Voters in November approved a constitutional amendment that allows doctors to prescribe full-strength medical marijuana for a wide variety of ailments including cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, Crohn’s disease, PTSD and multiple sclerosis.
Now the state Department of Health is scrambling to figure out how to regulate the drug within the required six months of the effective date of the amendment, which was Jan. 3.
Tonight health officials are meeting with members of the public at the Orange County Department of Health to get ideas for proposed medical-marijuana rules.
More than 200 people are waiting to speak and listen.
It’s one of five public workshops being held throughout the state this week. The Legislature also is expected to tackle the issue when its 2017 session begins on March 7, possibly increasing the number of approved growers and sellers.
Before the amendment took effect, people with epilepsy, muscle spasms and cancer already qualified for treatment with strains of marijuana that aren’t euphoric. Terminally ill patients legally could ingest full-strength marijuana.
Currently, seven nurseries are authorized to grow and dispense low-THC marijuana, including two in Central Florida.
More than three times as many people as expected — doctors, patients and potential growers — showed up Tuesday for a Department of Compassionate Use public meeting in Fort Lauderdale.
The chief complaint was that it takes too long to get the drug into the hands of suffering people. Currently, patients must wait 90 days from their first doctor visit until physicians can recommend medical marijuana. Doctors spoke out against proposed rules released in January that would maintain the wait time and also give the Florida Board of Medicine the authority to determine which other maladies meet the qualifications for treatment with medical marijuana.
The medical community is divided on whether doctors are now legally allowed to register patients who are eligible under November’s Amendment 2, which passed with 71 percent of the vote, into a statewide database that gives patients the ability to obtain marijuana from dispensaries.
Rules being developed by the state Department of Health are expected to provide clarity. Industry representatives, legislators and amendment advocates have asked for guidance to dispensing organizations, doctors and patients.
A bill filed Feb. 1 by state Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, would open the industry to more competition by no longer requiring dispensaries to also grow and sell medical marijuana.
Tonight’s meeting is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Health Department, 6102 Lake Ellenor Drive.
The (South Florida) Sun Sentinel and News Service of Florida contributed to this report. sjacobson@orlandosentinel.com or 407-540-5981
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sjacobson@orlandosentinel.com or 407-540-5981
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