Pubdate: Fri, 20 Feb 2015
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2015 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-letters-to-the-editor-htmlstory.html
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: Dara Kam

HEARING PLANNED ON MEDICAL POT RULE

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Department of Health will hold another 
hearing to clear up confusion about a proposed medical-marijuana rule 
published after a marathon meeting earlier this month.

The department's Office of Compassionate Use released the latest 
proposal after a hand-picked panel spent 25 hours over two days 
hashing out the plan during a workshop on Feb. 4 and 5.

Health officials ordered the workshop after an administrative law 
judge tossed their previous attempt at a rule, finding fault with the 
agency's plan to use a lottery to select five licensees to get the 
state's new medical-marijuana industry off the ground.

On Wednesday, John Dial asked the department to hold a rule workshop 
on the new proposal. Dial was not on the 12-member panel picked by 
Office of Compassionate Use Director Patricia Nelson and did not 
attend the meetings.

Dial said he is part of a team called Florida Organic Products, made 
up of investors, a nursery that would be eligible for a license, 
doctors and other health-care professionals, accountants and 
plant-tissue experts.

"There was just some ambiguous language in there that I think should 
be clarified before we start throwing cash at something that you 
don't even know what the return on investment is," said Dial, a 
Stuart yacht broker.

Officials have set the date for the next hearing for March 2 at the 
Department of Health in Tallahassee.

The Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott last year approved a law that 
allowed limited types of medical marijuana and required the 
Department of Health to come up with the regulations.

Under the law, health officials will select five nurseries that have 
been in business for at least 30 continuous years in Florida and 
cultivate at least 400,000 plants to grow, process and distribute 
cannabis that is low in euphoria-inducing THC to patients who suffer 
from severe spasms or cancer.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom