Florida Officials Discuss Allowing Smokable Medical Cannabis

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]U[/dropcap]nder a measure approved by the House panel recently, medical cannabis patients in Florida could soon be allowed to smoke medical cannabis.

Medical cannabis became legal in Florida in 2016 with the passing of the Florida Medical Legalization Initiative that in other words is known as Amendment 2, but lawmakers banned smokable forms of the plant in the bill signed by former Gov. Rick Scott in 2017. In the same year, attorney John Morgan filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming Florida’s smoking prohibition violates voters’ intent.

On Jan. 17, Gov. Ron DeSantis hosted a press conference in Winter Park, Florida where he urged legislators to amend the law to permit smoking medical cannabis by mid-March. The House Health and Human Services Committee recently approved a bill on a 14-2 vote that would allow doctors to prescribe smokable cannabis albeit only in pre-rolled, filtered cannabis cigarette form. The bill has other limitations too. Doctors are obligated to report any form of cannabis that patients consumed and state that the benefits of consuming cannabis for the patient in question outweigh the risks. Smokable cannabis cannot be prescribed to anyone under the age of 18.

Even though Republicans executed the ban, Republican Rep. Ray Rodrigues, who chairs the Health and Human Services Committee, said following the meeting that the smoking ban could be removed without restrictions if DeSantis drops the appeal.

A Senate bill to allow smokable medical cannabis almost died last week due to its condition that made it mandatory for two doctors to declare that medical cannabis is the only form of cannabis patients can use. Bill sponsor Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes took that condition out from the bill before it was approved by its second committee. Brandes’ bill doesn’t restrict smokable cannabis only to pre-rolled, filtered cigarettes. If they want to meet DeSantis’ deadline, these differences need to be sorted soon very soon. “It’s a tight timeline, but our goal is to meet it,” Rodrigues said.