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Florida Medical Marijuana Licenses:

Where We Are We and Where Are We Supposed T o Be?

You could hear the cheers throughout the Florida Health has struggled to meet key deadlines outlined
marijuana industry on June 23, 2017, when by the new law. One of those deadlines affected
Governor Rick Scott signed SB8A in to law. While patient cards. The state was required to issue all
the bill drew its fair share of critics with some of its patient cards by October 3, 2017, however; patients
limitations (more on that later), things were going are experiencing months long delays while a second
to happen and Floridians who voted overwhelm- contractor is selected to administer the cards. It is
ingly on November 8th for Amendment 2 were believed as of the writing of this article the patient
finally going to see some action. Almost one year count sits around 62,000 patients.
after the historic vote, where do things stand? Potential Applicants are facing delay challenges for
To understand where we are, we need to under- licensing. The state missed the deadline to issue new
stand how we got here. In November 2017, 71 per- licenses. There were five approved in August but
cent of registered Floridians voted in favor of there have been delays in issuing the licenses for all
Amendment 2-the 2016 addition. This amendment ten. Hurricane Irma and pending lawsuits have been
essentially allowed for medical use of marijuana as BY DAVID KOTLER, ESQ. blamed for the delay .
determined by a physician for a number of speci- One area, regarding black farmers has been very
fied conditions. It took some time and a special ses- from any form of smoking medicinal marijuana, controversial. SB8A guarantees that one of the licens-
sion of congress to hammer out the details. In June although smoking has been proven to be the most es be issued to a black farmer but that famer must be
of 2017, the Florida legislature passed SB8A and it effective way to alleviate certain ailments. a party in the Pigford v. Glickman class action suit
was signed into law, changing the landscape of mar- Critics are also fighting the portion of the law from 1999 and a member of the Black Farmers
ijuana in Florida as we know it. that prohibits patients from growing for their own Association. A farmer out of Panama City has filed
The Florida Department of Public Health would personal needs. Other states allow some medical suit claiming that this limits the license to a small
be responsible for regulating the new law. marijuana patients to grow for personal use citing pool of black farmers as he was not granted access to
One of the highlights of SB8A is that it expanded financial and accessibility reasons. Groups have the Association.
the number of dispensing organizations, now filed lawsuits to change the law to include smoking The director of what is now known as the Office of
known as MMTC’s beyond Seven to Ten additional and growing marijuana for personal use. Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU), Christian Bax has
vertical licenses (meaning the license holder con- Another group facing challenges with the bill are appeared in front of a number of legislative sub-com-
trols the process from cultivation through retailing the local municipalities. The new law forces local mittees over the past months to explain where the
a final product). governments to treat marijuana dispensaries like program is and discuss the delays.
Five of the new licenses were for Applicants from pharmacies. In response to the law, some counties Legislators have been visibly frustrated with Bax
the 2014 Compass ionate Use program. The addi- have enacted a moratorium while they determine and the Department’s failure to implement SB8A.
tional Five were allotted for one African American how to implement the law. Lawmakers are putting pressure on Public Health
Farmer, two were to be given as a preference for Local governments like the Village of Estero are administrators to resolve these issues as soon as pos-
Applicants that owned Citrus Processing Facilities seeking to ban dispensaries all together due their sible. While the OMMU certainly has been deficient
that they would convert for the processing of med- community’s small population. Other cities and in moving forward timely and seems to have dragged
ical cannabis, and the remaining two were to go to counties have been more receptive to the law and its feet early in the implementation process, they cer-
regular Applicants. The new licenses were set to be have changed their ordinances to align dispensaries tainly weren’t given the tools nor direction by the leg-
issued by October 3, 2017. Although the law capped with pharmacies. Many counties and cities have islature in a timely and coherent manner.
the number of retail locations at 25, it allowed an struggled with the preemption aspects in particular Ultimately , despite a mandate by the citizens of
additional five if the number of active patients how they relate to cultivation and processing ver- Florida, the legislature is responsible for dropping the
statewide increased to over 100,000. sus retailing and in turn what they may actually ball on implementing the will of the people by per-
While SB8A expanded the number of Licenses, control via zoning or otherwise. petuating an uninformed and patchwork bill crafted
there were some areas of the new law that caused As local governments scurry to figure out how to in a manner clearly attempting to satisfy special inter-
controversy. For example, patients are prohibited implement SB8A, the Florida Department of Public ests and indicative of political back dooring.

David Kotler, Esq., a former Miami Dade County Assistant State Attorney, is a partner in Cohen Kotler P .A., located in southeast Florida
. In 2014, Mr. Kotler formed a practice area in Cannabis related law which allows him to draw from all of his practice areas to benefit his clients.

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