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END-OF-LIFE MARIJUANA BILL HEADS TO SCOTT, WHO IS 'IFFY'

TALLAHASSEE - A measure allowing terminally ill patients to use fullstrength marijuana in the last year of their lives is now before Gov.  Rick Scott.

Following emotional testimony Monday, the state Senate approved the legislation ( CS/HB 307 ) on a 28-11 vote.  It cleared the House 99-16 last week.

Scott, though, has been described as "iffy" on the measure by lawmakers close to the issue.

The bill would allow marijuana to be included as an experimental drug under a state law which allows doctors to order not fully approved medication for patients expected to die within a year.

Senate sponsor Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said the bill grows out of frustration with the so-called Charlotte's Web legislation approved two years ago by lawmakers.

That effort was supposed to get a non-euphoric, marijuana oil in the hands of cancer patients and youngsters suffering from severe seizures as early as January 2015.

But regulatory and legal challenges continue to keep the product off the market.

"Two years later, not one child in the state of Florida has received help from that law we passed in 2014," Bradley told the Senate.  "And that makes me angry and it makes me embarrassed.  And it's time to end it."

The legislation maintains the five nurseries selected by the state Health Department to grow, process and distribute the oil low in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC - the compound which gives marijuana its psychoactive quality.

But it also now gives them authority to grow full-strength pot for medical use.

Some opponents condemned the legislation as doing nothing to remedy the problem with accessing the low-THC oil - while kicking the door open to medical marijuana throughout the state.

Instead, Sen.  Jeff Brandes, R-St.  Petersburg, said Bradley's bill only furthers what he derided as a "state-sanctioned drug cartel."

The measure also would allow for three new dispensing organizations once medical marijuana treatment is ordered for at least 250,000 Florida patients.

Still, none of the 23 states that allow medical marijuana has reached the 250,000 threshold, which Sen.  Jeff Clemens, D-Atlantis, said made the provision "useless."

Clemens, who for several years has supported broader efforts to make medical marijuana legal in Florida, said the legislation created in 2014 was "designed for profit, not to help patients."

A medical marijuana constitutional amendment is expected to be back before voters in November.  A similar proposal two years ago fell just short of winning voter approval, although this year's higher turnout for the presidential contest is widely seen as helping the proposal clear the needed level of 60 percent support.

"Unfortunately, because of the persistent ineptitude of the state Legislature, there are presently zero eligible medical marijuana patients in the state," said Ben Pollara, campaign manager for the United for Care ballot measure.

"The bill's passage today is merely more lipstick on the pig that is Tallahassee's failed 'medical marijuana' law," he added.

Sen.  Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, who backed the Charlotte's Web legislation two years ago said he was in favor of Bradley's revision.  And he scoffed at a claim by Sen.  Greg Evers, R-Baker, that low-THC marijuana would be available in anywhere from 90 days to 120 days.

"That's exactly what we were told two years ago," Gaetz said.  "But then ...  money and greed imposed themselves and we've been hung up for two years in a kind of swamp land of litigation."