Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jun 2014
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2014 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/mVLAxQfA
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Page: 3B

GEARING UP FOR POT

Professionals Look to Cash in With Florida Posed to Legalize 
Marijuana Use for Seizures

Tallahassee lobbyists and lawyers are hooking up with investors, 
nursery owners and a variety of other businesspeople with leafy green 
stars in their eyes in the quest to cash in on Florida's newest 
regulated industry.

With Florida on the verge of becoming the first Southern state to 
legalize any form of marijuana, lobbyists from large and small firms 
are pitching their regulatory expertise and inside connections with 
an eye not only on nailing down new clients but possible ownership 
stakes in what, at least for now, may be a limited industry.

Gov. Rick Scott has yet to receive a bill that will legalize a form 
of marijuana that purportedly does not get users high but which 
alleviates life-threatening seizures. Scott has said he will sign the 
measure (SB1030).

Lawmakers broadened eligibility for the substance to include cancer 
patients as well as those suffering from severe muscle spasms or 
seizures, thereby opening up the market for potential sellers. The 
strain of marijuana is high in cannabidiol (CBD) and low in 
euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Doctors are supposed to be able to start ordering the low-THC 
substance for their patients on Jan. 1, meaning the Department of 
Health has less than six months to move forward with rules and regulations.

Passage of the bill has generated a frenzy of activity on the part of 
investors, growers, pot-shop operators from other states and 
entrepreneurs looking to make a quick buck not only on the low-THC 
marijuana but on the "traditional" medical marijuana that could 
become legal in Florida after November.

Voters will decide during the fall elections if physicians should be 
allowed to order pot for severely ill patients.

"There's so much confusion and there's a gold rush out there and 
people are getting ripped off," said Tallahassee lobbyist Jeff 
Sharkey, who with associate Taylor Patrick Biehl recently created the 
"Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida."

The for-profit corporation is aimed, in part, at advocating for 
patients and representing businesses that might provide services or 
supplies to a health-care industry that will inevitably mushroom 
around the pot dispensaries, Sharkey said.

Lobbyists Louis Rotundo and Ron Watson registered to represent the 
"Florida Medical Cannabis Association," which formed in February and 
includes businesspeople and at least one lawyer from Central Florida.

Jon Costello, Gary Rutledge and Steve Schale recently registered to 
represent "Sanctuary Cannabis," a Florida company whose two partners 
are lawyers.

"There is a real big opportunity for lobbyists and lawyers to work 
with the businesses. Gold rush? I don't know about that. But 
opportunities in a newly regulated industry? Absolutely," Costello said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom