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FIRST FLORIDA MEDICAL MARIJUANA READY

TALLAHASSEE ( AP ) - Florida's first legal harvest of marijuana is stored in multiple vacuum-packed, 441-gram bags in a freezer on the outskirts of Tallahassee.

Each is the result of months of careful growing, monitoring, coaxing, and finally cultivating, scores of plants in a hidden farm overseen by horticulturalists and protected by armed guards.

This is one of two production facilities run by Surterra Therapeutics, the first of six companies to win state approval to grow and harvest medical marijuana for the seriously ill and dying.

It is part pharmaceutical production facility, part grow house.  Its operators say it is just the start of new business they hope will bring high-quality, and formerly unavailable, medicine to patients who need it the most.

"It's a very exciting place to be in the medical field in Florida right now, because this is not just a new medication we're talking about," said Dr.  Joseph Dorn, Surterra's medical director, whose career includes a dozen years in Florida hospice care.  "This is a mindset transformation in the treatment of patients, probably tens of thousands of patients whose symptoms are not completely relieved right now."

Florida laws adopted in 2014 and this year allow two types of medical marijuana: non-euphoric strains, such as "Charlotte's Web," that is thought to help control seizures and ease symptoms of certain other medical conditions; and full-strength marijuana to alleviate pain, nausea and other symptoms for patients considered terminally ill.

Since Surterra won approval to harvest last month, Florida has allowed four other companies to do the same: Chestnut Hill Tree Farm in Alachua County, Hackney Nursery in Gadsden County, Modern Health Concepts in Miami-Dade County, and Knox Nursery in Orange County.

Such businesses are poised to expand considerably if the required 60 percent of voters in November cast 'Yes' ballots for Amendment 2, which would legalize full-strength marijuana for an estimated 450,000 Floridians with debilitating illnesses.

And Surterra, an Atlanta-based startup that partnered with the 30-year-old Homestead-based Alpha Foliage, plans to be among the state's largest producers.

The company operates a 6,000-square-foot facility in rural Tallahassee to grow the noneuphoric strain; another slightly smaller facility outside of Tampa grows the full-strength variety.  Each is expected to supply medicine for 2,000 to 4,000 patients per month.

Surterra's primary growing facility outside of Tallahassee is housed in a windowless structure in a sparsely populated, rural area outside of the city.  The building is under 24-7 video surveillance and is surrounded by a chain-linked fence with barbed wire.

Nothing of the growing operation can be seen from the main road, and no signs announce its presence.

Employees and others that the company allows on the property must pass through two checkpoints, each with an armed guard, before reaching the main building.

In truth, it's a lot of expense and effort for marijuana that would be useless to most wouldbe recreational smokers.  This high-cannabidiol, low-tetrahydrocannabinol ( or THC ) type of cannabis does not produce the high typical of recreational marijuana.

Florida law requires patients have at least a 90-day relationship with a doctor authorized to obtain marijuana before they may have access to the drug.  For now, only four physicians in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties have received approval to order marijuana for patients.

Though marijuana remains illegal under federal law, authorities have generally allowed the states to experiment with legalization since 1996, when California voters first authorized its use for certain medical conditions.

Twenty-five states, the District of Columbia and Guam allow comprehensive marijuana use for medical purposes, and several others are considering it this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Another 17, including Florida, allow for more limited medical marijuana use.