Medical Marijuana

The state Department of Health’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.

It could strengthen the industry as it struggles to compete with hemp-based products sold at gas stations, CBD shops and online at a fraction of the cost.

This election Florida voters will decide whether marijuana should be available to millions more, allowing anyone age 21 or older to get and use marijuana without a prescription.

With recreational pot legal, patients will eventually need to decide if they want to keep their card, which costs $75 a year and requires doctor's visits every seven months costing between $350 and $600 a year.

Medical marijuana patients and advocates are upset that the Florida Department of Health emailed its patient registry to praise Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing the state budget. Democratic Rep. Kelly Skidmore said using the patient list to promote policy is a revolting misuse of power.

Florida lawmakers for the second year in a row have approved proposals to expand the number of Black farmers eligible for medical-marijuana licenses, opening the door for three farmers who did not meet muster during a 2022 application period.

Executive director Shamarial Roberson, an epidemiologist, says the association will advocate for “research and advancement” for medical marijuana.

State Office of Medical Marijuana Use Director Christopher Kimball offered the tentative timeline after giving a presentation about the medical marijuana program to a House panel.

A $1.33 million license-renewal fee "carries out to the letter" a legislative mandate for how much it should cost medical-marijuana companies to do business in Florida, an administrative law judge decided on Wednesday.

An administrative law judge is poised to decide whether a $1.33 million license-renewal fee is too pricey for medical-marijuana operators doing business in Florida.

An administrative law judge issued an order allowing a challenge by Sanctuary Cannabis to proceed and granted an emergency motion to force health officials to provide info used to calculate the new fee.

Some Florida Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Wednesday of arguments that the court should reject a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow recreational use of marijuana by people 21 or older.