Posted on 03/14/2019 10:54:31 AM PDT by NobleFree
TALLAHASSEE - Without much debate and two days before Gov. Ron DeSantis’ deadline, a bill to repeal a ban on smoking medical marijuana has finally rolled onto the governor’s desk.
The Florida House affirmed the right to smoke medical pot Wednesday afternoon, approving the Senate bill to include “smoking” to the language in the medical marijuana constitutional amendment. The bill allows patients to receive up to 2.5 ounces of whole flower cannabis every 35 days as recommended by their qualified doctor.
The bill passed 101-11. Seven representatives were not present for the vote.
DeSantis in January tasked the Legislature with amending Florida law to allow smoking medical marijuana. If legislators didn’t by the March 15 deadline he set, the governor said he would do so with litigation.
House Speaker José Oliva has openly criticized smoking medicinal marijuana as an option, saying efforts to legalize it are just “some cover” for getting access to recreational marijuana.
“I’ve been in the smoke business my entire life and I’ve never heard anyone say it’s good for you,” the Miami Lakes Republican and cigar company CEO said then.
On Wednesday, Oliva told reporters that he had reservations then and still has them now.
“This is a difficult issue ... This is the best that we could do and still remain responsible,” he said. “I would certainly have been interested to hear what would have come of that appeal. We might still. But I think that the most important thing was that the elected lawmakers of the state have an opportunity to legislate how this will be governed in our state.”
In 2016, about 71 percent of voting Floridians approved a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana. While the 2017 bill signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott legalized access to the drug in pill, oil, edible and vape form, it made smoking it illegal.
The provision, which became known as the “smoking ban,” was challenged in circuit court in July 2017. In May 2018, Leon County Circuit Judge Karen Gievers ruled the smoking ban to be unconstitutional, but the Department of Health appealed the ruling. After DeSantis announced his intent to drop the appeal, both parties filed a motion to stay the appeal until this month.
In addition to repealing the ban on smoking, the bill passed Wednesday also establishes a Medical Marijuana Research and Education Board. The board will oversee a research consortium established by the state university system’s Board of Governors, which will receive $1.5 million for the program. Instead of only including the University of Florida as the previous law did, all universities can apply to participate. House bill sponsor Rep. Ray Rodrigues said expanding the research is something that “we would be benefited from.”
The bill also requires a second opinion from a board-certified pediatrician for non-terminal patients under age 18.
“While there’s not a lot of science out there currently on the effects of medical marijuana there’s a body of science on the effects of medical marijuana to the developing brain,” Rodrigues said. “But with children who have a terminal illness, long-term concerns are secondary to the short-term concerns.”
It deletes a provision that prohibits a medical marijuana treatment center from selling products like pipes, bongs or rolling papers. Another amendment passed to allow patients to buy those products at third-party locations if they are using marijuana for medical use. The bill only addresses the repeal of the smoking ban and does not address the current integration structure surrounding medical marijuana treatment centers nor does it address provisions like drug-free workplace protections.
If the chamber didn’t pass a bill to repeal a ban on smoking marijuana, the ban would be dissolved via litigation.
Rodrigues, chair of the chamber’s Health & Human Services Committee, said without a bill, no “guardrails” would exist to protect patients through rule-making like second opinions for minors and limits on recommended doses from certified physicians.
“It is upon [doctors] to do their jobs, to treat this as medicine and be diligent about how they’re recommending it to their patients,” said Rodrigues, R-Estero. “We’ll be watching and we’ll be hopeful that the best will occur. If the best does not occur, this subject will be revisited in the future.”
DeSantis has two days to review the bill before his own deadline to enact a law.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a former marijuana lobbyist who campaigned on the promise of expanded access to the medicine, said the legislation was needed.
“Today’s action to finally allow smokable medical marijuana brings four words to the lips of people across our state: ‘It’s about damn time,’ ” Fried said. “I’m thankful for the House and Senate’s work to fix this situation.”
Excellent!
Hope you have good results quickly
FReegards
I appreciate you taking the time to let me know about this.
Thank you again.
Yuck. So now I have to put up with every “back pain” patient and millennial stinking up my space with something that smells a heck of a lot worse than cigarette smoke.
So why does Singapore have one of the highest rates of schizophrenia in the world (#7 out of 192), while the US and the Netherlands rank among the lowest (#181 and #173 respectively, out of 192).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_schizophrenia
More idiocy.
She gets a bit of a buzz from the thc when she takes extra. pancreatitus is no fun
I don't give a rip about Alcohol. I'm not going to indulge this childish but consistent attempt to say "Well this stuff is bad, so my bad stuff ought to be allowed Tooooooooooo!!!!" Waaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!!
So are drunks...want to bring back Prohibition?
This sort of thing has been done before. It didn't work out well at all.
Live free or die free.
But God help you if that is tobacco you are smoking. LOL Welcome to crazy world.
Our new governor keeps his word!
I’ve enjoyed dancing with glee around the stunned progressives I know who hated the notion this was even possible with a GOP governor.
It’s what 71% of voters voted for in 2016 besides our awesome President Trump!
"As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."-Edmund Burke-
I call BS - post links to the alleged medical reports that support your claim.
Ditto for alkies - should we therefore ban alcohol?
I don't give a rip about Alcohol.
Of course not - consistent application of principle is the death of prohibitionism.
You and your pesky facts.
What of it? Can you provide reason to believe that all marijuana use is intemperate?
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