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Lawsuit filed over medical marijuana smoking ban

A lawsuit filed Thursday would give patients the right to smoke medical marijuana in their own homes, a practice the Legislature recently banned.

The legal ways to administer medical marijuana are vaping, oils, edibles and other delivery systems.

John Morgan, the Orlando attorney who largely financed both the 2014 and 2016 attempts to get a medical marijuana amendment before Florida voters, carried out a months-long threat Thursday morning as he filed a lawsuit in Leon County Circuit Court over the new law’s ban on smoking marijuana.

The constitutional amendment voters passed in November includes a ban on smoking marijuana in public places. But the Legislature, in passing a law implementing the amendment, banned all smoking of medical marijuana. Proponents of the ban said smoking is unhealthy and a poor way to measure the proper dosage of a medication.

But the lawsuit (which can be read in full here) cites a 2012 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found marijuana smoking increased lung capacity and did not impair lung function, “based on the doses inhaled by the majority of users, as compared to non-smokers and tobacco smokers.”



Morgan is frustrated that critics of the constitutional amendment, who promised nervous voters they’d see pot smoking everywhere if the amendment passed, are now saying the amendment allows them to ban it entirely.

“The amendment said smoking was not allowed in public places. I don’t think you have to be too much of a scholar to understand that that means it is allowed in private,” Morgan said. “I don’t know how much simpler it can be than that.”

Lawmakers who crafted the bill, including the sponsor, House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, said that a public ban on smoking in the amendment did not preclude them from adding a ban on private smoking as well, and that if Morgan and the other crafters of the amendment had wanted to allow it in private, it should have been specifically stated in the bill.

“I don’t know what he does for a living, but I would never hire someone that dumb, that that’s their deductive reasoning,” Morgan said.

Rodrigues works at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he is budget manager for the College of Arts and Sciences, according to the university’s website.



The lawsuit not only challenges the ban on smoking, but also claims that, by instituting the ban, the Legislature put itself in the position of making medical decisions for patients rather than the doctor doing so. That violates the amendment’s definition of “medical use,” according to the lawsuit.

While Morgan is confident of victory, he also says he has a solid Plan B.

“If they piss me off too much, I’ll address the smoking issue by having a constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana,” he said. “If I lose in court, I’ll go through all the marijuana people I know, it won’t take a lot of money, and we will move to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Then they’ll really be sorry they pushed me.”

Go get 'em, Morgan. Chew them a new orifice. Go boy, go! :torching::smackdown:
 
Orlando Delays Medical Marijuana Retail Ban
The city of Orlando has delayed a vote on whether or not to ban new medical marijuana retail outlets.

Under current zoning, medical marijuana retail centers could go anywhere a Walgreens can go in Orlando. But the city required them to be a mile apart to prevent clustering, and allowed a maximum of seven dispensaries in the city.

That zoning came before the legislature passed a bill stripping local governments from putting those kinds of restrictions on the books. So a proposed ordinance could ban them all together.

That vote was pushed back to the next meeting, though.

“During the special session, the legislature passed a state law that would give us the opportunity to have an infinite number of dispensaries or no dispensaries,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said. “We’re taking a look at whether we can simply look at the ordinance we passed before there was state legislation or not, and Kyle and the legal team will give us an answer to that in the next couple weeks.”

City Commissioner Patty Sheehan is against banning dispensaries. She said she talks with residents with HIV and cancer who need medical marijuana.

“This is just an oil to help them with their medical needs,” Sheehan said. “I think we need to think about being compassionate toward others. I’m glad we took the prohibition off today. I support dispensing medical marijuana and cannabis to those who need it.”

Orlando has one existing medical marijuana retail outlet: Knox Nursery in Ivanhoe Village. If the city were to ban medical marijuana retail outlets, it could be grandfathered in.
 
It gave me goosebumps. To have a judge who has prosecuted hundreds be brought to tears.. suppression for 70+ years ... You wonder why it's gone this long and still such a stigma against it in the eyes of federal government.
There is not a single aspect of this that passes the 'rational' test....that and our politicians (all of them, IMO) are a bunch of self-serving, risk avoiding, poll driven ass-hats who wouldn't know how to lead a flock of sheep much less the country.

Then, of course, there is that part of the original prohibition that was motivated by prejudice and a desire to keep "blacks" in check. Really asinine.
 
Florida's Medical Marijuana Registry Adds 10000 Patients


More than 10,000 people have joined Florida's Medical Marijuana Registry in the last month and a half, a period that saw a medical marijuana expansion law passed, signed by Gov. Scott and implemented by the Florida Dept. of Health.

  • 26,968 people on Florida's medical marijuana registry
  • More than 10,000 joined since June 7
  • Number of entries important for licensing centers
In the latest update by the Office of Medical Marijuana Use on July 27, the patient count for the drug was 26,968.

That's up over 10,000 from the update on June 7, when the office reported 16,760 patients. June 7 is the day the Florida Legislature convened a special session, which included a bill to expand medical marijuana in Florida.

The June 7 report was also the first time the state made public the number of people registered for medical marijuana use.The number of patients is important. There are currently seven medical marijuana treatment centers in the state, with a few more to be licensed in the next few months. When the registry hits 100,000 patients, the state will license up to 4 additional MMTCs, with four more allowed every time the state adds another 100,000 patients.

The state's medical marijuana expansion law was based off Amendment 2, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November 2016.
 
GREAT ARTICLE IN POLITICO ABOUT MORGAN AND MMJ IN FL...PLUS SOME OTHER STUFF. GO GET EM, MORGAN!! :BangHead::smackdown::whipit::torching:


Can Weed Make John Morgan Governor of Florida?
The Orlando attorney turned medical marijuana into the most popular item on the November ballot. Can he do the same for himself?

By JAMES HIGDON
August 01, 2017

On November 8, it seemed like John Morgan got everything he had ever wanted out of politics. His amendment to make medical marijuana legal in Florida, an effort he had championed for the previous four years, had passed with more than 70 percent of the vote, the kind of winning margin that thoroughbred horse owners like Morgan daydream of.

When Morgan began this quest in 2014, the upper echelon of the Democratic Party donor class informed him it would be impossible to legalize medical marijuana in Florida; this isn’t Colorado, he was told. Morgan responded to that pessimism by pumping nearly $9 million of his own money since 2014 into his effort, known as Amendment 2. He barnstormed the state by bus and, in one celebrated appearance, delivered a profanity-peppered speech with a drink in his hand at a Lakeland saloon called Boots N Buckles that helped to set the medical marijuana issue on fire in the Sunshine State.


In the end, Amendment 2 beat the 60-percent threshold by 11 points, recording 2 million more votes than Donald Trump got in a state that he won. In a post-election news conference on the morning after, when political outsiders were suddenly in vogue, the eminently quotable Morgan, a longtime critic of business-as-usual in Tallahassee, did little to tamp down speculation that he might parlay his victory into a bid for the governor’s mansion.

“If I were king of Florida, I would walk through the prisons and release everyone in there for possession alone,” Morgan said at the news conference. “Everyone.”

But after Morgan took his Daytona-style victory lap, he did what he does every year—he went on a long vacation to the Caribbean, the beaches of north Florida and Keeneland race course in Kentucky. When he returned home in early 2017, as the Legislature was in full swing, he discovered that what he called “my amendment” was being roughed up by conservative Tallahassee lawmakers who had little interest in seeing legalized marijuana—medicinal or otherwise—get a toehold in their state. It was in their hands, not voters’, to decide how the amendment would be implemented, and it was clear that they were interpreting the language of Morgan’s amendment as narrowly as possible.

