A legislative proposal now before a Florida conference committee threatens to revoke medical marijuana registrations for people convicted of certain drug crimes\u2014including simply purchasing more than 10 grams of cannabis.<\/p>\n
The provision, which would affect both registered patients and caregivers, was agreed to on Tuesday by House lawmakers. It was a part of SB 2514 when the legislation was filed and later passed by the Senate, while the House approved an entirely different version of the bill and sent the disagreement to be ironed out in the conference committee, formed earlier this month.<\/p>\n
As first reported by Florida Politics<\/a>, House lawmakers have now signed off on the Senate medical marijuana language, offering to accept that provision. Though the offer<\/a> hasn\u2019t been finalized, it\u2019s reportedly \u201cvery likely\u201d the restriction will be included.<\/p>\n The Senate language would require the state Department of Health (DOH) \u201cto revoke the registration\u201d of a qualified patient or caregiver if that person \u201centered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or was found guilty\u201d of a covered drug offense.<\/p>\n Patients\u2019 or caregivers\u2019 registrations would be suspended immediately upon charges being filed, and the suspensions would last until \u201cfinal disposition of the alleged offense.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear from the plain language of the proposal whether it would impact only future criminal cases involving medical marijuana patients and caregivers or whether DOH would need to review the records of existing program registrants and revoke registrations of an untold number of Floridians with past drug convictions.<\/p>\n Florida Politics wrote of the bill<\/a> that \u201cfor those who found the medical marijuana program as a way to escape the black market, the new language may complicate their legal status.\u201d<\/p>\n The provision would impact people charged under the state Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act and reportedly covers cases involving the purchase of more than 10 grams\u201d of any illicit substance or the delivery \u201cwithout consideration, [of] 20 grams or less of cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawmakers defeated several proposals to expand the medical cannabis program<\/a> during this year\u2019s regular legislation session\u2014including by allowing home cultivation, adding new qualifying conditions, protecting employment and parental rights of patients and letting military veterans register for free.<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Florida, advocates are working toward putting a new adult-use marijuana legalization measure on the 2026 state ballot following the failure of Amendment 3 at the polls last November<\/a>.<\/p>\n After filing the measure and launching a signature drive earlier this year, the campaign Smart & Safe Florida has collected 377,832 valid signatures\u2014about 150,000 more than required to kick off the review process<\/a>, according to Division of Elections numbers from earlier this month.<\/p>\n The state is now statutorily obligated to conduct a judicial and financial review of the measure that will determine its legal eligibility and inform the electorate about its potential economic impact.<\/p>\n Smart & Safe Florida is hoping the revised version will succeed in 2026. The campaign\u2014which in the last election cycle received tens of millions of dollars from cannabis industry stakeholders, principally the multi-state operator Trulieve\u2014incorporated certain changes into the new version that seem responsive to criticism opponents raised during the 2024 push.<\/p>\n For example, it now specifically states that the \u201csmoking and vaping of marijuana in any public place is prohibited.\u201dAnother section asserts that the legislature would need to approve rules dealing with the \u201cregulation of the time, place, and manner of the public consumption of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had repeatedly condemned the 2024 initiative over that issue, claiming there were not parameters to prevent public smoking, while expressing his distaste for the smell of cannabis.<\/p>\n The governor said in February that\u00a0the newest measure is in \u201cbig time trouble\u201d with the state Supreme Court<\/a>, predicting it will be blocked from going before voters next year.<\/p>\n Last year, the governor accurately predicted that\u00a0the 2024 cannabis measure from the campaign would survive a legal challenge<\/a>\u00a0from the state attorney general. It\u2019s not entirely clear why he feels this version would face a different outcome.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s uncertainty around how the state\u2019s highest court will navigate the measure, a poll released in February\u00a0showed overwhelming bipartisan voter support for the reform<\/a>\u2014with 67 percent of Florida voters backing legalization, including 82 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans.<\/p>\n However, the results conflict with another recent poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, a proactive opponent of legalization, that found majority support for the reform among likely voter (53 percent)\u00a0but not enough to be enacted under the 60 percent requirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the background of the campaign\u2019s signature development, DeSantis signed a GOP-led bill last month to\u00a0impose significant restrictions on the ability to put initiatives on the ballot<\/a>\u2014a plan that could impair efforts to let voters decide on marijuana legalization next year.<\/p>\n Separately, a\u00a0Florida GOP senator claimed recently that\u00a0the legalization campaign \u201ctricked\u201d Trump into supporting the 2024 measure<\/a>\u00a0by misleading him and the general public about key provisions.<\/p>\n Ahead of the election, Trump said in September that he felt\u00a0Amendment 3 was \u201cgoing to be very good\u201d for the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n Before making the comments,\u00a0Trump met with the CEO of Trulieve, Kim Rivers<\/a>, as well as with a GOP state senator who is in favor of the reform.<\/p>\n While Trump endorsed the Florida cannabis initiative\u2014as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access\u2014he has since been silent on cannabis issues. And his cabinet choices have mixed records on marijuana policy.<\/p>\n Mike Tyson Promotes His Marijuana Brand During DEA Lab Visit Following Meetup With Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Florida Lawmakers Advance Bill To Revoke Medical Marijuana Cards From People Convicted Of Cannabis And Other Drug Crimes<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A legislative proposal now before a Florida conference committee threatens to revoke medical marijuana registrations for people convicted of certain drug crimes\u2014including simply purchasing more than 10 grams of cannabis. The provision, which would affect both registered patients and caregivers, was agreed to on Tuesday by House lawmakers. It wasContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"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\/81640"}],"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=81640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81641,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81640\/revisions\/81641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\nRead More: Florida Lawmakers Advance Bill To Revoke Medical Marijuana Cards From People Convicted Of Cannabis And Other Drug Crimes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"