The state of Florida is finally getting around to possibly giving out medical marijuana licenses to growers this summer, this means we are now getting at least a little closer to gaining access to limited forms of cannabis oil that were passed into law last year by the Florida legislature.
The Department of Health will be in a charge of issuing the licenses to the prospective growers, however there is still a large barrier to entry if you intend to get in on the action. In order to get a license to be a grower you must have an established nursery business that has been running for at least 30 years, plus be capable of producing at least four hundred thousand plants to meet the demand.
Reportedly only about a hundred businesses in the whole entire state actually meet these requirements, in addition to that you also need the capital to purchase a bond and cover all the start-up costs for building a new nursery for the growing your marijuana plants. So for us little guys it still looks bleak as far as being able to grow marijuana in the state of Florida, it shouldn’t be surprising that our representatives in the legislature are making sure only their rich friends benefits from the legalization of medical marijuana.
However we will continue to fight into 2016 and hopefully get a new amendment on the ballot, this time the wording of the amendment should be much approved and not as restrictive as the last version.
Even though this current legislation in much needed it only allows certain strains of marijuana to be grown that are low in THC, they are essentially targeting children who are prone to epilepsy and other debilitating conditions. Studies have proven that low grade marijuana has been able to help stop their seizures, so this makes it difficult for a hard line politicians to say no when there are little children suffering.
After the passage of this legislation last year the selling of this type of marijuana was scheduled to begin at the beginning January 2015, however it has run into roadblocks because of administrative law Judge W. David Watkins who sided with one challenger last year. This decision made the Florida Department of Health to create a rulemaking workshop and form a committee to review the regulations, also lately the Baywood Nurseries in Apopka Florida has claimed that the policy is too vague and unfair. Claiming that the law favors the bigger nurseries, however that challenge has been rejected so it looks like applications from the big nurseries will soon be reviewed.
I totally don’t understand that if we are going to legalize medical marijuana in Florida why can’t these families just grow these strains themselves, making them pay a premium price to a nursery just doesn’t make sense. Families with sick children are already under a huge financial strain, and requiring them to dish out even more money for weed is just inexcusable.
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