“Hey, we’re going to deny you this,” an indignant Morgan said, mimicking his political adversaries. “You won, but you’re not going to win.”

Ultimately it would take a special session for the Legislature to pass a bill, but the final product infuriated Morgan because it denied people the right to smoke marijuana as part of their treatment. Several days after the law went into effect on July 1, Morgan promptly filed a lawsuit, claiming that kindergartners could understand the language of his amendment better than Republican leaders in Tallahassee.

All the name-calling seems only to have revived the speculation that Morgan could run for governor in 2018. This could be wishful thinking on the part of reporters who relish the salty accessibility of a cigar-chomping, bourbon-loving personal injury lawyer who is the very opposite of the robot-like media-hating conservative who has occupied the governor’s mansion for the past 6½ years. It is a possibility that Morgan won’t rule out, mostly because he doesn’t need to make a decision yet. Besides, he may not even need to. Morgan is having a political impact on the state that is greater than any nonpolitician in Florida. And the speculation about his potential run in 2018 proceeds whether he encourages it or not.

“I think he’d be hard to beat, honestly, Republican or Democrat,” Stephani Scruggs Bowen, former director of Florida field operations for the Trump campaign, told POLITICO Magazine. “Everybody knows his face and his voice. And plus, he comes across as a guy who everybody, regardless of party lines, would like to sit down and have a beer with. Because he’d be a hell of a lot of fun. And that makes him hard to beat, on any issue. And the fact that he’s also plain spoken, has a tendency to speak for the little guy, makes him come off as a lot like Trump.” As a Trump supporter, she meant that as a compliment.

Morgan might well be the most formidable Florida politician not in public office. His wealth, which he once described as somewhere “north of Mitt Romney,” combined with off-the-charts name recognition from more than a decade of saturation advertising for his national law firm, and a strong Twitter game, gives his array of populist pet causes—restoring voting rights to nonviolent felons; criminal justice reform; and full legalization of marijuana—instant credibility. Whether he runs for governor or not, he’s already gearing up for his next big fight: a constitutional amendment to increase the minimum wage. Morgan doesn’t know what the dollar figure will be but, but he’s got a date in mind: 2020.

“That’s the reason for the anger that we were seeing in the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump supporters,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine. “That the harder they worked, the further they fell behind. And it’s not a Republican or a Democrat issue. It’s just a people issue.”

***

John Morgan grew up in a poor Catholic family in Kentucky; his family moved to Florida when he was a teenager. While at law school at the University of Florida, his younger brother injured himself in a diving accident while working as a lifeguard at Disney World, paralyzing him for life. Morgan still considers that day “the single worst day” of his life.

In 1988, at 32 years old, John Morgan co-founded Morgan Colling and Gilbert in Orlando. In the 1990s, when advertising by lawyers was still considered unseemly, Morgan defined legal branding with a relentless advertising campaign (“For the people”) that ultimately would stretch up the Eastern Seaboard to Boston and across the South to New Orleans. His firm now has offices in 40 cities in 11 states, a staff of 350 attorneys and 2,300 paralegals and supporting staff, and annual gross revenue of $1 billion, according to Morgan. In 2005, the other founding partners parted ways, and John Morgan renamed the firm Morgan & Morgan (the second Morgan is his wife, Ultima; they met at law school in Gainesville). A self-described “deal junkie,” Morgan reinvested his law firm’s successes into myriad other business ventures, including a software company, real estate projects, apartments, assisted living facilities, Marriott hotels, three thoroughbred race horses, and a chain of tourist attractions called WonderWorks, which are designed to look like upside-down houses. The list goes on. “I am an entrepreneur on steroids,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine.

Since 2005, Morgan has made a name for himself as a high-dollar Democratic donor. In early October 2006, just as Democrats were poised to take the U.S. Senate in what President George W. Bush would later call “a thumpin’” Morgan gave the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee $26,700. Every year since, he’s given at least $15,000 a year to various Democratic congressional campaigns, and not just in Florida and D.C. He has given thousands of dollars to campaigns in Nevada, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Minnesota and Wisconsin. At the state level, Morgan gives to candidates in both parties: “I am ecumenical,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine, regarding his donations to Republicans.

Then in 2013, Morgan decided he wanted to get out front on an issue that was close to his family but stymied by Florida politics. Early that year, Morgan had lunch at the Dexter’s in Lake Mary with Ben Pollara, a Democratic fundraiser and campaign consultant who knew the story about the diving accident that left Morgan’s brother paralyzed, and that he smoked marijuana to relieve his muscle spasms. Over lunch, Pollara convinced Morgan that Florida could legalize medical marijuana by constitutional amendment even though an amendment required 60 percent of the vote. Morgan took it to heart and dove into it headlong for 2014, spending more than $4 million of his own money.

“The first go-around, even when I took the lead on it, I expected to turn around and have a bunch of progressives following me with some money,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine. “It’s almost like I went out of the front gate with my trombone expecting to see a full band marching behind me, and I turned around and there was a monkey with a cymbal and that was it. So, I had to start putting in a lot more money than I had ever signed up for that day at Dexter’s, but I’m competitive. I believed in it.”

His amendment would have likely won the necessary 60 percent in 2014 if the Florida Legislature hadn’t passed a very limited low-THC medical marijuana bill that session, which effectively took some of the urgency out of Morgan’s effort. On Election Day that November, Morgan’s initiative fell just short with 58 percent of the vote. Gov. Rick Scott won reelection that year with 48 percent, 10 points behind marijuana.

Morgan took some consolation from the loss. “It showed a lot of people that in Florida, which I believe is the bellwether state of America, that it was possible, that more than a majority believed it in,” Morgan told POLITICO. Throughout the 2014 campaign, Morgan had told Pollara that “this is it, this is our one shot.” Then that August, Morgan gave his now-famous Boots N Buckles speech laced with salty talk, which resulted in headlines like, “Attorney John Morgan makes obscenity-laced campaign stop.”

As soon as it was clear they had lost on election night, Morgan and Pollara sent an email to supporters declaring their intention to try again in 2016. For the second round, Morgan liked his chances even better. “I knew there would be a presidential election where turnout in Broward and Dade [counties] would be historic,” he told me, and he was right.

***

There’s a long history in Florida of constitutional amendments passing at the ballot box only to run into resistance from the legislators who never wanted to deal with the issue in the first place. But the Legislature has to pass the so-called enabling law that implements whatever voters have demanded, and this gives them a great deal of leeway to sandbag, undermine, or just plain ignore the will of 60 percent of the state’s voters. It has happened on issues ranging from high-speed rail to renewable energy to redistricting. And in each case, the Republican-controlled Legislature has implemented those amendments in ways to render them practically worthless. Morgan’s marijuana amendment, as wildly popular as it was, was no different.

“This is not new to Florida,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine, referring to the Legislature’s failure to implement amendments fairly. “It’s why the politicians in this state are despised. Nobody admires them.”

In the case of Morgan’s medical marijuana amendment, the Republican bills in both chambers began as nonsmoking bills, designed to deny advocates like Morgan the sort of medical marijuana dispensaries that are now commonplace in Western states. The House bill was even more tedious, with a 90-day waiting period for patients, restrictions on doctors, and a licensing structure that was intended to create a cartel of fewer than 10 licenses for a statewide industry valued at over $1 billion. As a means of comparison, Colorado, with a quarter of the population of Florida, has 776 licensed cultivators for its medical marijuana market alone (and another 670 licenses for recreational).

As the legislative session drew to a close in early May, the House and Senate had agreed to implement a no-smoking version of the law without the 90-day wait, but at the last minute, negotiations collapsed over the number of licenses, leaving the marijuana bill among Tallahassee’s unfinished business along with the state’s $83 billion budget. In the days after the failure of the regular session, Morgan raged on Twitter and in the press, bashing friend and foe alike for failing to get even the most basic job done. He took particular aim at Pollara, who had been with him since the beginning. In Morgan’s mind, it had been Pollara’s job to get a bill out of the Legislature. On Twitter, Morgan referred to Pollara using a Fredo Corleone GIF, and in another tweet, suggested that Pollara had “#SoldHisSoulForABowlOfRIce.” Pollara was shaken by it. “It was among the most difficult 72 hours of my life, for sure,” Pollara told POLITICO Magazine.

On May 9, Morgan posted a nine-minute video to his Twitter account, urging legislative leaders in Tallahassee to call a special session to finish their work on implementing medical marijuana. It took lawmakers nearly a month to put marijuana on the special session docket.

“I browbeat them into coming back and finishing the job,” Morgan said, taking credit for convening a special session, even though it was a certainty because the budget had to be settled as well. “I don’t think those politicians could have survived if they had left this alone. I mean, Rick Scott is running for U.S. Senate. He had incentive to come back. [Speaker of the House] Richard Corcoran is running for governor. He had an incentive to come back … And I raised total hell about it until they did come back.”

In June, when the GOP-led House and Senate finally reconvened for extra time in Tallahassee, they quickly passed a no-smoking marijuana implementation bill. GOP leaders based the no-smoking bill on an interpretation of Morgan’s amendment that was as unforgiving as possible.

Back in 2014, when Morgan debated sheriffs over this issue, the sheriffs told Morgan they were concerned that people would smoke marijuana in public. So, in the 2016 amendment, Morgan included language that said smoking in public would not be allowed, in order to placate the sheriffs. But since he didn’t explicitly state in the bill that smoking in private would be allowed, the Republican leadership interpreted it to mean that smoking would not be allowed at all. House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues made the point repeatedly that smoking of marijuana was not an acceptable medical use.

“Ray Rodrigues is the type of politician that gives all politicians a bad name,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine. “I mean, think about it: I’m saying you can’t smoke in public, which means you can smoke at home. ‘You can’t smoke in public’ does not mean you can’t smoke.”

On Twitter, Morgan banged the drum with a #NoSmokeIsAJoke hashtag, promising legal action against the law as written. The no-smoke law took effect on July 1, and immediately after the July 4th holiday, Morgan did what he had threatened to do for weeks—he flew to Tallahassee and filed suit against the state of Florida for bad-faith implementation of his amendment. This is not what Morgan had expected he’d be doing some nine months after his landslide win, but he’s not unhappy about it.

“The publicity to me, before the whole thing is over, I will be above the fold [of newspapers] 50 times in Florida, I’ll be below the fold probably another 50 times … It could mean to me tens of millions of dollars in free publicity for doing what’s right,” he told POLITICO Magazine.

The question is: Publicity for what?

***

Marijuana, as a political issue, has long been a stepchild in Democratic Party politics, with most baby boomer-era Democratic candidates still too chastened by the Willie Horton ads run against Michael Dukakis in 1988 to back any issue that Republicans could use to label them as “soft on crime.” But Morgan isn’t shy about it in the least. No major party candidate for statewide office, maybe anywhere in America, has launched a credible campaign built around advocacy for marijuana law reform, but no candidate is quite like John Morgan.

“Wherever I go, the grocery store, gas station, drug store—it’s amazing the people who come up to me and thank me. Over and over and over again, when I’m out in public,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine, regarding the feedback he’s received for his advocacy for medical marijuana.

The speculation that Morgan might turn that wellspring of good vibrations into run for governor of Florida in 2018 began immediately after his win. Pollara launched a “Draft Morgan” website called ForTheGovernor.com to sign a petition to draft Morgan into the 2018 gubernatorial race. In April, Charlie Crist joined the pro-Morgan chorus. Crist, the former governor of Florida, former employee of Morgan & Morgan, and current congressman from St. Petersburg, gave his thoughts on Morgan’s potential candidacy to CBS Miami’s “Facing South Florida” host Jim DeFede, saying “He could be a great governor … I told him, I said, ‘If you run, I think you’ll win.’ And I believe that … ”

Nine months after his November victory, Morgan is no closer to officially declaring his candidacy for governor. But he and Pollara have patched things up and launched a new campaign to pass a constitutional amendment to raise Florida’s minimum wage. They have already engaged the signature gatherers.

“I hope to have that well on its way before the end of summer, for 2020,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine. “The lesson I learned from this last time is that the chance for success is much greater in a general election than off year.”

The minimum wage issue is an interesting one for Morgan, a man who hobnobs with Florida’s ultrarich and flies where he pleases in his private jet. But Morgan & Morgan has also been generous to a food bank in Orlando that now bears the firm’s name. “It’s a 100,000-square-foot food bank that feeds 250,000 people a month,” Morgan told POLITICO. “It’s unconscionable that people go out and do the right thing and get the wrong results, which is begging for free food. You leave your grocery store in your uniform to go to the food bank to get free food,” Morgan said. “You can’t afford the food at the store you work in. How demoralizing would that be?”

So what are this guy’s chances, exactly, of remaking Florida politics in his image with a credible run for governor?

“I’m not going to make that decision until next year,” Morgan told me. “I believe, strategically, for me, it’s better to wait almost to the very end because every time I do a radio show—I mean, like today, I did a bunch of radio. But I could do radio shows all day long. I could do television shows all day long. If I was a candidate, all the other candidates would be saying, ‘We need equal time.’ OK, so why would I give up that advantage?”

Name recognition cuts both ways, say some longtime Florida political observers.

“His name ID is not going to be a problem because of his omnipresence on TV’s across the state for many years,” Peter Brown, a pollster for Quinnipiac who lives in Orlando, told POLITICO Magazine by telephone. “The question is favorable vs. unfavorable name ID. Is his name ID an asset or a liability?” For a trial lawyer who shows up on your television whether you want him there or not, it’s a fair question.

Unlike most politicians, Morgan has been buying TV ads in Florida for his own business for the past 30 years: “Look, I’m buying in most markets, so I know where they all are and how expensive they all are. I think I would go places and do things that most political candidates would never think of doing. They basically all have the same playbook, and their consultants and TV buyers come in and they all buy the same thing and do the same thing, and most of them lose … So I can’t think of a better media consultant in Florida than me,” Morgan told POLITICO Magazine.

Republicans in Florida are taking him seriously, or at least pretending to. While speaking to a women’s group in Fort Myers on the Monday after Morgan filed his lawsuit, Rodrigues called Morgan the “front-runner to be the Democratic nominee for governor” and took pleasure in the fact that in Morgan’s Tallahassee news conference, he had “attacked me by name 12 times for being too conservative. Sounds like a great day in the office to me.”

Corcoran, Florida’s speaker of the house and Rodrigues’ boss, was a little more circumspect: “John has been a friend ever since I beat him in a free-throw contest. He’s talented. He’s charismatic. And he will win the Democratic primary, if he runs.”

It was almost as if Republicans are goading Morgan into the ring because they think he would be easier to beat than a more traditional Democrat. But by messing with a bull like Morgan, Florida Republicans run the risk of getting the horns. For others watching from the bleachers as the 2018 Florida gubernatorial field takes shape, the time for an outsider populist running as a Democrat could not be better.

“I think Morgan is running for governor to cement his legacy after a successful career,” said Kevin Sweeny, operations director at the Florida Justice Association, the state’s trial lawyers trade group.

