The new bill would allow anyone 21 or older with a medical marijuana card to grow up to two cannabis plants for personal use.
The bill also allows for full telehealth appointments with a doctor to get a medical marijuana card rather than requiring the first visit to be done in person.
Rep. Alex Andrade is sponsoring the bill because he said Amendment 3 showed majority of Floridians support expanded marijuana legalization, despite the amendment not reaching the required 60%
Rep. Alex Andrade is sponsoring a new bill that would make it easier to get medical marijuana cards and allow cardholders to grow up to two marijuana plants at their home.
Andrade filed the bill earlier this month that would allow anyone with a medical marijuana card who is at least 21 years old to grow up to two cannabis plants in their home for their personal use.
The bill, HB 555, also allows full telehealth appointments with a doctor to get a medical marijuana card rather than requiring the first visit to be done in person.
Renewals of medical marijuana cards are also extended to every two years under the bill rather than the approximately six months required under current law.
Andrade said he sponsored the bill because he thought the majority voters sent a clear message in the November election on Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state. The state constitutional amendment failed to win the required 60% of the vote needed to go into effect, but 55.9% of voters wanted the amendment passed.
“The constitutional amendment last year made it pretty darn clear that the majority of Floridians want some type of expansion or modification to the medical marijuana program we have currently,” Andrade said. “So it just made sense to do this.”
The bill also removes state fees on medical marijuana cards for honorably discharged U.S. military veterans.
Andrade said he’s been frustrated by the lack of progress the state has made in enacting the medical marijuana laws.
“I’d like to try and move the ball forward, if I can, to have a more rational program in place before I leave office,” Andrade said.
Andrade pointed to the opioid crisis and deaths caused by fentanyl overdoses and that marijuana is regulated more harshly than fentanyl.
The language of the bill adds to the qualifying reasons a doctor can authorize a medical marijuana card to include all of the medical reasons a legal opioid drug can be prescribed.
Andrade said he put the language in the bill to make a statement about how opioids are treated versus how marijuana is treated. He said opioids are generally prescribed for pain management, and marijuana is also used for pain management.
“I don’t know if, in reality, it would change much, but it’s a pretty basic common sense catch-all,” Andrade said. “If we’re capable of giving a patient an opioid drug, a far more addictive and far more harmful drug to treat an ailment, we should be able to prescribe the marijuana. It’s a far less harmful, far less addictive treatment.”
Andrade said he hopes the Florida Legislature takes up the bill in the upcoming session, which begins next week. Andrade’s bill has been assigned to three committees, but he doesn’t expect it to move until one of the two Senate companion bills, sponsored by Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, start to move.
“Right now, the dynamic is, if the Senate is going to hear it, I think we’ll hear it (in the House),” Andrade said. “If the Senate is not going to hear it, it might just be a bill that I filed.”
Gruters said on a News Service of Florida podcast this week that he wants it to move.
“I hope to move it, but there’s not a lot of interest in my Republican colleagues to move anything related to marijuana whatsoever,” Gruters said.
H/T: www.pnj.com
