Florida Health Officials outline Medical Marijuana Regulations

Posted by Sagar Satapathy on May 28, 2017.

The Florida Department of Health is taking steps for adopting regulations to allow the use of medical marijuana by patients after the state lawmakers failed to resolve the issue during the session early this month.

The Department of Health on Thursday published a ‘Notice of Regulation Development Procedure,’ highlighting the procedures the Department intends to implement, using Amendment 2. Amendment 2 was cleared by more than 71 per cent of votes in November last year. It permits patients with medical conditions including HIV-AIDS, PTSD, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis and a host of others to access medical cannabis plant.

The Florida Department of Health came into action after lawmakers failed to act in the last session that ended on May 8. The Department now faces an ambitious deadline of July 3 to note that the regulations, which is said to boost the medical marijuana industry and might also make Florida as one of the country’s largest medical cannabis markets. The officials have time till October 3 to implement the regulations.

As per the procedure, the officials of the Department of Health will need to give a 15-day notice before adopting the regulations. The draft rules will also include a public-comment period of three days.

Though, Amendment 2 which was passed last year is now a part of the Constitution of Florida, the rules for passage of regulations do not apply.

The lawmakers will likely resume the discussions on the issue during a special summer session. Sen. Rob Bradley has supported a special session to discuss the issue so that the matter is decided by the lawmakers and not the Department. However, a session is likely if the Governor Rick Scott vetoes a portion of the budget, forcing the lawmakers to discuss issues other than marijuana.

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