Florida Senator Seeks to Expand State’s Medical Marijuana Program

Senator Rob Bradley proposed changes to Florida’s medical marijuana program, one of which would make it easier for doctors to order medicine for their patients. It would also increase the number of medical marijuana licenses in the state.

Up to 20 more medical marijuana dispensaries may be approved to operate, according to The Ledger. The increase in licensed dispensing organizations, as the state calls them, would be implemented when the patient base reaches 500,000. That magic number could be reached by the end of 2017, as Christian Bax predicts.

Senate Bill 406 (SB 406) removes the amount of time that a patient has to be treated by a doctor to be able to apply for medical marijuana to 45 days. It would ban edibles that would be appealing to children. The amount of medicine a patient would be permitted to purchase would be expanded to a 90-day limit rather than a 45-day limit.

Language in the bill is included to allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana for chronic pain.

In response, Bradley said, “There is a question about how we handle generalized chronic pain. This clarifies that.”

Stepping-stone increases in dispensing locations/cultivators/producers would increase gradually as the patient base increases. Some believe this will not be sufficient as they expect the patient base to grow rapidly.

Ben Pollara, Amendment 2 backer, said, “I don’t think it’s a significant enough expansion of licenses, nor a quick enough one to serve what’s going to be a quickly growing patient base. It’s not a perfect piece of legislation, but I think it’s a good start considering it’s the first bill released in either chamber.”

Complaints about the increase in license numbers haven’t been circulating yet. Further legislative discussions regarding SB 406 haven’t been scheduled yet.