five when the state has 250,000 patients, 350,000 patients, 400,000 patients and then every 100,000 thereafter. Bradley's bill would max out at 20 companies providing medical pot to patients once the registry hits 500,000.
Bradley admitted his bill wasn’t perfect. One of the biggest drawbacks, he explained, was SB 406’s limitation on the timeline in which new licenses are issued.
Limiting that number to 250,000, Bradley said, would cause problems for thousands of suffering patients waiting for relief.
The Senate committee was scheduled to hear four other bills on top of Bradley's. Some of those proposals aim for a loosely regulated system, while others propose scrapping the currently regulatory system entirely. Other measures are stricter and less “free market,” requiring independent labs test medical marijuana before it hits the market.
Bradley’s bill has received the support of many pro-pot activists, who say it’s largely a step in the right direction for the future of medical marijuana in Florida.
“His bill and his thinking begin and end from the perspective of patient access and that's exactly the approach that should be taken,” said Ben Pollara, president of United For Care, the group which largely spearheaded the campaign to approve Amendment 2.
But some Floridians still aren’t happy with the speed -- or lack thereof -- of state lawmakers in working out Florida’s new pot industry.
A poll released this week from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, found a significant chunk of voters -- 44 percent -- say Florida is moving too slowly on fully implementing medical marijuana. That number was even higher for voters who said “yes” to Amendment 2, with 57 percent saying the state is moving too slowly on implementing the new law.
The state legislature and the Florida Department of Health still have several months to revise the current dispensing rules and have up to nine months to implement those rules, but the clock is ticking.
Bradley said it was crucial Florida regulate the booming industry in the right way.
"This is an incredibly complex issue,” he said. “It's important that we don't play any games.. that we don't get cute in doing it.”
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
