Pubdate: Sun, 18 May 2014
Source: Tampa Bay Times (FL)
Copyright: 2014 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/
Website: http://www.tampabay.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Note: Named the St. Petersburg Times from 1884-2011.
Page: 2P

FLORIDA'S URGENT NEED FOR POT RULES

Private entrepreneurs are moving more quickly than state government 
in preparing for the possibility that voters will approve the use of 
marijuana for limited medical purposes in November. There are 
legitimate questions about how medical marijuana would be regulated 
that are not directly addressed by the constitutional amendment. The 
state should be moving with the same urgency as the private sector to 
educate voters on how it might write rules for this new era if the 
amendment is approved, because Florida should not repeat mistakes 
made by other states with medical marijuana.

Recent polls show the medical marijuana initiative, Amendment 2, has 
more than the 60 percent voter approval required to be added to the 
state Constitution. The amendment would allow doctors to endorse 
medical marijuana for patients with debilitating conditions such as 
Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and cancer. Patients would be 
required to have a state-issued identification card and receive their 
marijuana from regulated dispensaries. Despite those general 
requirements, the amendment leaves regulatory holes that would need 
to be filled. The ballot language leaves the heaviest lifting to the 
state Department of Health, which would determine who can grow, 
receive and dispense the drug. With little or nothing to go on, 
businesses are springing up around the state with names such as 
Cannabis Clinic and Cannis-Rx, each hoping to capitalize on the $2.5 
billion legal marijuana market.

The standards the Legislature recently established for Charlotte's 
Web, a noneuphoric strain of marijuana that is used to treat severe 
epileptic seizures, are a potential road map for broader medical 
marijuana regulation. The bill awaiting Gov. Rick Scott's signature 
would limit those marijuana growers to five nurseries around the 
state that have been in business for at least 30 continuous years. 
Selected growers would be required to have a medical director on 
staff and secure a $5 million performance bond. Lawmakers also 
restricted access to patients listed on a compassionate use registry 
and required doctors who order treatment to complete eight hours of 
coursework. The 30-year requirement would squeeze out too many 
legitimate competitors to grow marijuana, but it could be adjusted later.

Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have approved medical 
marijuana use. Opponents of medical marijuana in Florida raise 
several valid questions regarding product safety, doctor and patient 
ethics and industry oversight. Without smart answers, Florida would 
risk becoming the next California, which legalized medical marijuana 
in 1996. Lawmakers there failed to enact statewide regulations and 
left the task to local governments. In the vacuum, marijuana shops 
proliferated and abuse abounded. Now several California 
municipalities have banned the sale of medical marijuana, 
jeopardizing access for the seriously ill who had hoped for a 
convenient, legal outlet for pain relief. Florida is expected to 
issue statewide regulations, and those rules should be balanced to 
provide reasonable access to medical marijuana to qualified patients 
without creating opportunities for shops selling the drug to 
virtually anyone at every intersection.

It is understandable that the private market sees medical marijuana 
as the next big thing. But patient health and public safety should be 
paramount. It would help voters make a more informed decision in 
November on medical marijuana if the state provided greater clarity 
on how it would carry out the amendment's intent to help specific 
patients without turning Florida into the next California.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom