Adam Putnam: Low-THC cannabis took amendment 'substantially off the table'

 

While few of the advocates for the marijuana amendment on the November ballot were opposed to the Legislature passing the low-THC cannabis for medical purposes, many were wary of it being a wolf in sheep's clothing that would allow opponents to claim the issue is resolved.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam told Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times and Al Ruechel of Bay News 9 that the narrowly drawn new law takes the constitutional amendment "substantially off the table." The law requires doctors to register patients on a state-controlled Compassionate Use Registry and allows the medical use of cannabis only for epileptic seizures, muscle spasms and cancer. 

Putnam, an opponent of Amendment 2, also disputes the economic potential of the new crop in Florida. "You're not going to see marijuana grown in former orange groves,'' he said. "This will all be grown indoors. This is not a potential cash crop. This is not a potential replacement....To me, the medical component of the marijuana ballot inititave is substantially off the table now."

 

Florida's potential pot crop will be limited but it's drawing lots of interest

A tropical plant farmer in Gainesville is hoping marijuana will be the crop that finally helps him make money.

An orchid grower in Homestead has already researched the best machines to extract the oil from the low-THC cannabis to make it available to patients. A vegetable farmer in Highlands County says he’s got the money, the greenhouses and the technology, so all he needs is the security cameras and armed guards.

And at the Florida Medical Cannabis Association, the phone is ringing off the hook from vendors, distributors and investors who want in on Florida’s expected new crop.

This flash of interest was ignited by Florida legislators last week when they passed a bill on the final day of session opening the door to a low-THC strain of medical marijuana to treat people suffering from epileptic seizures, muscle spasms and cancer.

But a last-minute amendment to the bill (SB 1030), which Gov. Rick Scott has promised to sign into law, will keep a tight lid on growers wanting to cash in on the medical marijuana business. The amendment limits the number of growers to just five, parsed by geography in five different regions of the state.

And the bill requires that only those growers who have been in business continuously for 30 years and have inventories of 400,000 or more plants would qualify to compete for the five regional permits. That means only 21 of the hundreds of nurseries in Florida meet those strict requirements, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture.

“Is 30 years an arbitrary number? Probably, but it’s a first step,” said Ben Bolusky, CEO of the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association, whose organization helped to develop the amendment. Story here. 

MAP: Nurseries with inventories of more than 400,000 plants and who have been operating in Florida for 30 years who qualify to be distributors of low-THC cannabis.

'Pot University' in Tampa teaches Marijuana Growing 101...er...420 101?

Reuters:

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Retired real estate agent Wanda Hurt, 58, is learning how to grow peppers and tomatoes, but when she graduates from Florida's own version of Pot U she'll be equipped to start her own medical marijuana business.

Hurt is one of hundreds of would-be pot producers paying $500 to learn the business after Florida last week joined the march of 22 states permitting limited marijuana use.

"I want to be part of the revolution," said Hurt, from Fort Myers.

The school, officially called Medical Marijuana Tampa, is one of several dozen new Florida businesses hoping to cash in on the cannabis crop.

More here

Pot will no longer be cash-only crop under Colorado banking scheme

Colorado lawmakers have approved the world's first financial system for the marijuana industry, a network of uninsured cooperatives designed to give pot businesses a way to access basic banking services.

The plan, approved Wednesday, seeks to move the marijuana industry away from its cash-only roots. Banks routinely reject pot businesses for even basic services such as checking accounts because they fear running afoul of federal law, which considers marijuana and its proceeds illegal.

The result: Pot shop owners deal in large amounts of cash, which makes them targets for criminals. Or they try to find ways around the problem, like drenching their proceeds in air freshener to remove the stink of marijuana and try to fool traditional banks into accepting their money.

"This is our main problem: Financial services for marijuana businesses," said Sen. David Balmer, R-Centennial. "We are trying to improvise and come up with something in Colorado to give marijuana business some opportunity, so they do not have to store large amounts of cash."

The U.S. Treasury Department said in February that banks could serve the marijuana industry under certain conditions. With the industry emerging from the underground, states want to track marijuana sales and collect taxes. It's a lot easier to do that when the businesses have bank accounts. Story from AP here.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/08/4104797/colorado-lawmakers-approve-plan.html#storylink=cpyColorado became the first state to allow recreational pot sales, which started Jan. 1. Washington state will follow suit, with retail sales expect to start in July.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/08/4104797/colorado-lawmakers-approve-plan.html#storylink=cpy

Q-Poll Florida: 88% back medical marijuana; 53% support outright legalization

@MarcACaputo

Quinnipiac University has released a new poll concerning Floridians' attitudes about sports (they're against college players unionizing and getting paid).

Sports questions, however, are not on the ballot. Medical marijuana is. 

And more and more, polls like this indicate it will pass. The issue garners 88 percent support, up from 82 percent the last time Quinnipiac surveyed the question.

One nit with the poll: It doesn't ask the specific ballot language, which says: "Allows the medical use of marijuana for individuals with debilitating diseases as determined by a licensed Florida physician. Allows caregivers to assist patients’medical use of marijuana. The Department of Health shall register and regulate centers that produce and distribute marijuana for medical purposes and shall issue identification cards to patients and caregivers. Applies only to Florida law. Does not authorize violations of federal law or any non-medical use, possession or production of marijuana."

But opponents shouldn't be jumping for joy over the poll's wording. The ballot amendment language sounds far more strict than the polling question. And the issue in general is starting to poll off the charts (it's one reason Republicans in the Legislature approved a limited low-THC medical marijuana bill that Gov. Rick Scott unexpectedly said he'd sign). But then, the poll question also specifies that prescription pot would be for adults, whereas the proposed amendment is silent on the issue.

Here''s Quinnipiac's language:

Florida voters support 88 – 10 percent allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes, if a doctor prescribes it. Support is over 80 percent among all listed groups, including 84 – 13 percent among voters over 65 years old.

By a smaller 53 – 42 percent majority, voters support allowing adults to legally possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use. There are gender, age and partisan gaps:
• Men support so-called recreational marijuana 58 – 38 percent, while women are divided, with 48 percent in favor and 46 percent opposed;
• Voters 18 to 29 years old support recreational marijuana 72 – 24 percent, with voters 30 to 64 years old in favor by smaller margins and voters over 65 years old opposed 61 – 33 percent.
• Support is 59 – 34 percent among Democrats and 61 – 36 percent among independent
voters, with Republicans opposed 64 – 33 percent.
Only 45 percent of Florida voters admit they’ve tried marijuana. Among voters 50 to 64 years old, 62 percent admit smoking pot, more than any other group.
Marijuana is equally as dangerous as alcohol, 43 percent of voters say, while 39 percent say it is less dangerous and 12 percent say it is more dangerous.
Marijuana use does not lead to the use of other drugs, voters say 54 – 38 percent.
“If Vegas were giving odds on medical marijuana becoming legal in Florida, the bookies would be betting heavily,” said Brown. “With almost nine in 10 voters favoring legalization for medical purposes, and bills allowing such use advancing in the State Legislature, the odds seem pretty good Florida may join the states which already have done so.”
From April 23 – 28, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,413 registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points.

Download Q-Poll

Florida to legalize low-THC cannabis

Florida will join the ranks of states that allow marijuana use for medical purposes with a measure strictly limited to cover only patients with seizures, muscle spasms and cancer, under a bill the Senate sent to the governor Friday for his promised signature.

Gov. Rick Scott told reporters Thursday that he will sign the bill to legalize low-THC cannabis to be used by patients with specific ailments, which passed the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities. The Senate voted for the bill, SB 1030, 30-9 on Friday while the House voted 111-7 on Thursday.

"I'm a parent and a grandparent. I want to make sure my children, my grandchildren, have the access to the health care they want,'' Scott told reporters on Thursday. "So, I know the House has passed the bill. It's going back to the Senate. If it passes, I'm going to sign it."

There was a brief skirmish in the Senate, when South Florida legislators attempted to expand a last-minute amendment added to the bill in the House that requires that the low-THC strain of marijuana may only be grown by nurseries that have been continually operating in Florida for 30 years.

There was no explanation given when the House adopted the amendment by Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres, but Sen. Rene Garcia said it would exclude every nursery and farmer in South Florida, whose nurseries were shut down by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services could not immediately provide an estimate as to how many nurseries might qualify but only 30 nurseries have been in operation 26 years or longer.

Garcia and Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, attempted to amend the bill to broaden the provision to include farmers who have been in operation in Florida for just 10 years.

"We’ve always stood up for the free market, for free competition,'' Garcia said. "How are we now going to say we’re going to limit it to a certain number of growers and not open it up to the industry?"

But Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, a prime sponsor of the bill, warned that any change

He later explained that he was told the reason it was added to the House bill was to discourage "fly-by-night" operators from operating in Florida. "We're not interested in creating a new industry that does not currently exist,'' he said. He pledged to return to the issue next year but "I didn't want the perfect to be an enemy of the good and I didn't want to risk sending it back on what I consider a smaller issue on the grand scheme of things."

More than 125,000 children in Florida suffer from severe epilepsy in Florida and 380,000 adults. The bill authorizes doctors to order low-THC cannabis for use by patients suffering from chronic seizures, persistent muscle spasms, including Lou Gehrig’s disease and other chronic conditions, and cancer.

Families of children with severe epilepsy worked all session to persuade the legislature to pass the bill and give them access to the seizure-reducing properties of marijuana extract that appears to be working for children in Colorado.

 

"It's just been pretty amazing,'' said Holley Moseley of Gulf Breeze, whose 11-year-old daughter RayAnn, suffers from chronic epilepsy and has dozens of seizures a day. "We were talking about the Florida seal and it says 'In God We Trust' and my husband and I have put our trust in God and it just gives me chills to think about."

 

She and her husband, both health care professionals, adopted their daughter, RayAnn, when she was abandoned by her birth parents at age 2. "She just has this ray about her,'' her mother said. 

 

Kim Dillard and Rebecca Walters of Pensacola, brought their sons who also suffer from intractable epilepsy to the Senate gallery to watch the debate.

 

"I'm relieved. This was Josh's last chance,'' Walters said after the vote, referring to her 16-year-old son who has had every treatment, including brain surgery, to try to relieve his seizures. 

 

"I'm really kind of surprised they did it,'' said Dillard, whose son, Daniel, 15, grasped Bradley's hand and called him "Senator Big Guy" when he came to greet them after the vote.

 

"It's such a sensitive issue for legislators and their constituents and I felt they might be afraid to take a stand for it but I'm glad they got over their fears,'' she said. "I'm kind of numb. Is it real?" 

Department of Ag: Database doesn't track 30-year nurseryman for marijuana bill

The last-minute amendment tucked into the House marijuana bill is getting some opposition in the Senate, where Democrats want to strip it from the bill when it's up for final passage in that chamber today.

The provision requires that nurseries with inventories of over 400,000 plants and who have been operating in Florida for 30 years are the only ones who qualify to be distributors of medical marijuana. It was amended to the bill with no discussion by Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which tracks nursery registration, has a database that only dates back to 1988. They told the Herald/Times they are going through their paper records to come up with a list to see who qualifies. Meanwhile, here's what the database shows: 

* 30 nurseries with an inventory of over 400,000 that have been in business 26 years or longer.

* 33 nurseries with an inventory of over 400,000 that have been in business 20-25 years.

* 34 nurseries with an inventory of over 400,000 that have been in business 1-20 years.

So who qualifies? Caldwell said he has been told there are 35 nurseries who fit the requirements. DACS said it will try to get a list by the end of the day.

Medical cannabis bill includes special carve-out for Florida growers -- but who?

In the flurry of amendments on the bill to legalize a limited strain of medical marijuana, the House approved a provision sought by Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres, which would require that the only nurseries that could grow this strain of marijuana would be those who have been operating on Florida for 30 years or more. 

Caldwell, a real estate appraiser who touts the fact that he is a seventh-generation Floridian, inserted the amendment into the bill without debate, explanation or discussion. Caldwell told the Herald/Times he believes there are about 35 growers in Florida who could compete for the five dispensaries that would be allowed to handle the medical pot. (We've asked the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for more information on this list.)

But the amendment does appear to be an attempt to exclude out-of-state growers, such as the Stanley Brothers who have developed the low-THC strain of marijuana that was discovered by a mother of a child with intractable epilepsy.

The strain was given the name "Charlotte's Web" after Charlotte Figi, the seven-year-old child whose seizures have gone from hundreds a day to only a few a week after she started taking an extract placed under her tongue.

The House passed a bill authorizing a similar strain to be developed in Florida by a vote of 111-7 Thursday. The measure now heads to the Senate. 

According to Caldwell's amendment, growers "must possess a valid certificate of registration issued by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services pursuant to s. 581.131 that is issued for the cultivation of more than 400,000 plants, be operated by a nurseryman as defined in s. 581.011, and have been operated as a registered nursery in this state for at least 30 continuous years."

 

The bill is expected to be accepted, unchanged, by the Senate on Friday, the last day of the legislative session, said Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, a chief sponsor of the bill.

 

 

 

11-year-old arrives to send message to Senate on medical marijuana

In the broad array of rhetoric employed by Florida’s legislators during a regular session, it is not often a bill can truthfully be considered lifesaving. For RayAnn Moseley, 11, and her parents, the vote in the Florida Senate on SB 1030 on Monday is her last best hope that she could get legitimate access to a marijuana extract in Florida that could potentially save her life.

"We've told her we are here to get her new medicine,'' says Holley Moseley, her mom.

RayAnn has cerebral palsy and has suffered from intractable epilepsy, a debilitating disease that often takes children before their 20^th birthday.

Her parents, Holley and Peyton Moseley of Gulf Breeze, have spent the last four months urging Florida lawmakers to find a way to make a special strain of marijuana available to their daughter and children like it. The measure is expected to pass the Senate but faces a steep hurdle in the House where leaders are not prepared to take up the bill as they quietly believe that Florida cannot make the extract available safely.

Senate's final committee clears medical pot bill as governor remains noncommittal

Despite concerns from the governor’s surgeon general, a bill to legalize a limited strain of marijuana extract to help children with intractable epilepsy cleared its final Senate committee on Tuesday.

The bill, SB 1030, was amended to now be closer to a House version, HB 843, which was adopted on a 15-3 vote by a House committee on Monday. Both bills now require that for a patient to be eligible to receive a legalized form of marijuana extract be placed on a Compassionate Use Registry by his or her treating physician. Both bills head to the floor next for a vote.

Under both proposals, the bill create a distribution system for marijuana extract that could serve as the framework for the regulation of medical marijuana in the future. Voters will be asked in November to approve Amendment 2, the constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana for debilitating medical conditions, and legislation that passes this session could limit its effect.

The Senate adopted an amendment to bring the Senate bill closer to the House bill but, unlike the House, the Senate does not expand the applicable use of the marijuana extract to other ailments.

The House expands the bill to go beyond helping children with epilepsy to cover patients with Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimers, post traumatic stress disorder and cancer.

Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, one of the Senate sponsors of the bill said the Senate is not supportive of adding the other illnesses. 

“The Senate is pretty clear we’re not interested in expanding beyond the very limited scope,’’ Bradley told the Herald/Times.

The Senate requires that a physician who is treating a patient must have a relationship with the patient for at least two months before the doctor can recommend someone be added to the compassionate use registry.

Surgeon General John Armstrong testified before the House committee Tuesday that the proposal may have unintended consequences if the marijuana is not sufficiently regulated and its purity controlled.

Bradley said he is working with Armstrong and has included provisions in the bill that provides for quality control through inspections, record-keeping and inspection from law enforcement agencies.

“I still think it’s a work in progress,’’ Bradley said.

Gov. Rick Scott, who has refrained from committing to the bill, would not say Tuesday whether he would veto the bill in its current form but he told the Herald/Times that he is supportive of efforts to “help families deal with debilitating diseases.”