Implementation Bill Dies

The House and Senate have adjourned the 2017 session. The medical marijuana bills are among scores of bills that didn’t make it through both the House and Senate.

Lawmakers had created massive new regulation driven by special interests.

The House and Senate both gave lip service to working in the interests of the patients while taking tens of thousands of dollars from the “Have’s” (those who have a license) and the “Have Not’s” (those who want a license).

Drug-Free America was a leading voice in the drafting of House bill 1397. The bill was amended and re-written dozens of times. The final hours of the debate had nothing to do with patients and everything to do with the people who want to profit off the patients.

100 stores per license – was the final sticking point for the dart thrown between infinity and 3.

The Senate, in an earlier committee, attempted to block the seven license holders from growing so fast they would hold a market monopoly. They put a cap on the number of storefronts per license. The House rejected the cap on storefronts. (Could the thousands of dollars Leader Rodrigues got from the current license holders be part of the reason they held out?)

This session, those of us up here in Tallahassee working for you without compensation came to think of ourselves as the “Have Compassion” and “Have a Conscience”. Well, we lost this session. WE would like to thank our allies, Gary Stein, the team from the Minorities for Medical Marijuana, supporters of NORML and all those who came up to speak. We worked long and hard, but we couldn’t overcome the influence of money on the process.

Because the House and Senate failed to provide a framework for the implementation of Amendment 2 the Department of Health Office of Compassionate Use will finish the rule making process. You will remember they have already held public hearings.

Already attorneys are considering their options for lawsuits. This is an expensive and uncertain process.

For now, if you know someone who uses cannabis then be sure to encourage them to use caution.

Leading from the Front,
FLCAN Team
Florida Cannabis Action Network | Leading The Grassroots Since 1998
Anonymous Donations to P.O. Box 360653, Melbourne, FL 32936 | Tel: 321-253-3673

Filed under: General Problems