The FDA and the Federal Trade Commission sent a warning letter yesterday to a Florida-based CBD company, Rooted Apothecary, about unproven claims on their products.

Last year, lawmakers in the United States legalized industrial hemp via the 2018 Farm Bill, adding to an already growing interest in CBD-based products.

For the past three and a half months, marijuana has essentially been decriminalized in Miami. After Florida legalized hemp July 1, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office announced it would no longer prosecute most minor marijuana charges because the substance is virtually indistinguishable from hemp.

Nevertheless, the City of Miami Beach has passed a municipal ordinance to discourage people from smoking weed in public. At a meeting last week, city commissioners unanimously voted to outlaw public smoking of marijuana and hemp.

Florida voters may have the opportunity to legalize recreational marijuana at the ballot box next year, and a new study may help bolster the advocates’ case. 

The study, conducted by New Frontier Data, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank dedicated to providing empirical research on cannabis, suggests that the state could see a significant uptick in jobs over the next several years if pot is legalized. 

Florida already has a medical marijuana program in place, but the consensus seems to be that unleashing the leaf from its prohibition standard is the next logical step.

The presidential election is just about a year away from either making America great again, again or sending it down the path to a long recovery from the clown shoe politics of the past four years. In the midst of the madness, there is marijuana. Some claim the issue has achieved great strides in 2019, more prominent than ever before, while those of us who reside in a more real place has clearly noticed that legal weed is not really in any better position than it has been in a long time.

In a move uncharacteristic of the cannabis market in Florida, an Atlanta broker is searching for the next owners of two highly sought Florida medical marijuana licenses.

Aubrey Logan-Holland, the CEO of a relatively new firm called Blue Dream Industries, is listing the licenses, or “paper” in industry speak, for about $95 million in total.

One license is going for $40 million and allows the owner to operate no more than 30 retail stores. The other license is selling for about $55 million, with the rights to open up to 35 retail stores. In addition to the actual license, this deal includes a greenhouse for cultivation.

The numbers 11 and 33 come up quite often when the topic of marijuana legalization is discussed. Currently, 11 U.S. states allow the legal use of recreational marijuana, while 33 states have legalized medical cannabis. But those numbers could soon change.

Nine states could be on track to hold key votes on some form of marijuana legalization in 2020. Here are the states that could be next on the marijuana map -- and the stocks that could be poised to profit the most.

The Florida Department of Agriculture expects to receive 8,000 applications by December and issue 3,000 cultivation permits early next year when the state rolls out its new industrial hemp program.

Some officials estimate the crop could eventually spawn a $30 billion annual industry in the Sunshine State but, as the Senate Agriculture Committee learned Tuesday, the rosy prospectus comes with thorns.

While 37 states have authorized industrial hemp programs in the two years since the crop was legalized under the federal 2018 Farm Bill, all await approval and guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Earlier in 2019, Florida lawmakers approved the state’s first industrial hemp program. This was a campaign priority of Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried, and expectations were high.

Branded as a savior for the slumping agricultural sector, the hope was crops could be planted this year, launching a multi-billion dollar industry.

Two members of Florida’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill on Thursday that would expand research into the medicinal use of marijuana. The measure, titled the Expanding Cannabis Research and Information Act, was filed by Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala and her Republican colleague Rep. Matt Gaetz has signed on as a co-sponsor.

If passed, the bill “would develop a national cannabis research agenda, direct the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to collect data on the health impacts of cannabis, establish a National Institutes of Health ‘Centers of Excellence’ research designation, and reclassify cannabis as a Schedule III controlled substance,” according to Shalala’s office.