Pubdate: Thu, 31 Jul 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, News Service of Florida
Page: 4B

MEDICAL-POT GROWERS COULD TRUCK PRODUCT TO PATIENTS, PROPOSAL SAYS

TALLAHASSE - Florida marijuana dispensers could truck their product to
patients, under a revised rule proposed by health regulators in
advance of a workshop Friday about the state's legalization of a
limited type of medical pot.

Despite complaints by nursery owners, lobbyists and others at a
rule-making workshop earlier this month, health officials aren't
backing away from a lottery-based system to choose the recipients of
the five licenses planned. The competition is drawing operators and
investors from around the world.

Kerry Herndon, owner of Kerry's Nursery in Apopka, blasted health
officials for keeping the lottery provision in the proposed rule.

"It's a disaster for the patient population. You're making medicine
for sick children. So it's like anybody at random within the pool and
not the most qualified? Really?" said Herndon, whose nursery is
eligible for one of the licenses and who is interested in pursuing
one.

The state has until Jan1. to come up with the regulations regarding a
strain of marijuana, authorized by the Republican-dominated
Legislature and approved by Gov. Rick Scott earlier this year, that
purportedly does not get users high but can alleviate life-threatening
seizures in children with severe epilepsy.

Under the new law, patients who suffer from severe muscle spasms or
cancer would also be eligible to get cannabis that is low in
euphoria-inducing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, and high in
cannabadiol, or CBD, if their doctors order it.

The law restricts dispensary applicants-who would grow, process and
distribute the low-THC product, usually a paste or oil-to nurseries
that have done business in Florida for at least 30 years and grow
400,000 plants or more. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services has identified at least 55 nurseries that currently meet the
criteria.

Nursery owners have been bombarded by offers from investors and
operators eager to cash in on the state's newest regulated industry.
Many of those interested in "Charlotte's Web," a low-THC strain named
after a Colorado girl, are hoping to get started in the pot business
now with an eye on a proposed constitutional amendment before voters
in November that would allow doctors to order "traditional" medical
marijuana for certain patients.

In the meantime, eligible nursery operators are pairing up with
lobbyists and lawyers as they wade into turf unfamiliar to even the
most sophisticated regulatory experts.

The law allows one dispensing organization in each of five regions
around the state. It also allows the dispensing organizations to have
"an infrastructure reasonably located to dispense low-THC cannabis to
registered patients statewide or regionally as determined by the
department."

At the rule-making workshop earlier this month, health officials heard
that just five locations would be inadequate to meet patients' needs.
The new draft rule would allow dispensing organizations to deliver
30-day supplies of the medical marijuana derivative directly to
patients. Potential operators are divided on the transportation issue.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt