Dispensary marks new medical era
Tallahassee company sells smokable marijuana legally in Florida for first time
A medical marijuana company on Thursday became the first in the state to sell smokable pot legally, setting off a new era of medicine in Florida.
Trulieve, which has 26 dispensaries in Florida, including one near College Park in Orlando, sold smokable whole flower buds to a patient in Tallahassee.
“Offering these whole flower products to our patients in their purest, most-effective form is something we — and patients — have been looking forward to since we opened the doors of the state’s first dispensary,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said in a news release.
In Tallahassee, Doug Dixon, 59, bought “Tru Flower,” which he will use to treat pain he suffers from his fibromyalgia, the News Service of Florida reported. Dr. Cheryl Fee approved the drug for him.
“I didn’t know if I would ever see it in my time,” he said. “But it is good to see it. It is good to have the alternative. These pharmaceuticals are killing people. I have lost so many family members.”
Dixon became the first in the state to legally buy smokable cannabis days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into a law allowing smokable medical marijuana in Florida.
Along with Trulieve, the dispensary Curaleaf, which has two locations in Orlando, also was approved for the sale of smokable marijuana Thursday.
Trulieve, which in a news release said it would sell smokable marijuana statewide, could not be reached for comment.
Trulieve offers smokable flower buds in several strains and plans to expand its offerings to including pre-rolled marijuana. The expanded availability of these products should drive costs down, Rivers has said.
The Office of Medical Marijuana recently announced that 190,000 people have registered as medical marijuana patients with an active ID card. That’s alongside 2,000 registered physicians authorized to order marijuana for their patients.
Businesses have been anticipating approval of smokable medical marijuana for months, saying they would offer it to patients as soon as state regulators approved of its sale.
The approval could mark a monumental shift in the industry from patients seeking smokable marijuana through the black market to one that sees patients streaming into local dispensaries as they do into grocery stores and gas stations.
Under the new law, patients can purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana for smoking every 35 days and have a total of four ounces in their possession at any time, if their doctors deem it the proper treatment.