Why Is Florida the Lamest State When It Comes To Marijuana?

[Snook]

Floridas new law as AOH said is wonderful overall but it is a CBD law and no growing allowed.. another 4-8 years maybe growing will be allowed in Florida (and it would grow like crazy in this state). Momentum has swung around the nation, we'll see how long it takes for the feds to not only move cannabis from the schedule 1 DRUG position it now has but to decriminalize it.

 

[bombadil.360]

Holy shit, it passed with 71% in favor. If next time there's a recreational bill, it would pass too.

 

[Old Toker]

Holy shit, it passed with 71% in favor. If next time there's a recreational bill, it would pass too.

A recreational use marijuana bill might pass with > 50% of the vote....but would it also need >60%+ like this one? Not so sure a rec pot bill could currently get that many votes.

 

[armedoldhippy]

Holy shit, it passed with 71% in favor. If next time there's a recreational bill, it would pass too.

trick is that Florida is jammed with older folks/retirees etc. well, those just happen to be the fastest growing demographic in smoking/vaping/eating cannabis. buttloads of them used when younger. many more read accounts of how it helps arthritis pain, peripheral neuropathic pain etc and they say to themselves "hey! why the fuck can't i try this? my fucking feet are KILLING me..." them old folks vote RELIGIOUSLY!

 

[Floridian]

Yep and Florida is full of vets with PTSD too.Wait and see how effective it will be on that disorder.Israel has been using for that for over 10 years.I still think recreational probably wont pass in two years but will in four.

 

[Snook]

Yep and Florida is full of vets with PTSD too.Wait and see how effective it will be on that disorder.Israel has been using for that for over 10 years.I still think recreational probably wont pass in two years but will in four.

I been using it for that for 45 years... the VA wants to give me anti depressants and pain killers... Fukin morons want me to stop with weed that has kept me from exploding sometimes for all this time to take 'their' meds and be a mope... BTW, I believe that FL is the most vet friendly state there is, affording the most state benefits to us..


EDIT: Recreational??? well, I didn't think I'd see it legal in my lifetime so, I'm hopeful but not really caring..
Although I wouldn't 'sign up' a grow provision to current law would be more important to me.

 

[rolandomota]

No home grows? Lame. Rec states let you have 6 plants so why do medical laws have no homegrows? Greed... now you need to vote on home grows good luck

 

[Floridian]

Its not greed at all its a matter of figuring policy which Florida has 6 months to do which will happen inMay.There will be no home grows of course with medical marijuana but lets see what happens down the road when recreational is legalized.Precedent carries a lot of weight and Washington Colorado Cali and I think Mass has set a precedent by allowing home grows for recreational use.Hell I thought I would never see medical use legalized down here and now I am probably just 4 years away from being able to legally grow my own.That time flashes by quick when you are 57 lol

 

[KONY]

please baby jeebus give us reciprocity

 

[Floridian]

Snook are you sure about that CBD only law?John Morgans father in law wouldn't have benefitted from that and he spent a whole lot of money to get this into effect.I just cannot believe that chronic pain and other ailments will be left out of the deal and I cant believe all these dispensaries popping up all over the place will sell CBD strains only.They are in it to make money and no THC strains would seriously inhibit that.Maybe I misunderstood you my fish crazed friend

 

[Snook]

Snook are you sure about that CBD only law?John Morgans father in law wouldn't have benefitted from that and he spent a whole lot of money to get this into effect.I just cannot believe that chronic pain and other ailments will be left out of the deal and I cant believe all these dispensaries popping up all over the place will sell CBD strains only.They are in it to make money and no THC strains would seriously inhibit that.Maybe I misunderstood you my fish crazed friend

I'm not sure Floridian, that post was the 9th of November, day after the MMJ law was voted in, the initial law was CBD law so I'm not sure WTF I was saying but neither law allows growing and the new law allows a much wider range of strainage for other medical conditions.

 

[Old Toker]

https://www.marijuanadoctors.com/medical-marijuana/FL/qualification

What Ailments Qualify For Medical Marijuana in Florida

Patients in Florida diagnosed with one of the following "debilitating medical conditions", are afforded legal protection under the Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative, as per Amendment 2:

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease)

Cancer

Crohn's disease

epilepsy

glaucoma

HIV/AIDS

multiple sclerosis

Parkinson’s disease

post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

or any other ailment/condition of the same severity/symptoms, when determined by a physician's opinion that the medical use of marijuana would surpass any potential health risks

Florida Low-THC Medical Cannabis Program: Information

As per the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014 — Senate Bill 1030, signed by Governor Scott, on June 16, 2014 — licensed Florida physicians may order low-THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol) CBD (cannabidiol) cannabis oil, for patients who meet the State’s requirements.

Florida patients diagnosed with terminal conditions — defined as, "a progressive disease or medical or surgical condition that causes significant functional impairment, and is not considered by the treating physician to be reversible even with the administration of available treatment options currently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, and, without the administration of life-sustaining procedures, will result in death within one year after diagnosis, if the condition runs its normal course" — are legally permitted to obtain and consume low-THC cannabis, as per the State’s stipulations, in Section 381.986, Florida Statutes, as amended by Chapter 2016-123, Laws of Florida.

Has this changed?

 

[Floridian]

I wonder what qualifies as a low THC strain.So far it seems full of bogusness to me not that I wanted high THC strains for myself I can take care of that.High CBD strains are important and so is the other.

 

[Snook]

I wonder what qualifies as a low THC strain.So far it seems full of bogusness to me not that I wanted high THC strains for myself I can take care of that.High CBD strains are important and so is the other.

Do you think it possible that you might be able to run a better CBD strain yourself? Is there a strain with both a high(er) THC/a/b/fghi.. kidding.. and high(er) CBD... and at my age it cant be a bad thing to know about and have such seeds/plants on hand and available.. OH, and your age too

..

 

[rossta18]

There are definitely that are high in each. Give me a minute to find it, here somewhere

 

[Floridian]

I would jump at the chance to grow some high CBD strains for a dispensary providing they have the place and equip to do it.It would be difficult now taking care of mamsita but honestly I just love to grow the plant.I would never do high CBD in my casa though WTF would I do with it?I am into helping some folks with medical problems at this point,hell the plant sure has helped me with financial problems for a long time lol

 

[shaggyballs]

Florida Health Rules On Medical Marijuana Bolster The Heavily Regulated Status Quo
When Florida voters passed Amendment 2 with a 71 percent approval rate last November, they thought they were getting a widened medical marijuana marketplace that a large new swath of patients could access with less regulatory interference.

But the first set of new regulations proposed Tuesday by the Florida Department of Health would reinforce the preexisting regulatory structure, which allowed only a handful of farms to produce low-THC product for the Florida marketplace.

“I’d say the expected result was what just happened,” California attorney Matt Harrison told Watchdog.org. Harrison helped draft California’s Prop 64, which decriminalized adult use of cannabis in the state.

“In the political reality and how administrative agencies work, it’s very typical that they would do something like that because it’s the whole hammer and nail syndrome, where they would be given this authorization to regulate this new area and they would imagine that it gives them some sort of mandate to do it the exact same way they did it previously.”

Medical marijuana has been a hot topic in Florida for several years. In 2014, a ballot measure very similar to 2016’s successful Amendment 2 failed, but a decriminalization bill passed the legislature: the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014. The bill decriminalized low-THC cannabis use for a limited number of patients under strict guidelines. It also allowed for there to be only five carefully regulated medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

The 2014 bill also established a system in which the marketplace was vertically integrated. Under this structure, someone has to not only grow the product, but process it in-house and sell it.

“I don’t think the amendment calls for or contemplates that it has to be a vertically integrated structure, which is currently being proposed and which we currently operate under,” State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, told Watchdog. He identified vertical integration as one of the problems with the existing Florida medical marijuana market.

“If you’re good at growing, cultivating marijuana, you should be able to grow the product, but that doesn’t mean necessarily that you need to be good at retail. Conversely, if you’re good at retail, you don’t have to be necessarily good at growing.”

He argued the current proposal smacks of industry insiders trying to limit market access. “They want to control certain regions, they want to be able to limit competition, limit who can actually grow, produce and ultimately retail, sell medical marijuana in the marketplace. That is, by definition, a cartel.”

