Florida Bill Would Expand Medical Marijuana Access By Adding Qualifying Conditions And Allowing Out-Of-State Patients

A brand new Republican-led invoice in Florida is geared toward increasing entry to medical marijuana, together with by including new qualifying situations, waiving charges for navy veterans, letting medical doctors subject suggestions by means of telehealth and permitting out-of-state sufferers to take part in this system, amongst different provisions.

The measure, SB 552, was launched on Friday by Sen. Joe Gruters (R). If enacted, it could permit folks to qualify for medical hashish if they’ve a “situation for which the affected person was prescribed an opioid drug listed as a Schedule II managed substance.”

The laws would additionally require the state Division of Well being to ascertain procedures to allow medical marijuana sufferers registered in different states to acquire marijuana from Florida dispensaries. Officers would wish to subject “medical marijuana use registry identification playing cards” to qualifying people inside considered one of sufferers making the request.

One other change proposed by the invoice would waive registration and renewal charges for individuals in this system who have been honorably discharged from the U.S. armed forces.

Different provisions would require sufferers to resume their registration within the system solely as soon as each two years moderately than yearly, permit physicians to suggest bigger quantities of marijuana and scale back the frequency with which a affected person would should be evaluated by a health care provider.

Sufferers is also advisable medical marijuana by means of a telehealth go to with a health care provider, moderately than in particular person. Presently solely renewals will be by means of telehealth visits, whereas preliminary certifications should be dealt with in particular person.

Yet one more change within the 10-page bill would forbid dispensaries from working on the identical parcel of land as a gasoline station or the place motor gasoline is obtainable on the market.

Additionally final week, Gruters reintroduced a proposal that will permit medical marijuana sufferers within the state to develop as much as two hashish vegetation at dwelling—this time with out separate provisions he had included in prior laws that will have additionally cracked down on hemp-derived cannabinoids within the state.

That invoice, SB 456, would permit state-registered hashish sufferers 21 and older to develop as much as two vegetation for private use supplied they first apply for and procure a certificates from the state Division of Agriculture and Shopper Providers.

The division would wish to ascertain procedures “for the issuance, renewal, suspension, alternative, give up, and revocation of such certificates, together with guidelines offering for the inspection and registration of every hashish plant.”

Renters would additionally want to supply documentation when making use of to point out that their landlord consents to hashish being grown on the property.

Additional, cultivation would wish to happen out of public view and “in an enclosed, locked house to stop entry by unauthorized individuals and individuals youthful than 21 years of age.”

Gruters, a former chair of the Florida Republican Social gathering, was a proponent of the backed legalization measure Modification 3 final November—which might not have legalized dwelling cultivation—showing in an advert alongside Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) to argue that the reform could be “good for Florida” regardless of sturdy pushback from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Gruters and Kim Rivers—the CEO of Trulieve, a medical marijuana firm that supplied the majority of funding for Modification 3—additionally met with Trump forward of his endorsement of the constitutional modification, in addition to federal rescheduling and trade banking entry.

In the meantime, simply months after the Florida marijuana legalization initiative failed on the poll, the marketing campaign has filed a revised model in hopes of getting a second shot in 2026.

Good & Protected Florida’s 2024 measure did obtain a majority of the vote in November, but it surely fell in need of a steep 60 % threshold to cross constitutional amendments beneath state legislation.

Individually, lawmakers in Florida this session have additionally launched payments that would shield medical marijuana sufferers from discrimination in authorities jobs and stop state courts from proscribing sure parental rights primarily based solely on an individual’s standing as a professional hashish affected person.

Photograph courtesy of Chris Wallis // Aspect Pocket Photos.