Surterra drops suit, will open medical pot dispensary today
A medical marijuana dispensary will be allowed to open on Orange Avenue, south of downtown, after all. Surterra has dropped a lawsuit it filed last month challenging Orlando’s medical cannabis ordinance. It will hold a grand opening today at 2 p.m. at its store near Orlando Health. It will join Knox Cannabis Dispensary on Orange Avenue south of Princeton Street and Trulieve Orlando on Orange Blossom Trail at Lee Road as dispensaries within city limits.
“[The store] is already in the medical district and it’s on the opposite side of the city from our two competitors,” said Surterra vice president Nick Monette. “Being centrally located, Orlando is definitely a place we do a lot of deliveries.”
Orlando planning official Dean Grandin Jr. sent Monette a letter last week giving the company a green light to open. The memo transferred the city’s approval for a dispensary at 2445 Edgewater Drive to 1743 S. Orange Ave.
The lawsuit was filed in Orange Circuit Court and asked for a judge to rule Orlando’s law as “invalid and unenforceable,” after the city decided Surterra couldn’t open its center on Orange Avenue because of its proximity to the residential neighborhood.
Under Florida law, local governments were allowed to either ban medical cannabis centers or could approve them, but regulate them no stricter than pharmacies.
However, Orlando passed its rules before state legislators approved their own in June 2017 and believed its ordinance would be grandfathered in. The city ordinance prohibits centers within 200 feet of a residential zoning district, 1,000 feet of a religious facility, school, park or within a mile of another medical cannabis facility.
But now with an approval in hand, Surterra is looking forward to its grand opening, where it will have cannabis vaporizer pens, oils, patches and sprays on display.
“Anybody can walk into our store,” Monette said. “The whole purpose of our store is to make everything feel less like a transaction and more of an education. We’re trying to change people’s minds about what they think of medical cannabis.”