Pubdate: Sun, 14 Dec 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: Scott Powers Page: 1B 'CHARLOTTE'S WEB' REWRITE Medical-Marijuana Rules May Change Florida's rules for companies to grow and sell medical marijuana to patients with severe epilepsy and other debilitating conditions could be out as soon as Monday. A judge last month ordered the Florida Department of Health to rewrite its regulations for an oil made from noneuphoric cannabis, known commonly as "Charlotte's Web," that can be used to treat epilepsy, other neurological disorders and cancer. The department has been mum since the ruling Nov. 14, when it said it would "consider all options that will most expeditiously get this product to market to help families facing serious illnesses." It has until Monday to appeal the judge's order. Under a law approved last spring, the department was expected to have rules in place by Sept. 30, with the program to start Jan. 1 One of the parents active in lobbying for the law is Seth Hyman of Weston, whose daughter Rebecca, 9, has scores of seizures a day. He said he thinks the department is working on new rules and expects them to be announced soon, perhaps Monday. But the lack of information and the delays disturb him. "Let's not forget that while all this is drawing out, who is suffering? It's the patients, children like mine," Hyman said. "And they're the ones who can die at any time and are in so much need for this." The law created the Department of Health's Office of Compassionate Use, which was ordered to work out regulations for up to five Florida plant nurseries to grow and process the marijuana and then make it available to eligible patients. The "Charlotte's Web" extract is a specific brand of medicinal oil introduced in Colorado that showed remarkable success in alleviating seizures. Yet there reportedly are at least 21 cannabis strains nationally that could qualify under Florida's new law Medical experts say about 125,000 people in Florida with epilepsy that has not responded to other drugs or therapies could be helped by the oil. The delay happened after several of Florida's leading plant nurseries, upset with the department's proposed rules, challenged them - particularly the requirement that licenses would be decided by a lottery. That sent the matter into court, and Administrative Law Judge W. David Watkins in Tallahassee threw out the proposed regulations. "The only thing that I have heard is that the Department of Health is waiting for direction from the Governor's Office and secretary on how to proceed," said another activist parent, Holley Moseley of Gulf Breeze. Lobbyist Louis Rotundo, who represents the Winter Park-based Florida Medical Cannabis Association, expressed concern that nothing would be accomplished anytime soon. He said the startup might have to wait for new legislation from the Florida Legislature in the spring. "I am becoming increasingly doubtful we can get to a positive resolution of this licensing process, given the fact that we've lost four weeks," he said. "The big losers in this whole process are the very patients who went to Tallahassee to try to get the Legislature to do something, and the Legislature did. And what do we have to show for it? Nothing." But state Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Niceville, who pushed through the bill that became the law, said he is confident the department is working hard on rule writing and will soon have a successful program to announce. "It's a legal requirement," Gaetz said. "I have had conversations with the executive branch in which I urged them not to wait for any redo by the Legislature." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom