Pubdate: Wed, 17 Dec 2014
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2014 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.
Author: Scott Powers
Page: B3

MEDICAL-POT RULES TO BE REWRITTEN; DEC. 30 PUBLIC HEARING SET IN ORLANDO

The Florida Department of Health will not appeal a judge's ruling 
that it must write new regulations for medical marijuana and instead 
announced a public hearing on the matter for Orlando on Dec. 30.

The hearing will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. - or perhaps later - at the 
Florida Department of Health in Orange County, 6101 Lake Ellenor 
Drive in Orlando, officials said.

At stake are how and when the state will begin allowing companies to 
produce a medicine informally known as "Charlotte's Web" that's 
extracted from a noneuphoric strain of marijuana.

The extract became legal this past spring when the Legislature 
approved SB 1030 and Gov. Rick Scott signed it. The Florida 
Department of Health was to come up with rules and regulations by 
Sept. 30, and the program was supposed to start by Jan. 1.

The agency proposed such rules and regulations, but the program got 
hung up in legal challenges.

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 Department of Health had until Monday to appeal, and officials 
had said nothing until Monday night, when it release a statement 
about its decision.

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.
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