“If you look back, I think you have to call him a visionary,” Sweeny told POLITICO Magazine from a pay phone in the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park while on vacation. “Now he’s trying to raise the minimum wage? I’m sure he’s got a plan. Just like he had with marijuana. He has a plan.”

The next certain item on John Morgan’s political agenda is a court date for his lawsuit against the state over whether to allow smoking as part of Florida’s newly enacted medical marijuana program. The state has until August 21 to respond, so Morgan’s day in court will likely happen in September or October. “I feel pretty good about it,” Morgan told me.
 
Florida’s Health Department Issues 2 More MMJ Licenses

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Department of Health has licensed two more medical marijuana treatment centers.

Spokeswoman Mara Gambinieri said on Tuesday that Plants of Ruskin and 3 Boys Farm have received their letters of approval. Both of the Ruskin-based nurseries won an administrative challenge in May when a judge ruled that the winning nursery in the region should have been ineligible due to ownership changes.

The Florida Legislature granted the approval of 10 new licenses by the end of the year as part of a bill implementing rules for the state’s medical marijuana constitutional amendment. Three more are due by the end of the week, and the remaining five by Oct. 3. That would give the state 17 medical marijuana dispensers.
 
Banking on Pot: Why This Bank Is the 1st in Florida to Accept Marijuana Money
There aren't any banks in the state currently serving medical marijuana dispensaries for fear of losing their FDIC licenses.

Orlando-based First Green Bank is taking a major risk that no other bank is doing in the state — it’s accepting medical marijuana money.

Banks have been steering clear of the hassle and headache of being put under a microscope by the U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security, but First Green Bank is taking on the industry head on.

“As far as we know, we are the only one in the industry banking with marijuana dispensaries,” Ken LaRoe, founder and chairman of First Green Bank, told Orlando Business Journal.

There currently aren’t any true guidelines for how a bank should go about doing business with marijuana dispensaries. “There is no rule or law because it’s federally illegal,” LaRoe said.

However, there are U.S. Department of Justice guidelines the bank follows. “We don’t ever touch the cash or allow [dispensaries] to deposit it,” LaRoe said. “We require them to use the armored car service we have vetted to go to the dispensaries.”

LaRoe explained the armored trucks p ick up the cash directly from the dispensary and carry it to the nearest Federal Reserve location — First Green Bank never has to touch it, the cash never comes into the bank’s facility.

“We track their inventory from seed to sale,” LaRoe said, adding that part of the bank's responsibility is to make sure all the sales are done legally.

It took the bank roughly two years to implement the robust system in place, said Lex Ford, First Green Bank’s senior vice president of the medical marijuana division. First Green Bank currently banks with six of the seven licensees in Florida, including Trulieve, Green Solutions and Surterra. (See the photo gallery for a look inside Knox Medical's Orlando cannabis dispensary.)

LaRoe said the bank has processed about $30 million in deposits from marijuana companies, however, that’s small compared the the bank's overall $479.38 in total deposits from all customers in 2016. LaRoe said the medical marijuana deposits would have to reach about $40 million before the bank would start making money from the industry.

So why take such a major risk with so little return?

It all came from a personal experience of LaRoe’s wife. She was in a bicycling accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury. After the accident, she also developed a seizure disorder. "A friend of ours said 'come by my house and try some marijuana.' The marijuana helped stop her seizures,” LaRoe said. He also said his 78-year-old dad had seizures and he was able to get off his medicine by using marijuana.

LaRoe expects business to pick up as more licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries are awarded in Florida. The legal marijuana market was valued at $7.2 billion in 2016 and it's expected to grow 17 percent annually, according to OnPointStockAlert.com.
 
Wow, wrt MMJ....FL is making me be actually glad I live in MD. LOL

Florida cities face 'all or nothing' choices on medical marijuana


Florida cities and counties are in a dilemma about pot.

State lawmakers approved regulations in June that left city and county officials with a Hobson's choice about the sale of medical marijuana in their communities.

Local governments can either impose outright bans on medical-marijuana dispensaries or allow unlimited numbers of marijuana retail outlets, under an “all or nothing” approach approved during a special legislative session.

Dozens of cities have approved or are considering temporary moratoriums on medical- marijuana dispensaries, but it's unknown exactly how many local governments have acted on the issue, because nobody —- including state health officials —- is officially keeping track.



Marijuana operators' search for retail space has bloomed after voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in November that legalized marijuana for a broad swath of patients with debilitating medical conditions.

The scramble for retail outlets is expected to intensify as the number of marijuana operators continues to increase, and as local governments seek ways to restrain the sales of cannabis in their communities, at least for now.

As another result of the legislation approved during the June special session, state health officials recently authorized five new medical marijuana operations, on top of the seven businesses already active in the state. Five more are supposed to come online in October.

Nearly 72 percent of voters approved the constitutional amendment last fall, making it difficult for local officials to close the door completely on the sale of medical cannabis.

But while saying they respect the will of voters, many local officials also want the power to regulate the number of dispensaries, and where the businesses can be sited, something that's essentially off the table in the new state law, which requires local governments to treat medical marijuana distribution centers in the same way pharmacies are handled.

Most cities and counties don't have special regulations regarding pharmacies, but instead treat them like other retail, or “light commercial,” businesses.

While some communities contemplate new zoning rules for pharmacies, a move that also could curb the development of marijuana dispensaries, others are focused on the cannabis retail outlets.

For example, St. Augustine Beach commissioners last week approved a moratorium barring medical-marijuana dispensaries from opening in the waterfront community.

“I think the main reason was just wanting to see how the situation is going to shake out and what sort of problems might occur with the sales of this stuff. There was no particular anxiety over it, but I think it's a fear of the unknown,” said Jim Wilson, a lawyer who represents the city. “We're a small community, and we'd rather see how this works elsewhere before we connect into it. It may work out fine later on.”

But Sen. Rob Bradley, who has been a key player in the creation and passage of the state's medical-marijuana laws the past three years, said the new regulations were meant to encourage competition in the state's burgeoning marijuana industry.

“I would encourage our local partners to see the bigger picture here. We are bringing online several new licenses over the next year-and-a-half. It's important for the long-term future of the medical marijuana industry that we have real competition among not only the incumbents but the new license holders,” Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican and former prosecutor, said in a recent interview. “If local governments were allowed at this point in time to restrict in their communities the number of dispensaries to only one or two or three, that would provide an unacceptable advantage to the incumbents.”

Regarding local officials' fears about what are disparagingly known as “pot shops,” Bradley said he thinks they may be uninformed.

“When I see some of the comments from local officials, I'm not sure that they've read the details of the law. We have strict limitations on advertising and signage, and all of these dispensaries are required to have a doctor's office feel,” he said.

The new restrictions imposed by the Legislature, paired with a push by marijuana operators to open retail facilities, create “an awkward situation for a lot of cities,” said John Wayne Smith, a lobbyist who represents numerous cities and counties as well as the Florida League of Cities and the Florida Association of Counties.

While local governments are largely focused on budget issues during the summer, they may turn their attention to medical marijuana later in the year, Smith predicted.

Others may wait for the Legislature to revamp the state law.

“I would say that it's probably half-baked and this is probably an issue that is going to evolve and get tweaked over the next five to 10 years,” Smith said.

But the passage of the state-imposed prohibition on local governments' ability to limit the number of retail outlets poses a problem for cities like Lake Worth, which authorized two medical marijuana dispensaries before approving a moratorium aimed at preventing others from opening.

