By Duke London

 

In November, Florida passed medical marijuana legislation in a landslide victory, garnering 71 percent of the votes. However, many voters and lawmakers alike have been disappointed with how slow the Sunshine State has been to act on the landmark victory, as Governor Scott has appeared to stall at every turn.

The state’s official legislative session concluded on May 5 without arriving at any solid agreement for the implementation of medical marijuana regulations. To continue the discussion and maintain progress toward implementing medical marijuana legalization by the October deadline set forth in Amendment 2, a special legislative session would need to be called for lawmakers to resolve the issue.

Florida Governor Rick Scott dashed the hopes of many voters and lawmakers when he vetoed over $400 Million in new budget expenditures on Monday, including three projects that would have greatly expanded medical marijuana research in the state. The veto displayed a lack of urgency on the Florida Governor’s part to move forward with medical marijuana progress as mandated by the strong majority of voters, and many legislators were none too pleased.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, at least 15 bipartisan state representatives called for a special session to get to work on medical marijuana legislation and keep things on track for October, though it didn’t seem likely until this morning.

Early Wednesday, Florida lawmakers finally agreed to include medical marijuana discussions in the special legislative session with just hours to spare before the call was set to commence, according to FloridaPolitics.com.

Sources told the Miami Herald that Senator Rob Bradley (R-Fleming Island) will submit a Senate bill that would add a number of qualifying conditions to the approved medical marijuana access list, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, and PTSD. Sen. Bradley’s proposal also includes language that would expand the number of licensed cultivators in the state by ten from the already-approved seven. After the first year of implemented medical marijuana legalization, five new grower licenses could be issued per every new 100,000 patients in the state. A major point of contention in early regulation discussions was the number of dispensaries that each licensed grower could open. This newly proposed bill would allow each licensed grower to open 25 dispensary locations.

“Our constitutional duty is to ensure the availability and safe use of medical marijuana in the manner prescribed by Florida voters,” Bradley said in a statement. “This patient-first legislation will expand access to this medicine, while ensuring safety through a unified regulatory structure for each component of the process from cultivation to consumption.”