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Florida\u2019s Senate Committee on Health Policy advanced a bill on Tuesday that would preemptively limit THC levels in adult-use marijuana products. The change would restrict products allowed under a recreational cannabis legalization ballot initiative that organizers are working to put on November\u2019s ballo<\/a>t.<\/p>\n The bill, SPB 7050, would prohibit dispensary sales of marijuana flower with a potency of greater than 30 percent THC. All other cannabis products would be limited to 60 percent THC. It would also set a serving size on edible products of 10 milligrams THC or less, with the total amount per package no more than 200 mg.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is setting the stage and recognizing that should the amendment pass\u2014should it be on the ballot and should the amendment pass\u2014that we will continue to have a medical marijuana market and we would have a personal use market,\u201d said Sen. Colleen Burton (R), who chairs the committee and who spoke in favor of the committee\u2019s proposed THC limit bill. \u201cThe potencies and quantities that you see in the recommended language today are based upon keeping that separate.\u201d<\/p>\n As more states have legalized marijuana and highly concentrated THC products become more widely available, some have raised concerns about apparent associations between high-THC products and mental health problems, especially in developing brains.<\/p>\n On the House side, that chamber\u2019s Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee last week advanced a bill, HB 1269 from Rep. Ralph Massullo (R), that would set the same preemptive THC limits on recreational marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n At Tuesday\u2019s Senate panel hearing<\/a>, Sen. Gayle Harrell (R) referenced studies indicating an association between high THC cannabis products and mental health issues like psychosis and schizophrenia, especially in youth.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I look at the medical evidence out there and the dangerous impact that high-potency THC has, it is overwhelming,\u201d she argued, adding: \u201cI can tell you, the high risk of schizophrenia is sixfold with high levels of THC.\u201d<\/p>\n Other members expressed mixed feelings on the bill<\/a>. Sen. Rosalind Osgood (D), who said she was 13 when she smoked her first joint\u2014a decision she said led her to \u201cbe on the streets, homeless, with other addictions\u201d\u2014said she supports limiting the strength of mind-altering substances.<\/p>\n But rather than take up THC levels in the standalone measure, she said, \u201cI would have preferred to have this bill at another time, after voters have made a decision, to comprehensively look at all the different arms that go toward this.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Tracie Davis (D) was more critical, saying she\u2019d prefer lawmakers continue to focus on addressing issues in the state\u2019s medical marijuana program before setting limits on a recreational system months before it goes to voters.<\/p>\n \u201cThis feels like a preemption,\u201d she said. \u201cThe best description is I think we\u2019re putting the cart before the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n Before reporting the bill favorably, lawmakers also approved an amendment allowing a THC potency variance of no more than 15 percent\u2014a provision that mirrors edibles rules in the state\u2019s medical program.<\/p>\n \u2014 Florida\u2019s medical cannabis dosage limits, meanwhile,\u2014which were revised under controversial rules adopted in 2022,\u00a0despite pushback from then-Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D)<\/a>\u2014are not based on the percentage of THC in a given product.<\/p>\n While the legalization measure itself has not yet officially qualified for November\u2019s ballot, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) recently\u00a0predicted\u00a0a favorable legal outcome for activists<\/a>\u00a0in the Supreme Court in the face of a challenge from the attorney general who is seeking to block the vote.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the court is going to approve that,\u201d the governor said at his final presidential campaign event in New Hampshire last month, \u201cso it\u2019ll be on the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) has asked the court to invalidate the measure, despite activists collecting nearly one million signatures for ballot placement. The state official previously successfully petitioned justices to\u00a0prevent a 2022 legalization initiative from receiving voter consideration<\/a>.<\/p>\n That won\u2019t be the case this round, according to the governor. While he opposes the reform\u2014and\u00a0pledged not to federally decriminalize marijuana if elected president<\/a>\u00a0when he was running\u2014he says voters will get a chance to decide on the issue this time.<\/p>\n The\u00a0state Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case<\/a> against the Smart and Safe Florida campaign last November, but it has not issued a ruling yet. It will need to do so by April 1.<\/p>\n DeSantis also weighed in on another relevant cannabis policy issue last week when he separately told Murphy that\u00a0he doesn\u2019t believe the federal gun ban for state-legal marijuana consumers is constitutional<\/a>. Florida\u2019s former agriculture commission, Nikki Fried,\u00a0brought a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the rule<\/a>, though the governor did not get involved.<\/p>\n The Florida Chamber of Commerce released a poll last month showing that\u00a0the reform proposal enjoys majority support from likely voters<\/a>\u2014but not quite enough to meet the state\u2019s steep 60 percent threshold for passage.<\/p>\n That said, other previous polls have found that\u00a0voters are well positioned to pass the legalization initiative<\/a>\u00a0with more than enough support. For example, the University of North Florida put out a survey last month that showed 67 percent of voters back the proposal.<\/p>\n The multi-state marijuana company Trulieve has\u00a0contributed<\/a>\u00a0more than $40 million to the Smart and Safe Florida campaign to date. The state attorney general has accused the company of supporting the measure in order to have a \u201cmonopolistic stranglehold\u201d on the state\u2019s cannabis market.<\/p>\n Separately last week, a House subcommittee advanced a medical marijuana bill that would waive patient registration and renewal fees<\/a> for service-disabled military veterans<\/p>\n Marijuana Use Doesn\u2019t Increase Car Crash Risk, But Drinking Alcohol Does, Study Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Ahead Of Legalization Vote, Florida Senate Panel OKs Proposal To Limit THC In Adult-Use Marijuana Products<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s Senate Committee on Health Policy advanced a bill on Tuesday that would preemptively limit THC levels in adult-use marijuana products. The change would restrict products allowed under a recreational cannabis legalization ballot initiative that organizers are working to put on November\u2019s ballot. The bill, SPB 7050, would prohibit dispensaryContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":72313,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72314,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72312\/revisions\/72314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Ahead Of Legalization Vote, Florida Senate Panel OKs Proposal To Limit THC In Adult-Use Marijuana Products<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"