It's unclear, however, whether the new state law will require the city to open its doors to more dispensaries, an issue on which municipal lawyers are divided.

“By doing a nothing or all, and because we already have two, this is what you've done to my city. Everyone around me has a moratorium, but you've now told my city it's a free-for-all,” Lake Worth City Commissioner Andy Amoroso told The News Service of Florida.

Amoroso stressed that he supports legalization of recreational marijuana and endorses the use of medical marijuana for sick patients. But he also emphasized that the state law “jeopardizes what our cities look like.”

Lake Worth is surrounded by other communities that have banned the sales of medical marijuana, meaning that retailers will likely target his city, Amoroso maintained.

Lake Worth officials need “to be able to control” what their 7-square-mile city “looks like,” Amoroso said.

“If I have medical marijuana on every corner, I can't do that,” he said.

But Orlando city attorney Kyle Shephard said he believes a moratorium recently passed by his commission will allow the city to stop any more medical-marijuana retail shops from opening.

“Every city attorney may answer this differently, depending on their own local situation,” Shepard told the News Service.

Orlando adopted its ordinance allowing up to seven medical marijuana dispensaries before the state law (SB 8-A) was passed, Shepard said. The city believes that means its ordinance won't be affected by the new law.

“If you didn't get your rules on the books before SB 8 went into effect at the end of June, then you are sort of hamstrung,” Shepard said.

Orange Park council members recently advanced an ordinance that would prohibit pharmacies from opening in “light” commercial areas —- something that wouldn't affect any of the drug stores currently in operation, according to Mayor Scott Land.

The town council approved the new regulation in response to the state law, which the mayor called “an all or nothing, almost.”

“So instead of doing the all, a lot of people are going to probably choose the nothing,” he said. “I think it's going to make it difficult for the dispensaries.”
 
“They had a fair amount of time to prepare for this,” said Young. “It really sucks that they didn’t.”

THIS ^^, is an incredible understatement. Sue em, Morgan...sue them bad.



Trying to get a medical marijuana card soon? Don’t hold your breath
By David Smiley
dsmiley@miamiherald.com
August 23, 2017 7:30 AM

The cannabis boom is under way in Florida, and government is struggling to keep up.

Thousands of new patients have sought access to medical marijuana this summer following the passage of a new law expanding the list of maladies that qualify for treatment. Since June 7, the number of patients certified over the entire first three years of Florida’s fledgling cannabis program has nearly doubled from 16,760 to more than 31,000.


But patients are finding it’s one thing to receive a doctor’s certification, and another to receive the state-issued identification card needed to legally place an order. Doctors seeking state-required training through a new course that has yet to be offered are equally frustrated, leading to a growing feeling that the Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use and its 12 employees — nine of whom are part-time — are simply overwhelmed.

“I’m not sure the state was prepared,” said Pete Sessa, chief operating officer of the advocacy-minded Florida Cannabis Coalition.


Right now, the average patient — who might suffer from cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s or other serious illnesses — waits 30 days after applying to receive a medical marijuana card. And that’s if everything goes according to plan.

Patients on Facebook message groups and frustrated doctors tell stories about unexplained delays, applications rejected on technicalities related to photos, and paperwork lost in the mail. Cory Young, a cancer survivor and former paramedic from the Florida Keys who suffers from neuropathy and post-traumatic stress disorder, said he waited on hold for hours over five frustrating weeks trying to find out what happened to his application and $75 money order.

Cory%20Young%20%282%29

Cory Young says it took five weeks of phone calls before learning his medical marijuana identification card was being produced by the Office of Medical Marijuana Use.
Facebook
At one point, he was told his application was incomplete because his physician began the process online and Young finished it by sending documents and payment in the mail. Last week, though, Young said he learned from an email that his card was being printed.

“Their system is absolutely broken,” he said.

The pace may be frustrating, but patients are slowly receiving their cards. As of Aug. 6, the state had awarded 12,226, according to a spokeswoman. And, even if patients have to wait a month, that’s still an improvement on the 90-day waiting period for new patients required by law as recently as June.

It’s crazy that patients still are waiting four weeks to get their card.

Michelle Weiner, Spine and Wellness Centers of America

Still, physicians and patients say it’s unnecessary.

“I think it’s crazy that patients still are waiting four weeks to get their card. That’s ridiculous. And most of the time, they’re getting their card [applications] returned,” said Michelle Weiner, a South Florida Interventional Pain Management Physician qualified to issue marijuana recommendations. “I have cancer patients who are still suffering.”

Related stories from Miami Herald



Uniting States of Marijuana: the country's evolving laws on cannabis



Inside South Florida's only legal medical marijuana grow operation
On an average day, the Department of Health’s marijuana office handles between 1,000 and 1,300 phone calls. Some 3,000 ID card applications are pending at any one time. The office is also responsible for keeping tabs on the state’s 12 licensed growers and monitoring the reams of information that doctors are required to submit about their patients.

The effort to outsource both the card program and call center function is ongoing and we look forward to that making the process more efficient for the patients we serve.

Mara Gambineri, Department of Health spokeswoman

Mara Gambineri, a Department of Health spokeswoman, said the department is soliciting bids from companies to outsource both the call center and processing of applications for marijuana cards. Lawmakers have used state statutes to call for the staff to grow to 55, and the department is currently vetting applications for a dozen new positions.

But hiring and contracting take time.

“We continue to receive a significant amount of applications and calls,” Gambineri wrote in an email. “As the program continues to grow, we agree that it is not sustainable to handle in house long-term, which is why we are outsourcing these functions as directed by law. However, while we work through the procurement process, we continue to do our best to process applications and respond to inquiries in a timely manner.”

Doctors are waiting, too. Prior to July, physicians hoping to recommend marijuana to their patients were required to take an eight-hour training. But under the bill signed into law June 23 by Gov. Rick Scott, the course was changed to two hours.

MFG00%20Marijuana%20News%20rk

Dr. Michelle Weiner of Spine and Wellness Centers of America says the state has been woefully slow in issuing identification cards for medical-marijuana patients.

Advocates saw this as good news. But neither the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association nor the Florida Medical Association have begun offering the new course. And while the osteopathic association still offers the eight-hour course, passing it no longer qualifies a doctor to issue recommendations according to a website where interested physicians are directed by the Department of Health.

“Right now, we’re in limbo,” said Dionne Hinds, who wants to expand her Port St. Lucie family practice to include medical marijuana. “We’re stuck indefinitely because they’re not able to tell us when the new certifications will be available.”

If these problems aren’t addressed, it’s going to compound as we grow.

Patrick DeLuca, executive director of Compassionate Cannabis Clinic

Hinds said one of her patients who suffers from fibromyalgia found it so difficult to find a qualified physician able to navigate the state’s system that she drove three hours to a marijuana clinic in Venice Beach. Patrick DeLuca, whose Compassionate Cannabis Clinic ended up seeing the patient, says he has seen a number of patients with frustrating stories.

“It’s a nascent program. So it’s our hope over the next couple of months that as things fall into place ... this program will be a whole lot better,” said DeLuca.

As of Monday, Florida had 1,005 doctors trained to issue marijuana certifications. That’s significantly more than at the start of the year. But DeLuca worries about what will happen if the growth of the patient list continues to far outpace the number of new doctors.

“If these problems aren’t addressed, it’s going to compound as we grow,” he said.

But there is evidence that the Department of Health is getting up to speed.

This month, under the parameters of a new state law, Florida issued five new licenses for medical marijuana treatment centers, which grow and distribute the medicine consumed by patients in the state, bringing the number to 12. And with the rules firmer, new clinics are opening up that cater specifically to medical marijuana patients.

