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Florida Governor: ‘I Absolutely Will Sign’ the Medical Marijuana Bill

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After a special session, Florida has finally agreed on a medical marijuana bill acceptable for the Legislature. Governor Scott says he will “absolutely” sign the bill. The bill gained passage on Friday.

The House vote was 103 – 9 and the Senate vote was 29 – 6, according to U.S. News & World Report. Florida has until October to enact laws for the medical marijuana program. It requires the laws to be in place no later than July 3.

Scott said, “They worked hard to get a bill that made sense. I think, in anything like this, there’s a process on how to make things better.”

Florida patients will be able to qualify for the program with a diagnosis of one or more of the 10 qualifying conditions. Both low-THC and full-strength medical marijuana will be available.

Representative Ray Rodrigues said, “Both sides did compromise, and we both got a deal we could live with that is very good policy.”

Smokable forms of medical marijuana remains prohibited. Senator Jeff Clemens says 90-percent of the state’s patients are used to marijuana in one form but the state isn’t wanting to provide that option. He says that banning smokable marijuana doesn’t institute the will of the voters.

Attorney John Morgan intends to sue the state for banning smokable medical marijuana.

Morgan said, “There are four places listed in the amendment that call for smoking. I don’t know why they would object to anyone on their death bed wanting to use what they wanted to relieve pain and suffering.”

Ben Pollara of Florida for Care is happy with the compromise.

He said, “The Legislature did their jobs today, providing good patient access to hundreds of thousands of sick and suffering Floridians. This bill isn’t perfect, but it’s a major step forward for patient access.”

In the compromise, it was decided that each medical marijuana center cannot operate more than 25 dispensaries. There will be no sales tax attached to medical marijuana purchases. Ten more growers will be awarded licenses by October.

Jake Bergmann of Suterra said, “There is a way to grow as patients grow (four new dispensaries per 100,000 patients). If you have something that grows as patient access grows, it is pretty smart.”

Florida’s medical marijuana program now has about 16,614 patients with expected growth to 472,000 patients by 2022. The projected sales by 2022 are $542-million.

Senator Rob Bradley thinks that medical marijuana will be an annual issue in the Legislature, similar to alcohol. Senator Jeff Brandes wants to see more competition in the market.

Brandes said, “People are just deeply frustrated. I think that is why you are seeing the Senate capitulate. I think we could have done a lot better than what is here. We’re setting ourselves up for the next 30 years to be fighting little battles.”