A system that artificially contracts production could mean problems for the expanded pool of patients for which Amendment 2 opened the floodgates.

“We are talking about a situation where there is going to be significant demand in the marketplace, and there is very likely not going to be sufficient supply,” Paul Armentaro, deputy director of marijuana law reform group NORML, told Watchdog.

Harrison concurred. “If you’re looking to provide a product to a larger subset of the population [vertical integration] is something that could cause a lot of bottlenecks in supply and is not something that would be considered efficient.”

However, Harrison believes the increased demand for product might help evolve the regulations.

“Ask the experts, anybody who’s familiar with the types of conditions the prior regime qualified for and what Amendment 2 is clearly encompassing or intending to encompass. It would create a need to supply the market in a new and different way.”

Of course, Florida lawmakers don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, with two decades of various forms of legal marijuana precedent to draw from in other states. Armentaro mentioned Colorado and Oregon as examples of more sophisticated marketplaces that Florida legislators could draw from, although the regulatory process has impeded the marketplace in those states as well.

Armentaro added that another provision of the proposed regulations goes against the promise of increased access of A2: the proposed set of qualifying medical conditions. He argued “the proposed rules take discretion away from the physician and instead leave it up to regulators to determine 10 arbitrary conditions.”

“What is not included in these conditions is chronic pain, the single condition for which the most patients currently use medical marijuana and the condition for which there is the largest volume of gold-standard clinical evidence showing that marijuana is safe and effective for,” Armentaro said, citing a recently released study by the National Academies.

Who figures?

In addition to state regulatory agencies, cities and municipalities are throwing moratoriums into the gears of Amendment 2, justifying the practice by citing the regulatory dispute over how the amendment will be enacted. According to Harrison, this is no surprise.

“It’s what happened in Colorado, too. It’s a really convenient excuse when there’s regulatory uncertainty or policy uncertainty and so the local governments kind of seize on that and say well we don’t want it unless someone else figures it out. And so the question is who does the figuring out.”

Another complicating issue involves Florida’s snowbirds and reciprocity between states. Jodi James, executive director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, told Watchdog, “I have thousands of people every year who come down from Michigan every year, Michigan, Ohio Illinois, Minnesota… they are all medically legal states. These people who come down for four months a year cannot use their medication legally in the state of Florida. There is no reciprocity for them.”

Legislators weigh in

State Sen. Bradley, R-Fleming Island, introduced a bill this month, proposed several days after the DOH guidelines were released, addressing some of the issues with the Department of Health rules.

The state currently licenses seven dispensing organizations. Bradley’s bill would increase that cap to 20, once there are 500,000 registered medical marijuana patients. However, it does not disrupt the vertically integrated dispensary structure.

The bill also explicitly expands access to patients with “chronic non-malignant pain,” and returns some of the discretionary power the DOH had assumed back to physicians while lowering the standards for becoming licensed to prescribe medical marijuana.

Another view for what Florida’s medical marijuana regulatory regime could look like will come from Brandes, who told Watchdog that a counter-bill with a more free-market slant will be introduced shortly.

“We need a structure that is something with high standards, high insurance requirements, high bonding requirements, that are letting legitimate players pick what portions of the market they actually want to participate in.”

He added the need to set standards that were “reasonable and rational” for what type of training physicians should undergo before being allowed to prescribe, which the Bradley bill likewise addresses.

The need for physician training was echoed by Armentaro, who added that many physicians hadn’t been previously exposed to medical marijuana education.

“Of course, more hurdles put in place could potentially limit the pool of doctors willing to participate in this system. For better or for worse, physicians are the gatekeepers.”

At the moment, only 1 percent of Florida doctors are licensed to prescribe medical marijuana.

Brandes said the upcoming regulatory dispute would boil down to a battle of ideas over what type of say government regulators should have over the marketplace.

“My hope is that the house, the governor and the FL senate will be consistent in its free-market philosophy on this topic,” Brandes said. “That they will make sure that whatever they do, that they’re allowing all Floridians to participate, not limiting it to a handful of folks who have the money to stop them at the legislative level.”