Gambineri said the pace should eventually pick up. But that’s not much help right now for patients like Young, who are forced to wait helplessly for their card, and their medication.

“They had a fair amount of time to prepare for this,” said Young. “It really sucks that they didn’t.”
 
Go, Morgan, go!! :headbang:

There is much going on in state governments related to MMJ that I find outrageous....but FL government's obtuse refusal to honor the simple meaning of a constitutional amendment passed by direct democracy is among THE most outrageous and and contemptible behavior. The FL legislature/Gov actions are transparent wrt to their intentional thwarting of the electorate. Sue their fucking asses off, Morgan. Spank their heinies until they are pink. In short, fuck these assholes over.



Smoke this: John Morgan adds plaintiffs to marijuana lawsuit

by Jim Rosica

Medical marijuana advocate John Morgan has added three more plaintiffs to his lawsuit against the state, filed after lawmakers refused to allow marijuana to be smoked, according to court filings accessed Wednesday.

Diana Dodson of Levy County, a cancer patient; Catherine Jordan of Manatee County, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease; and Roberto Pickering of Leon County, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder; all qualify to use medicinal cannabis under a constitutional amendment passed last year.

Their names were added to the action this week. Also, Circuit Judge Karen Gievers allowed Morgan an extra 30 days to file an amended complaint in the case, first lodged in July by People United for Medical Marijuana, the political committee behind the amendment.

The suit seeks a declaratory judgment that the smoking ban runs counter to the amendment’s language.

Lawmakers recently approved and Gov. Rick Scott signed into law an implementing bill (SB 8-A) for the amendment that does not allow medicinal marijuana to be smoked.

House Republican Leader Ray Rodrigues, who sponsored the implementing bill during both the Regular Session and Special Session, has said “we don’t believe you smoke medicine.” Edibles and “vaping” are permitted, however.

“We believe that smoking causes as much harm as the benefits, particularly when we’re offering vaping, which provides all of the benefits and none of the harm,” Rodrigues has said.

“The people of Florida knew exactly what they were voting on,” Morgan told reporters after he filed the suit in Tallahassee. “(T)he vast majority, if not 100 percent, knew that smoke was included … I’m right, and 71 percent of the people of Florida know I’m right.”

Morgan, the Orlando-based attorney and entrepreneur, backed the amendment that was OK’d by 71 percent of voters last year on the statewide ballot.

The lawsuit says the legislative intent of the bill clashes with voter intent expressed in the amendment. For example, a doctor may determine that smoking marijuana gives a particular patient the best benefit of the drug, Morgan said.

By “redefining the constitutionally defined term ‘medical use’ to exclude smoking, the Legislature substitutes its medical judgment for that of a licensed Florida physician and is in direct conflict with the specifically articulated Constitutional process,” the suit says.

Moreover, since the amendment “does not require that the smoking of medical marijuana be allowed in public,” that means “that smoking medical marijuana in a private place in compliance with the provisions of the amendment is legal.”

Morgan also has cited a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2012 that “despite decades of marijuana being … smok(ed) in the United States, there have been no reported medical cases of lung cancer or emphysema attributed to marijuana.”

The suit names as defendants the state, the Department of Health, state Health Secretary and Surgeon General Celeste Philip, Office of Medical Marijuana Use Director Christian Bax, the state Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, and their respective chairs, James Orr and Anna Hayden.
 
“It’s the arrogance of politicians, and it’s why they are universally despised at the local, state and national level"

Now ain't this the dang truth?

"Those (politicians) are placing themselves at risk in the next election. If I was running against those people, I would use that (attempt to ban dispensaries) as a rallying cry.”

This has been my oft stated view in Fl, MA, Maine and a lot of other people where the extraordinarily self-righteous, paternalistic, patronizing, and arrogant politicians are flaunting their thwarting of the will of the people. Its simple, folks, vote every one of these SOBs out of office and make them do an honest job for once in their slimy lives.


Voters' say on medical marijuana's gone up in smoke
It is hard enough to get people to actually vote, as simple as that task may be.

It is even harder when elected officials tell people essentially, that your vote means absolutely nothing.

But that’s the message voters are getting in South Florida, after the state voted overwhelmingly to allow dispensaries for medical marijuana.

When the medical marijuana amendment was on the ballot last November, 72 percent of Florida voters — an overwhelming majority — supported it. Those voters understood that the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes would be a real source of pain relief for many folks who were suffering with various diseases.

Medical marijuana had failed once before, but now Floridians were saying that if pot could give some relief to people who needed it for medical reasons, why not?

Voters may have said that, but at least six South Florida cities have banned, or plan to ban, the dispensaries where legal marijuana can be procured.

The cities that have banned dispensaries are Lauderdale-by-the-Sea (where 73 percent of the voters approved medical marijuana), Royal Palm Beach (74 percent), Southwest Ranches (70 percent) and Sea Ranch Lakes (63 percent). Cities considering a ban are Boca Raton (76 percent approved the medical marijuana amendment) and Coral Springs (76 percent).

Officials in those cities are coming up with all sorts of reasons why they don’t want dispensaries. The bottom line is your vote didn’t matter.

‘”These cities are hurting their own citizens and their own economy,” Orlando attorney John Morgan told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board. Morgan was one of the major backers of the marijuana amendment and a man who may run for governor of Florida next year.

“It’s the arrogance of politicians, and it’s why they are universally despised at the local, state and national level.

“Those (politicians) are placing themselves at risk in the next election. If I was running against those people, I would use that (attempt to ban dispensaries) as a rallying cry.”

Some of the excuses being given for not wanting the dispensaries are laughable.

Some cities say they are concerned because dispensaries are a cash-only business, and there is a great potential for pot shops to be targeted by thieves. If that’s the case, then they should probably ban all ATMs. Last we saw, ATMs were cash-only.

Crime statistics concerning legal dispensaries are hard to come by as the industry expands, and, understandably, operators are reluctant to talk about how much cash they can have on hand.

Southwest Ranches justified its ban by citing the town’s “fiscal inability to provide additional public safety personnel” to protect businesses and the public. Interesting. Cities all over Broward and Palm Beach counties have gun shops, and they don’t see the need to provide “additional public safety personnel” to protect the public.

In Boca Raton, there is the thought that residents can go to nearby Boynton Beach and Lake Worth, which are allowing the dispensaries. No reason for Boca to do the same.

Yes, those cities might be nearby. But why should a resident have to go to the trouble of going to another city when their own city approved the measure by a 3-1 margin. Public officials very rarely get approved by a 3-1 margin, but medical marijuana did.

Officials in other cities say they are concerned because medical marijuana will find its way into the hands of recreational users. If people want pot for recreational use, they are going to find it, no matter what amendment passed.

The whole idea was to make marijuana available to folks seeking a little relief from pain. The bogus excuses against allowing the dispensaries are just that — bogus.

“I don’t understand it,” Arlene Owens, 71, of Boca Raton told the Sun Sentinel when talking about the bans. She said she wants to try medical marijuana rather than live with the pain pump that helps relieve her spinal compression and arthritis.

“It would be such a blessing,” she said “for the aging population in our city.”

That’s why so many people voted for medical marijuana. It’s time elected officials listened to those people.
 
Good to see FL is still at it. Go FL....keep this up, you are making Maryland look absolutely competent in comparison (sigh).


Florida Will Not Meet The Deadline for Medical Marijuana Licenses


According to reports, Florida will not meet the deadline for medical marijuana licenses. In light of this news, residents are becoming increasingly frustrated. Considering the constant delays and limitations of their state’s medical marijuana program, their feelings are justified.

