By Florida patients and advocates are fed up with restrictions on access to medical cannabis. Florida Health Officials enacted a new emergency rule On August 29, it imposed explicit limits on the amount of medical cannabis that patients can legally obtain and consume.
Proponents like NORML worry that the emergency rules were enacted behind closed doors and without any public input. Additionally, the rule came into effect nearly six years after voters first approved Florida’s constitutional amendment to establish a medical cannabis system.
Nikki Fried, Director of Florida Agricultural and Consumer Services, September 8 Blow up the Florida Department of Health (DOH) and its Medical Marijuana Use Authority (OMMU), asking them to do an “extreme” rollback Dosing restrictions due to emergency regulationsa process that provided less than three days’ advance notice to physicians and patients and did not provide an opportunity for public comment.
Florida Department of Health OMMU website, Emergency Rule 64ER22-8 stipulate A licensed physician cannot issue certificates with more than three 70-day supply limits for cannabis or six or more 35-day supply limits for smoked forms of cannabis. Also, his 35-day supply limit for smoked forms of cannabis should not exceed 2.5 ounces. More restrictions have been added to the list.
However, the rule does allow physicians to request exceptions to the restrictions for certain patients.
Commissioner Freed forwarded this letter to Press conference Held at the Florida State Capitol on Sept. 8, she joins medical cannabis patients and advocates with compassionate cannabis clinic Dr. Barry Gordon and Florida Cannabis Action Network (FLCAN) Jodie James. We discussed why the emergency rule must be scrapped, including how it could harm medical cannabis patients who need high doses of THC.
“This rule change is unnecessary, its implementation has received little attention, its impact is so detrimental that hundreds of thousands of patients in Florida will not be able to access the efficient treatment as determined by their physicians. We are no longer able to access medicines in the amounts we need. We send a strong message to the DeSantis administration to put patients first, protect access to legal and life-saving medical care, and rescind these restrictions. We will never stop fighting for legalization.”
Watch the press conference video here.
Commissioner Freed sent an open letter to the Florida Surgeon General, who oversees DOH’s OMMU. This letter is available for download. here.
NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano described the newly imposed restrictions as “a solution to a problem”. he said: It is likely to cause unnecessary confusion and place an undue burden on patients and physicians. Decisions regarding cannabis care should be made between patients and physicians. They should not be made by bureaucrats. “
Freed is an independently elected member of the Florida Cabinet.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters on Aug. 23 that medical marijuana license holders in the state will have to pay more for license applications and renewals. State officials “should charge these people more,” DeSantis said.
