Medical marijuana bill moves closer to passing

Substantial changes to the Florida House version of medical marijuana rules bring it closer to the Senate bill — and closer to becoming law.

Bill sponsor state Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, said the changes were made in negotiations with the Senate and that “95 percent” of the bill represented negotiated positions.

“There’s a dueling path we have to walk here,” Rodrigues said. “We have to make it legal and available to Florida residents but we have to do it within the guidelines of the federal government.”

The House heavily edited its plan, allowing for edibles and vaping, as the Senate plan does. It also removed a rule requiring patients to have a 90-day relationship with their doctor before that doctor can recommend marijuana.

Rodrigues said that the final House version will ensure access while making sure that medical marijuana in Florida doesn’t become recreational marijuana in all but name.

“What we have would be one of the strictest qualifying standards in the entire country,” he said.

Among the new changes to the bill:

Chronic pain is now only covered if it results from a “qualifying medical condition.” Previously, the language had been “debilitating medical condition,” which could have been a back door to allowing access to medical marijuana for people with medical conditions not covered by the constitutional amendment.

Noneuphoric forms of marijuana can now be used in public. Public use of full-strength medical marijuana remains a misdemeanor.

Pregnant patients can now get noneuphoric, low-THC marijuana. Previously, they were banned from using marijuana at all.

The exam would-be caregivers are required to take is now for informational purposes only. One can fail the exam and still become a caregiver.

The number of medical marijuana growing licenses will increase by ten before July of next year. (There are currently seven licensed growers.) Then, four new licenses will be available for every 100,000 patients.

Several requirements to be a grower, such as having a nursery with 400,000 plants, have been removed. Now, one need only be in business in Florida for five years.

People who obtain licenses to grow and distribute medical marijuana will no longer be allowed to contract out the cultivation and dispensing of the plant.

The main sticking point between the House and the Senate versions of the bill is the Senate’s cap on three dispensaries per growing license. The House version has no limit on the amount of retail shops a grower can open.

“We’ve encouraged access by not capping dispensaries,” Rodrigues said.

Backers of the medical marijuana constitutional amendment still prefer the Senate version.

If the House version passes, “prices will be high, quality will be low, and choices will be few. Patients will be driven to the black market,” said Ben Pollara, who managed the campaign to get the constitutional amendment passed.

The House passed the bill 105-9, with the few no votes representing some of the most liberal and most conservative voices in the body.

“Leaving this system in place leaves us with a handful of marijuana cartels that benefit no one but their shareholders,” said state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. He also found fault with the bill’s ban on smoking.

State Rep. Julio Gonzalez, R-Venice, rejected the notion that there was any medical use for marijuana.

“Some of us may believe medical marijuana exists, but in fact you will find no scientific evidence,” he said.

The Senate has not yet voted on its medical marijuana legislation, but its bill has cleared all its committees and awaits only a floor vote.

The legislative session is supposed to end Friday, but could go longer as budget negotiators have not yet completed their work and produced a state budget, the one required action of the legislative session.

The two chambers will have to agree on a single version before passing it on to the governor to be signed into law.