Page 7 - CNF April 2021 Revised

Back Cover Story: Controversial THC

Cap Bill to Affect Dosage,

Cost of Medical Cannabis Care

Continued from page 32 recommend placing limits on THC
potency,” the company added. “Lower
more product, all to achieve their current
physician-recommended dosage,” said potency means buying more, spending
licensed medical marijuana dispensary more, and even being forced to smoke or
Trulieve in a prepared statement. “As vape more, all to achieve the same doc-
these laws affect almost every single tor-recommended dosage that patients
medical cannabis product, the market as can find now.”
it is today would not exist.” According to Florida Cares’ data, a 10
According to Eric Stevens, advisor, percent cap would result in an average
Florida for Care, the proposal’s sponsors price increase of between 50 percent and
have not proven a case for the dangers of 150 percent for patients buying smok-
having more THC in cannabis products. able flower, and THC caps would mean
The majority of products currently being that patients would have to smoke
used by patients contain approximately between 50-150 percent more marijuana
16 to 26 percent THC. to achieve the same or similar medicinal
“Their reasoning varies, but it is seem- effects.
ingly because they believe that some sort “When you consider that a person has
of additional damage is occurring been using a product for multiple years
because of these higher THC products,” that works, but now they have to find
he said. “While they’re claiming something else or use more and pay
increased incidence of psychosis, when more, it’s frustrating,” said Stevens,
they discussed the bill on March 9, they adding that because these products aren’t
could not come up with one episode in covered by insurance, patients are paying
Florida’s 500,000 patients who have used out-of-pocket. “Only one or two prod-
medical marijuana in the past three ucts fall under the 10 percent THC cate-
years.” gory right now, which means that you’re
This is not the first time that asking for four years of research and
Republican legislators have tried to get development to be redone, not to men-
this type of legislation passed. For the tion that with that limited number of
past two years, similar bills have moved low-THC products, it’s going to be hard-
through committees but died in the er for dispensaries to keep it in stock.”
Senate. Having passed the Professionals &
“A good number of leaders who were Public Health subcommittee March 9
in the House are now in the Senate, and the Health Care Appropriations sub-
which is why they’ve brought the bill committee March 18, the proposal is
back again,” said Stevens. “When we now before the Health & Human
heard that it would be coming back, we Services committee, with a tentative
offered to provide them with informa- decision scheduled for March 29. It must
tion, but they have not invited one reach legislators in its final form before
physician up to talk about what’s work- May 1 to receive a vote.
ing or not. It’s interesting that there are “Basically, that means that the propos-
no doctors speaking out in favor of this.” als need to move through all committees
Stevens adds that more than 200 doc- by the first week of April in order to get
tors have signed a petition against the the final version to the House and
legislation. Senate,” said Stevens.
During this time, Florida for Care is
The Patient Perspective continuing to push conversations about
One of the main reasons that physi- the proposals in Tallahassee in order to
cians, among others, are not supporting provide accurate, medically based infor-
these policies is because of the negative mation to the state’s legislators. It is also
effect that the proposals will have on encouraging the public to sign a petition
patients. online against passage of these bills,
“These bills place artificial caps on which to date, has received more than
naturally occurring THC in cannabis and 40,000 signatures.
would affect nearly every medical “They need to understand that this is
cannabis product sold in Florida today, not what people want—that there are no
hurting patients instead of helping positives to this approach,” Stevens said.
them,” said Trulieve. “We have fought “They need to stop creating the dialog
these caps on behalf of patients each year that they want to hear.”
it has been brought up, and we will con-
tinue to fight for patients. For more information,
“We have not seen any studies that visit www.floridaforcare.org.

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26 April 2021 cannabisnewsflorida.com Cannabis News Florida