Medical cannabis to be discussed in Special Florida Legislative session

Posted by Sagar Satapathy on June 12, 2017.

The issue over regulation of medical marijuana will be taken up in a special session, Legislative Leaders have informed. The decision was confirmed by Senate President Joe Negron and Speaker Richard Corcoran. The subject will be added to the three-day special session.

No agreement was reached when the House and the Senate had debated the medical marijuana in a legislative session in May. Last year, the Florida people had approved use of medical cannabis through a 71 per cent mandate. The regulation proposal by the Senate was introduced by Senator Rob Bradley, who will initiate the Bill.

The Senator is hopeful that the Bill will lead to a splurge in the number of medical cannabis treatment clinics and offer opportunities for research, while also ensuring safety.

Though the House had planned to limit one grower to 100 dispensaries and planned to allow thousands of dispensaries by the time the state hit 300,000 patients, the Senate plan only allowed 283 dispensaries.

Currently, seven licensed marijuana growers exist, and the Bill will include ten new medical licensed growers. Unless the Legislature takes further action, the limit on dispensaries will expires

The Legislature would also look into the tax issue. While Senate Negron is backing charging sales tax on medical marijuana and tools used to administer it, the House proposed not charging sales tax for two years.

Governor Rick Scott had called for the lawmakers to gather in the Capitol for a three-day special session to discuss on his rejection of education budget. The Bill also proposes to establish a medical cannabis research institute in Tampa. Though the money had been included in the budget, it was vetoed by Governor Scott.

However, now the subject of medical marijuana has been added to the special session.

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