Weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis helped quash a proposal seeking to allow recreational marijuana, state health officials announced they intend to award medical-marijuana licenses to 22 of dozens of applicants who vied for the licenses more than 19 months ago.
The move, posted on the Department of Health’s website Tuesday, sets up what could be drawn-out litigation from applicants that missed out on a rare chance to join the state's medical-cannabis industry.
The health agency’s website identified a list of 22 applicants that received “letters of intent to approve” medical-marijuana licenses. The selection comes more than 18 months after the application period for the licenses closed in April 2023.
The letters of intent do not mean that the successful applicants immediately will receive licenses. At least some of the losing applicants are expected to challenge the health agency’s decisions and lead to further delays. The health department received 74 applications from businesses that paid $143,000 to apply last year, but one applicant withdrew. The state paid consulting firm KPMG nearly $1.79 million to score the applications based on a variety of factors.
The health department’s letters came three weeks after a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed recreational use of marijuana fell shy of the 60 percent approval required to pass. About 56 percent of Florida voters supported the measure, which appeared on the Nov. 5 ballot as Amendment 3. DeSantis, however, flexed his executive authority in a state-backed crusade against the measure and played an outsized role in blocking it from meeting the threshold for passage.
Florida Sports Consultants, Inc. d/b/a Belushi’s Farm Florida — a team including actor Jim Belushi — is among the applicants who received a green light for a license this week. Belushi also operates a cannabis farm in Oregon.
Other approved applicants include: A Good Decision, LLC; Alamanda Farms, LLC; East Coast Packers, LLC; FG Operating, LLC; Gates Housing Group, LLC; Global Investment Group, Inc. d/b/a Infinite Wellness; Green Point Research, LLC; Healing Greene FL, LLC; KCOF, LLC d/b/a KLUTCH Cannabis; King Palms, Inc.; O'Donnell Landscapes, Inc.; Pioneer Growers of Florida, Inc.; Pure Beauty Farms, Inc.; RAAB, LLC d/b/a Canna Direct; Star Buds Florida, LLC; Statewide Property Holdings FL, LLC; STIIIZY Florida, LLC; Sunfest Herbs, LLC; The Flower Shop FL, LLC; Theory Wellness of Florida, LLC; Wachovia Holdings, LLC d/b/a Greenlight.
The new licenses are required under a 2017 law that called for boosting the number of licenses as the number of eligible patients, which currently exceeds 880,000, increases.
Last year’s round of applications was the first major opportunity for newcomers to the industry to vie for licenses since the 2017 legislation passed. An initial round of licenses was based on a 2014 law that legalized non-euphoric cannabis for a limited number of patients. The state currently has 25 licensed operators who run more than 690 dispensaries throughout the state.
“They've allocated a lot of time and resources to applying for this application, which is not a cheap process, and it's certainly not cheap, getting yourself in a position to even be able to apply. So, realistically, we probably could see some litigation occur … And then, once all that is situated, we can keep moving.”Jae Williams
The department’s letters this week will likely trigger legal challenges that could stall the final issuance of the licenses for months, if not years.
“Historically, when these sorts of things happen, litigation does occur. In this situation, you have 22 people that are very happy and 50 people that are not very happy at all, right? So it's very, very competitive,” Department of Health spokesperson Jae Williams told The News Service of Florida Wednesday.
The health department and its Office of Medical Marijuana Use “take the job very seriously, because we have the responsibility and the duty to ensure that the highest-scored applicants are suited to be in a position to provide the absolute highest quality product to our patients,” Williams added.
“But with that said, they've invested a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of resources. It's a business. They've allocated a lot of time and resources to applying for this application, which is not a cheap process, and it's certainly not cheap, getting yourself in a position to even be able to apply. So, realistically, we probably could see some litigation occur … And then, once all that is situated, we can keep moving,” Williams said.
Potential operators who received the letters are hoping that Florida lawmakers will speed up the process for licenses to be finalized, a step they have taken in the past.
“History has shown that the Legislature often gets involved in these issues,” attorney John Lockwood, who specializes in cannabis law, told the News Service.
Paula Savchenko, an attorney and consultant who worked on Belushi’s application, said potential licensees could wait years to get up-and-running unless lawmakers intervene.
“If we don’t have a legislative fix, we’re going to see these licenses held up for anywhere between six months to two years,” Savchenko, the founding partner of Cannacore Group and PS Law Group, said in a phone interview Wednesday.
The long-awaited announcement about the upcoming licenses was somewhat dimmed by the recreational-marijuana proposal’s failure.
“We’re still excited. Obviously, the majority of people in the industry would rather have had recreational pass but we all are pretty confident that it’s going to pass sometime in the next two to four years,” Savchenko said. “But yeah, Belushi brands is more tailored to recreational markets but they were OK with operating in the medical industry when they first applied for this license.”
Quincy-based Trulieve, which spent more than $150 million on Amendment 3 and is by far the state’s largest medical-marijuana operator, welcomed the competition.
“We are pleased that the licenses are finally issued bringing the number of licensees to 47. We continue to look forward to working with the governor and legislature to expand access to safe lab-tested cannabis for Floridians,” Trulieve said in a statement.
