8:48

PM EST February 7, 2017 Jordan Ferrell

Florida begins rulemaking workshops on

medical cannabis
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With only ve months left to implement
regulations regarding Amendment 2, the Florida Department of Health
has begun rule development workshops this week in Duval County.

The not-so-subtle undertone of the workshops, thus far, has been to

avoid modeling impending legal de nitions after preexisting ones.

The rst of ve workshops were held on Monday afternoon at the Duval

County Health Department in Jacksonville. Every seat in the room was
lled with men and women of all ages and nationalities, by the time the
session began.

A majority of those in attendance had signed up at the door to o er a

public comment on the preliminary set of rules, which had been
released on Jan. 17. The proposed set of rules deviate little from those
listed in Florida Statute 381.986.

When comparing the two, only minor changes were made to

preexisting de nitions, as well as the addition of several new ones. For
example, the term “caregiver” will now hold the same de nition as
legal representative, as previously de ned.

The State of Florida has until September before they are legally
obligated to start registering new medical marijuana treatment centers
(MMTCs) and distributing identi cation cards to caregivers and
quali ed patients. The state has only until July, though, to produce a
set of “reasonable regulations,” outlining how they plan to proceed.

Those regulations will cover topics such as the annual renewal process
for both caregivers and patients, the registration process for MMTCs,
qualifying debilitating medical conditions and possession/supply
limits.
According to Christian Bax, Director of the O ce of Compassionate
Use, to get anything implemented of this gravity within nine months is
“very, very, very fast for the Florida government.”

Before turning over the oor to those who had come to share an
opinion on the proposed de nitions and regulations, he reminded the
room that the preliminary text being projected onto the wall was a
draft, not the nal product. Bax assured the crowd that the Department
of Health was simply there to listen to them for the next couple of
hours.

First round of public comments

“You make it so hard on us here, we about have to move to Colorado,”

said Randy Cheatum, a patient here in North Florida, who has sought
medical marijuana treatment for the past 20 years.

The State of Colorado, and how it has embraced and promulgated

medical cannabis laws, is something that was brought up several times
throughout the meeting, speci cally in regards to pricing of the
medicine here in Florida and its di culty of access.

As it stands, before getting a prescription lled, a patient must rst

register online with the State of Florida through the Department of
Health’s compassionate use registry and then be treated by a qualifying
physician for at least three months. Many who showed up to publicly
voice a concern mentioned how this 90-day waiting period is entirely
too long for those who are su ering.

“Quite frankly, I’m going to go out in the street and get it,” said Fred
Feldman, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma over 30 years
ago.

Feldman participated in clinical chemotherapy trials in an e ort to

eradicate the cancer, but the nausea and vomiting he experienced as a
side e ect made it impossible for him to eat. Feldman said, medical
marijuana helped him start to eat entire meals again and more
importantly, keep the food down.

Patient after patient stepped forward and voiced the same concern for
the three month waiting period, urging the Department of Health to
not adopt this restriction when formulating laws for Amendment 2.
The long road to decriminalization

Even those who were at one point skeptical about the bene ts of such
medicine showed up to tell the FDOH how they felt. Mark Bench, a
retired circuit judge and now business owner and advocate for medical
cannabis was not always so open to the use of such drugs. Twenty years
prior to his diagnosis with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD), Bench had put over 300 people in jail for marijuana-related
o enses.

Bench was hesitant to try the medicine his wife had brought to him,
while they were staying in Colorado, but after some convincing he
eventually gave in.

“For seven days I said, ‘I’m not taking that.’ On day seven my wife
came to me and said, ‘You’re either taking this or I’m leaving you.’ So, I
took it. I violated law. I violated everything I knew.”

According to Bench, two weeks later his conditions started getting

better. Then and there, he decided he would keep breaking the law and
start trying to change it by speaking out about the positive e ects of
this demonized drug.

“I was wrong, so very wrong,” Bench said. “Our whole government lied
to us about the fact that it’s medicinal, for 70 years. That made me
angry as hell.”

Bench and his wife now run an organization known as Rethink Green,
which specializes in education, research and advocacy for medical
cannabis. Bench said he doesn’t expect things to change overnight
though.

“We had it all wrong, and it’s not going to turn around in a year or
two,” Bench said. “It’s not going to turn around with this law. It’s ve
to ten years away.”

Patients want a free-market

One thing that was continually echoed throughout the course of the
workshop was the need for horizontal integration in regards to how
medical cannabis is produced, transported and sold. There are
currently only seven dispensaries in the state, with no indication of
more being approved by the Department of Health in the near future.

Consequently, this is driving up the prices of the limited medication

that is currently available. And those who are already having to pay
exaggerated prices for prescribed medicine are saying the state is
creating "medical marijuana cartels" by restricting the number of
licensed dispensaries.

Under the compassionate use statute, only businesses that have been
registered as a nursery in the State of Florida for the past 30
consecutive years are even allowed to apply for the license. A $5 million
performance bond is also required before it is all said and done.

A costly process for the select group of dispensaries who have already
received their license, but a pro table venture nonetheless. As it
stands, these seven dispensaries are required by law to grow, produce,
transport and dispense their own product. This is what's called vertical
integration or a closed-market.

E ectively, the sky is the limit right now for these dispensaries, due to
a lack of competition. The faster they can open up storefronts, the more
clientele they will reach.

Jonathan Carr, Deputy Director for the Northeast Florida chapter of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML),
spoke to the FDOH during the workshop and asked them to look to
states like Colorado in regards to implementing regulations. Carr said
he is hoping the State of Florida opens up and allows for a free-market.

“If you have a vertical integration with just seven dispensaries, or even
10 or 15 dispensaries across the whole state, that’s not going to be
enough,” said Carr. “A free-market enterprise is going to open us up to
a whole range of di erent businesses that are able to come into this, a
lot more money generated for the state and a lot more employment and
jobs.”

Senate Bill 614

Both Bench and Carr mentioned during public comment, a piece of

legislation that was recently introduced by Florida Senator Je rey
Brandes. If enacted, Senate Bill 614 would require independent
licensing for the cultivation, processing, transportation and retailing of
medical cannabis. Under SB 614, MMTCs could apply for just one
license or a combination of the four.

In addition, Brandes’ bill would remove the 30-year nursery experience

requirement and reduce the compliance bond amount to $1 million.
However, applicants intending to grow and produce medical cannabis
would have to provide proof of technical and technological knowledge
as it pertains to cultivation and testing. There would also be fees
assessed for the application process, licensing and the biennial renewal
for each of the four licenses.

“We can’t have one business doing everything,” said Carr. “A nursery
should grow the plant, a dispensary should dispense the plant and a
transportation company being able to transport the plant. All of that
should be licensed and regulated. There should be no problems behind
that as long as it is done correctly.”

Senator Brandes’ bill, if nothing else, should supply momentum to the

lengthy rulemaking process that lies ahead for the FDOH.

If you are interested in participating in one of the rulemaking

workshops this week, they will be held in Fort Lauderdale, Tampa,
Orlando and Tallahassee.

Viewed using Just Read