After years of partisan squabbling over the destiny of Florida’s medical marijuana program, Democrats and Republicans are coming collectively to push what they’re calling a significant reform invoice.
It might make it loads tougher for Floridians to get their arms on delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) merchandise.
These smokable and edible merchandise have been a part of a fast-growing market in Florida. Due to a loophole in the 2018 farm bill passed by Congress, hemp merchandise containing numerous delta-8 aren’t regulated like marijuana merchandise heavy within the psychoactive delta-9 THC compound — though the compounds are extraordinarily related. Delta-9 produces the euphoric impact felt by customers of medical and leisure marijuana.
However delta-8 is just calmly regulated by the state. The hashish reform invoice, HB 679, sponsored by Reps. Andrew Discovered, D-Brandon, and Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, would change that. It additionally would:
▪ Increase the usage of telehealth in medical marijuana.
▪ Prohibit medical marijuana promoting practices.
▪ Require hashish docs to finish a six-hour coaching course earlier than they’re cleared to advocate marijuana to sufferers.
▪ Increase hashish sufferers’ registration playing cards to final two years as a substitute of 1.
▪ Prohibit medical marijuana corporations from sitting on an inactive license, then flipping it for a revenue.
▪ Create a brand new Medical Marijuana Testing Advisory Council, and increase laws across the testing of marijuana merchandise.
“The Legislature for the final 5 years has been attempting to stroll backwards on marijuana,” Discovered mentioned in an interview. “I’d say immediately is step one ahead, and there can be extra.”
Delta-8 merchandise are manufactured from hemp, similar to different authorized, over-the-counter merchandise containing cannabidiol, or CBD. However the merchandise, which might produce euphoric results just like medical or leisure hashish, have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Below Roach and Discovered’s invoice, the state would require companies promoting delta-8 to register their merchandise with the state, and never promote an ingestible hemp-based product to a Floridian youthful than 21.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who was a hashish trade lobbyist earlier than operating for workplace, mentioned she welcomes the readability in Discovered and Roach’s invoice.
“I’ve all the time been a giant supporter of the growth of hashish within the state of Florida however doing it proper,” Fried mentioned. “We’ve got to make it possible for we’re defending the shoppers.”
Lawmakers and lobbyists say the bipartisan invoice is a real compromise. It doesn’t give extra conservative lawmakers each marijuana provision they might need. For instance, a controversial coverage limiting the quantity of delta-9 THC within the marijuana bought to Florida sufferers just isn’t within the invoice. Roach sponsored that measure throughout the 2021 session.
“I believe the political second for THC caps has come and gone,” Roach mentioned Wednesday. “The newer members coming into the Legislature appear to be youthful and have a extra libertarian bent, not less than on the Republican aspect.”
The invoice additionally doesn’t have hashish measures favored by some progressives, comparable to a provision stopping workforce discrimination for hashish sufferers.
However measures just like the growth of telehealth, which became a flash point for some patients over the summer time, are broadly in style.
No companion invoice has been filed within the Senate, however Discovered introduced at a information convention Wednesday that one could be sponsored by Sens. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, and Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens. Jones confirmed this in a textual content message.
It’s unclear whether or not Home Speaker Chris Sprowls or Senate President Wilton Simpson assist the measure. Their workplaces didn’t reply to emailed requests for remark.
“It’s refreshing to see a bipartisan effort, even when it’s not [ultimately] profitable,” mentioned Ron Watson, a longtime Tallahassee lobbyist who focuses on medical marijuana points.
This story was initially revealed December 1, 2021 5:31 PM.
