Marijuana

The wide-ranging bill addresses issues involving licensing of businesses known as medical-marijuana “treatment centers.”

They range from property insurance reforms to fast-tracking the legalization of recreational marijuana.

With the $2.1 billion acquisition of Harvest Health & Recreation finalized, Trulieve will have 149 retail locations in 11 states including Florida. Before the deal closed, Trulieve had 85 retail sites in Florida.

The health department fliled a complaint alleging violations such as failing to conduct an exam of an agent posing as a veteran with PTSD. The doctor's lawyer says his client was "preyed" on and investigators faked military documents.

Physicians who don’t comply with the new requirements could face disciplinary action from their state boards if complaints are filed and found to have merit.

The state will kick off the rulemaking process for Black farmer applicants within “weeks to months” and set the stage for another set of licenses that would nearly double the number of operators.

The ballot language is misleading, the justices ruled.

The Tampa-based company challenged the state’s system of requiring licensed medical-marijuana operators to handle all aspects of the cannabis business.

The court ruled that the amendment would mislead “voters into believing that the recreational use of marijuana in Florida will be free of any repercussions, criminal or otherwise.”

The bill, which places limits on THC in medical marijuana, passed through the House Professions & Public Health Subcommittee by a party-line vote.

House leaders have pushed to put a limit on tetrahydrocannabinol, the mind-bending component of cannabis, since authorizing smokable medical marijuana in 2019.

The legislation removes cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances and expunges low-level convictions and arrests. But the GOP Senate is not expected to take up the bill.