The legalization of medical marijuana made progress in Florida on Dec. 17, 2015, when Florida’s Supreme Court “issued an advisory opinion on the initiative petition on the subject.” Florida’s voters will vote in 2016 on the issue as outlined by the petition submitted by People United for Medical Marijuana (PUMM). However, PUMM will need to gather the correct amount of signatures by the end of the year.
The proposed measure would require that the Department of Health formulate a way for the registration of Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers (MMTC). Also, the measure asks that the MMTCs be allowed to acquire, grow, own, process, transfer, sell, dispense or tend to marijuana. In addition, the Department of Health would allow for a multitude of “related products” to be sold through the MMTCs, including “food, tinctures, oils, or ointments” where marijuana is an ingredient.
Those who qualify for medicinal products will be those that have a “debilitating medical condition” from a list of ten conditions specifically named in the petition. In addition, to those ten conditions would be any condition “of the same kind or class as or comparable to those enumerated, and for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient.”
However, laws in Florida need a financial impact statement for a filing such as that. The impact statement submitted to the attorney general connected to this petition has noted that “additional regulatory costs and enforcement activities” connected with the new trade will exist albeit fees “may offset some thereof.”
One of the problems tackled by the court’s opinion comes from Article XI, sect. 3, of Florida’s constitution, which says that a suggested amendment “shall embrace but one subject and matter directly connected therewith.” The court may have made more difficulties for the medical marijuana industry if it were to tell the attorney that, for instance, allowance for the use of medical marijuana is one “subject” and the creation of a framework under the Department of Health is another.
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