Florida Lawmakers May Cap Amount of THC in Medical Marijuana

Florida medical marijuana patients may be able to buy dry flower now, but lawmakers want to cap the THC levels in that dry flower. The House is discussing a proposal to cap THC levels at just 10%. A bill has not been filed, but the discussion has already been started.

Low-THC medical marijuana was approved in 2014, Orlando Weekly says. It’s unknown if the cap on THC would apply to all forms of medical marijuana. If this does become a bill, it’s not likely to be popular with patients or advocates.

Representative Ray Rodrigues said, “But it’s something we still think is important. We think there should be caps on THC”

Senate President Bill Galvano signaled that the Senate would be support of capping THC. He also commented that more information and what the caps would be need to be discussed. Galvano also questions what types of products the cap would apply to.

Ben Pollara said, “It’s absolutely insane that after finally relenting on their jihad against sick people smoking marijuana that the House would deem it appropriate to wage another unconstitutional war against the will of the 71 percent of Floridians who approved medical marijuana. These proposed caps are arbitrary, unnecessary and will hurt Florida patients if enacted.”

It seems that Florida lawmakers are confused as to how much THC is considered “medical” because there isn’t exactly a line between THC percentage and determining “medical or recreational”. People with more severe health conditions are likely to need more than 10% THC.

Rodrigues said, “There is clear evidence that shows that THC that is less than 10 percent is medically helpful. THC that’s greater than 10 percent is not medically helpful and in fact can be harmful.”

The lawmakers are banking on a study from Europe that only included 900 people. The study said that people that use marijuana daily were 3x more likely to experience a psychotic episode than non-marijuana users. In that study it also noted that high-potency marijuana doubled that risk.

Lawmakers also don’t seem to understand that there is more to a marijuana strain than just THC. There are other cannabinoids in marijuana – and their concentrations also matter.

Barry Gordon of Compassionate Cannabis Clinic said, “This attempt to focus on the concentration of the THC in the raw flower form is once again a lack of understanding that the legislators have because they haven’t reached out to enough clinicians who are doing this every day to understand some of those subtleties. It’s not about the THC percentage. In the medical world, that’s going to be a horrible, horrible slippery slope.”

Some lawmakers might try to sneak this THC cap into another piece of legislation – such as one to allow veterans to obtain free or heavily discounted medical marijuana cards.