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WILL LEGISLATORS BLOW LAST CHANCE AT MEDICAL POT?

Just when it seemed Florida might finally be getting off the state's dizzying medical marijuana merry-go-round, new variables promise further delay of the legal, non-euphoric marijuana the Legislature promised two years ago.

The 2016 session just became legislators' last chance to deliver compassion for children with intractable epilepsy, and people with advanced cancer and similar debilitating conditions.

The priority on this issue should be to clear the regulatory haze and implement the 2014 law - given voters' near-certain approval of a much less desirable constitutional amendment that would legalize euphoric marijuana for medical use.

New issues begin with the 13 petitions challenging the "dispensing organization" licenses granted in November by state health officials.  The lucrative licenses allowed five nurseries, in five regions, to grow and distribute ingestible Charlotte's Web marijuana, low in the euphoric-producing chemical THC.

The questions, however, range from due process, scoring and security/background challenges, to complaints that four of the five nurseries receiving the licenses were represented on the panel that helped make the rules.  Among those chosen were Costa Farms in MiamiDade County, from the Southeast Florida region of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

While the law's objective was to expedite relief from dire medical conditions, as certified by a licensed state physician, an apparently shoddy selection process suggests some license awards could be reversed - or at least end up in court.

That helps explain the steady march to alter the state constitution, forcing the state to allow euphoria-causing cannabis strains and more growers, while including more ailments for medical marijuana treatment.

Backers such as United for Care already have had their day in the Florida Supreme Court, which recently unanimously approved the amendment language.

Moreover, according to the state Division of Elections website, amendment supporters have submitted well over 450,000 of the 683,149 valid petition signatures required by Feb.  1 to get the amendment on the Nov.  8 ballot.  There, it is almost sure to pass in an increased-turnout, presidential election year.

The 2014 effort is increasingly looking like a dry run.  Then, 58 percent of voters supported the amendment, just below the 60 percent required to enact constitutional change.  This time, backers even tweaked the ballot language to address concerns - to specify parents' consent, for example, for minors to receive a prescription.

Can a full, recreational-cannabis legalization amendment be far behind? Or will leadership instead prescribe the future of marijuana in Florida?

What's certain is that the Florida Constitution is not where the overdue relief most practically and realistically should come.  Statutory solutions are always preferable for addressing such fast-changing and often volatile issues.  Medical marijuana doesn't belong in the constitution precisely because of the inherent limits on the Legislature's regulatory role, and difficulty in resolving unforeseen problems.

It's also no secret that some proponents of legalized recreational marijuana - seeking to equate marijuana with alcohol, for example - see legalization of medical marijuana as a necessary first step, and thus want it established in the state constitution.  Again, that's no way to run a state.

The fact that voters conceivably could make session action moot, however, should not keep legislators from doing their jobs.  Lawmakers have blown more than enough fog in their effort, but it's too late to clear the air.

Equally certain, however, is that the Legislature is leaving medical marijuana proponents little other option.  Lawmakers should fix this.  Or they can abdicate their responsibility, let the courts, judges and constitution deliver the promised relief, and basically send voters a loud hint that they can't count on their elected officials to legislate.