After months of waiting, officials have announced that new medical marijuana growers will not be receiving their state-issued licenses to cultivate their crop. And therefore, they will not be able to sell it on time.

Medical Marijuana in Florida
As outlined in an amendment passed earlier this summer, Florida health officials were supposed to distribute 10 medical marijuana licenses by Tuesday, October 3 to growers.

However, now it appears that they will have to wait.

Christian Bax, executive director of Florida’s medical marijuana office, said the delay was due partly to Hurricane Irma. But it’s mostly due to a recently-filed lawsuit from a black farmer, which accused the state’s newest law on cannabis of being unconstitutional and “unfairly” narrow.

The farmer in question is Columbus Smith. In the suit, he alleges that there are too many restrictions. Thus, only a few black farmers can qualify to get grow licenses.

In terms of Hurricane Irma, news reports following the devastating storm indicated that the weed industry had remained mostly intact.

Blaming The Victim
In a letter sent to state lawmakers, per the Sunshine State News, Bax implied that Smith’s lawsuit was the reason as to why Florida will not meet the deadline for medical marijuana licenses.

After voters passed Amendment 2 last fall, there was a great deal of concern over whether it would actually give potential growers a fair and equal shot at the license slots.

“It’s not just unlikely, it is literally impossible,” said Ben Pollara, a medical marijuana advocate and campaign manager for United For Care, referring to the October 3 deadline.

Racism Rears Its Ugly Head
One of the key components of the new law holds that one of the 10 licenses to grow medical marijuana would go to a black farmer. But that they must already be part of the 30-year-old class action lawsuit against the Department of Agriculture known as Pigford v. Glickman.

Why? Great question.

The lawsuit alleges racial discrimination against African American farmers in its allocation of farm loans and assistance, as well as the imposition of unfair land taxes between the years 1981 and 1996.

Again, we have to ask the question: Why must a current applicant for a medical marijuana license be a participant in this 30-year-old lawsuit?

Final Hit: Florida Will Not Meet The Deadline for Medical Marijuana Licenses
Here’s a fun fact for you to help put this issue into perspective. The state of Florida has a population of 20 million. Of these 20 million Floridians, 77 percent are white and 17 percent are African American. So how did state officials decide to make just one out of 10 licenses available to black applicants? And more importantly, why?

Apparently exactly who qualifies for a license to grow has been a mystery for some time now, as Florida attempts to even the playing field for farmers of color.

Sadly, institutional racism seems to be rearing its ugly head in Florida’s already overwrought medical marijuana rollout. As of now, there is no new deadline for the licenses. We will, however, keep you all updated with any and all developments. So stay tuned.
 
Florida state government is the poster child for how to fuck up an MMJ program. Wow, they are still making my state of Maryland look good in comparison! And that ain't easy.

Florida medical Marijuana patients face up to three month delay for state-issued I.D. cards


After Florida lawmakers finally came to an agreement on the voter-approved medical cannabis expansion earlier this year, patients in the Sunshine State started lining up en masse to gain access to legal medicinal pot. In fact, the number of medical marijuana applicants has doubled since the state expanded its list of qualifying conditions.

With all the sudden influx of interest, Florida’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use has been completely overwhelmed, leaving many applicants waiting up to three months to obtain the state-issued cards that are required to legally purchase cannabis. According to the state’s medical marijuana department, it should only take 30 days to receive the card once the application has been submitted.

While some have been fortunate enough to receive their ID cards in a timely manner, many patients claim that they’ve been waiting two or three months. One patient, Adam McWilliams, told local newspaper the Sun-Sentinel that he mailed his $75 payment on July 19, and although he received confirmation that his ID card was sent on September 18, he has yet to receive it.

The state’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use has openly acknowledged the delays, and is currently negotiating a deal to outsource production of the cards to a private company. They are also implementing electronic payment options and electronic transfers of patient photos, both of which should expedite the overall process. Lastly, the state budget allotted money to the medical cannabis department to hire 28 new employees, helping to deal with severe understaffing issues.

“We are doing everything we can right now to crank these cards out because we know there are patients in very difficult medical situations, and we do not want to be the bottleneck,” said Christian Bax, Executive Director of the Office of Medical Marijuana Use.

A recent survey conducted by the Venice-based Compassionate Cannabis Clinic showed that - while a majority of patients aren’t waiting as long as three months - most identification cards are taking 40 to 50 days to reach the applicant. Some have also speculated that Hurricane Irma and its aftermath has contributed to the lengthy deferment.

Nonetheless, in a situation where access to medical marijuana could be halting chronic conditions and reducing severe pain, even one month seems too long for patients to wait. By hiring more employees and developing a more streamlined application process, the Office of Medical Marijuana Use is working to fix these glaring problems. But while the lives of patients hang in the balance, it’s critical that the department moves quickly to alleviate the situation.
 
Medical marijuana license delays anger Florida state senators

Frustrated senators grilled Florida's pot czar Tuesday, demanding explanations for why his office missed a legislatively mandated deadline to issue new medical-marijuana licenses and why ailing patients are stuck waiting for state-issued ID cards.

Christian Bax, executive director of the state Office of Medical Marijuana Use, blamed one of the delays on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of part of a new law that required health officials to issue 10 new marijuana licenses by Oct. 3.

But Senate Health Policy Chairwoman Dana Young, R-Tampa, rejected Bax's explanation.

“I'm not buying that just because there's litigation out there you can't fulfill your statutory duty to issue these additional licenses,” Young, a lawyer, scolded Bax.

The new law, passed during a special session in June, was intended to carry out a constitutional amendment, approved by voters in November, that broadly legalized medical marijuana in Florida.

The lawsuit cited by Bax deals with a portion of the law that reopened the application process and ordered the Department of Health to grant five licenses by Oct. 3, after it approved five other new licenses in August. One of the licenses in the second batch must go to a grower who had been part of settled lawsuits, known as the “Pigford” cases, about discrimination against black farmers by the federal government.

But weeks after the deadline has passed, Bax has yet to hire a vendor to score what could be hundreds of applications for the highly coveted licenses in potentially one of the nation's most robust marijuana markets.

Bax has maintained that the lawsuit filed by Columbus Smith, a black farmer from Panama City, has temporarily put the application process on hold.

Smith's challenge alleges that the new law is so narrowly drawn that only a handful of black farmers could qualify for the license. The lawsuit contends that the measure is what is known as an unconstitutional “special law.”

Smith is asking a Tallahassee judge to stop the Department of Health from moving forward with the application process, something Bax said has prevented him from obeying the Legislature's directive.

“The prospect of moving forward of accepting licenses with the injunctive hearing looming creates both a logistical and legal problem,” Bax, a lawyer, told the committee Tuesday morning.

But Young wasn't satisfied with Bax's justification.

“I hear what you're saying, but doesn't it seem a bit complacent for you to simply throw your hands up and say, ‘Oh, we cannot issue. We've been sued. Oh no.' You all get sued all the time,” an exasperated Young said. “You have a duty under our state laws to issue these licenses, regardless of whether some plaintiff files a lawsuit.”

Bax insisted he is hamstrung by the pending court decision regarding the temporary injunction.

“I don't think there is anyone in this room who would like to get these licenses out and growing more than I do. We want to move this process as quickly as possible forward,” he said.

But, he added, “If this process gets struck down, we would have to start from the beginning.”

Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican who is also a lawyer, piled on, putting Department of Health General Counsel Nicole Gehry on the hot seat.

“What valid reason could you have for ignoring a statutory directive? Just saying that you're afraid of an injunction or litigation has been filed. … I mean, almost every time we pass a law, somebody files a lawsuit, and we still continue to pursue it,” Passidomo said, asking Gehry “what is the down side” of issuing the licenses.

“Once we get an idea of the scope of how the judge views the case, I think the department would be in a better position to evaluate how best to move forward,” Gehry said. “It's difficult to articulate at the moment because we don't know what the judge is going to do with the temporary restraining order.”

The new licenses aren't the only source of frustration for lawmakers.

Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, is among numerous legislators whose constituents have sought help getting state-issued identification cards. Patients must have the cards to purchase marijuana, once their doctors have ordered treatment.

“I've had constituents' families call because they've died waiting to get their card and could not get their medication,” Book said.

Bax said it currently takes his office 30 days to issue the ID cards, if applications are complete.

But Book disputed that.

“I went on a fact-finding mission … and I tried the process as an experiment. It took three months to get a patient identification card. That is not unique. That is something that I have heard time and time and time again,” she said.

Bax said he is finalizing negotiations with a vendor who will take over the ID-card system; the outsourcing was another requirement included in the new law. The deal should be finalized in a few days, Bax promised.

Book asked how the contractor would handle the backlog --- which Bax said is up to 6,000 patients at any given time --- of people waiting for ID cards.

“Flushing that backlog out … is a priority for us,” he assured the panel. “That will be the first thing that's addressed.”

Bax's answers did little to quell committee members' concerns.

“I feel like I know less now and am more confused after your presentation,” Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, said.

But it's unclear what disgruntled lawmakers can do to force the health department to act.

“We're going to have to continue to look into that, but I will tell you that many of the committee members commented during the meeting that they've never seen anything like this. And I will tell you that I have never seen anything like this in the eight years that I've served in the Legislature. A complete disregard for a legislative mandate,” Young told The News Service of Florida after the meeting.

Ailing patients, who have “already waited too long” for medical marijuana to be legalized, “deserve their government to act appropriately” to make sure they get the treatment they need, Young said.
 
Well, with FL, like the state goverment of my state of Maryland, you have to applaud their consistency.....they fuck it up time after time....like a metronome

More Delays to Florida’s Medical Marijuana ID Card Process
The Associated Press
October 27, 2017
https://www.leafly.com/news/politic...as-medical-marijuana-id-card-process#dsq-app1
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Medical marijuana patients in Florida who are already experiencing long delays in receiving their identification cards are in for more bad news.


A company that was not selected to take over processing and manufacturing the cards has filed a protest over the process. Automated Health Systems filed the challenge Wednesday after the state’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use notified finalists Monday that it intended to award the contract to Veritec Solutions LLC.

The challenge means that the department will continue issuing cards, much to the frustration of patients, caregivers and legislators.


RELATED STORY
Florida Awards 2 More Medical Marijuana Licenses

“We are very disappointed in the delay that this will put in outsourcing our card program. We will continue to do everything in our power to process card applications as quickly as possible to serve Florida’s patients,” Department of Health spokeswoman Mara Gambinieri said.

“It is frustrating to the point where you want to give up at times, but you can't.”
Lauren Drake, Milford resident
Christian Bax, who is the executive director of the Office of Medical Marijuana Use, said earlier this week before the Senate’s Health Policy committee that 20,000 patients have received their cards, which is less than half of the 46,952 now in the registry. According to patients, the wait for cards ranges anywhere from 35 to 90 days.

Lauren Drake of Milford, whose parents both have cancer, said it took 66 days for them to receive their identification cards.

“It is frustrating to the point where you want to give up at times, but you can’t,” she said.


RELATED STORY
Florida Governor Signs Medical Marijuana Legislation

Identification cards for patients were part of a law signed by Gov. Rick Scott in June. The state revised the laws after voters last November passed a constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana.

Patients who suffered from epilepsy, chronic muscle spasms, cancer and terminal conditions were allowed under laws Scott signed in 2014 and 2016 to receive either low-THC cannabis or full strength medical marijuana. Amendment 2 added people with HIV and AIDS, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder, ALS, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and similar conditions.

With the added conditions, the state’s patient registry is seeing an average of 300 people added per day.

“There certainly have been logistical problems as we deal with a significant increase to the pool of patients. Once we will be able to move forward with an outside vendor who can produce cards at a faster speed, it will be a significant improvement,” Bax said.


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Bax told legislators that cards are being processed in an average of 30 days, but there have been very few instances of that happening. State Sen. Lauren Book, a Democrat from Plantation, said she has gone through the process herself and that it took three months to receive her card.

“Unfortunately, my process is not unique. It is impossible to get anyone with the office to see status of applications or what might be delaying them,” Book said. “It is very disappointing and sad how long people are waiting.”

Legislators may introduce a bill during the upcoming session that would allow patients to receive a limited supply of cannabis once they are entered into the registry.

ID cards aren’t the only headaches Bax’s office is dealing with. The awarding of five new medical marijuana treatment center licenses was not done by the Oct. 3 statutory deadline. Bax was grilled by legislators over why the deadline was missed.
 
Could this actually be some sign of intelligent life in the FL state government? As for Rodrigues, he seems intent on losing his majority and hence his leadership role. That ass hat needs to be canned.

Senate proposal would allow smoking medical marijuana


House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues told reporters the House won’t go along with allowing cannabis to be smoked.

Amid a legal battle about the issue, a Senate Democrat on Thursday filed a proposal that would undo a ban on patients smoking medical marijuana.

Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, filed the bill (SB 726) for consideration during the 2018 legislative session, which starts in January. Lawmakers in June passed a measure to carry out a November 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana. The measure bars smoking marijuana while allowing patients to use cannabis through other means, including vaping.

Backers of the constitutional amendment, known as Amendment 2, filed a lawsuit this summer in Leon County circuit court challenging the ban on smoking. The lawsuit remains pending, but Farmer’s bill would resolve the dispute by allowing smoking.

“Each and every legislator including myself swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the State of Florida,” Farmer said in a prepared statement Thursday. “An overwhelming majority of voters ratified Amendment 2, and its intent could not be more clear: to allow for the use of medical marijuana, including smoking.”

But House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues, an Estero Republican who has played a key role on marijuana issues, told reporters gathered Thursday for an Associated Press event that the House won’t go along with allowing cannabis to be smoked.
 
Could this actually be some sign of intelligent life in the FL state government? As for Rodrigues, he seems intent on losing his majority and hence his leadership role. That ass hat needs to be canned.

Senate proposal would allow smoking medical marijuana


House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues told reporters the House won’t go along with allowing cannabis to be smoked.

Amid a legal battle about the issue, a Senate Democrat on Thursday filed a proposal that would undo a ban on patients smoking medical marijuana.

Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, filed the bill (SB 726) for consideration during the 2018 legislative session, which starts in January. Lawmakers in June passed a measure to carry out a November 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana. The measure bars smoking marijuana while allowing patients to use cannabis through other means, including vaping.

Backers of the constitutional amendment, known as Amendment 2, filed a lawsuit this summer in Leon County circuit court challenging the ban on smoking. The lawsuit remains pending, but Farmer’s bill would resolve the dispute by allowing smoking.

“Each and every legislator including myself swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the State of Florida,” Farmer said in a prepared statement Thursday. “An overwhelming majority of voters ratified Amendment 2, and its intent could not be more clear: to allow for the use of medical marijuana, including smoking.”

But House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues, an Estero Republican who has played a key role on marijuana issues, told reporters gathered Thursday for an Associated Press event that the House won’t go along with allowing cannabis to be smoked.

No, there is no intelligent life in the Florida state government. LOL
 

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