While restaurants empty and bars close, patients depending on medical marijuana don't need to worry — dispensaries have remained open, albeit with new procedures to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Dispensaries are labeled an essential service under the same umbrella as health care and pharmacies, so business closures mandated made by local governments won't affect operations, said Vinit Patel, regional dispensary operations manager for Curaleaf, which has nearly 30 locations across Florida. 

Medical marijuana businesses are adapting new procedures to encourage social distancing. Some are closing lobbies and moving operations outdoors, or allowing “herb-side pickup,” such as RiSE Dispensary in Bonita Springs.

Of the potential markets left untapped in America's legal marijuana industry, The South is the biggest of them all. A collective 125.5 million people live in the Southern United States, and only a fraction of them have access to medical marijuana. None of those 125.5 million Americans have access to recreational or adult-use marijuana.

That’s 38 percent of the country, a vast market for cannabis entrepreneurs. But social conservatism and a reluctance to change marijuana policy have kept this market from getting developed. That could change soon.

An effort to limit the amount of THC in medical cannabis prescriptions for patients under the age of 21 went down in flames on Friday in Florida’s state legislature.

As this year’s legislative session wound down, lawmakers in the Sunshine State passed a healthcare bill that did not include a provision that would have place a 10% THC cap for such young patients.

The House last week approved a THC cap for medical marijuana. It only would have applied to minors.

But the chronologically limited proposal, on what had been an unrelated health care bill, hit a Senate roadblock.

And that was the end of this year’s quest to cap THC levels in cannabis, even as the Senate passed the bill 39-0.

House members previously approved a Rep. Ray Rodrigues amendment (434551) to HB 713 that would resuscitate a 10% cap on whole flower and derivatives for patients under 21.

In recent years medical marijuana has been legalized for use by people who qualify. Originally, only low THC, and CBD oil products could be sold in Florida dispensaries. However, this quickly changed with revised MMJ laws in 2017. The new regulations made regular medical-grade marijuana legal, along with smokable flower, which is the most utilized source of cannabis last year.

The entire industry grew by leaps and bounds in 2019 and is poised to become even bigger, with more patients, doctors, and dispensaries becoming approved.

Still, there are some factors that patients want to change, so that using marijuana as medicine becomes more affordable, and more available to everyone.

The overwhelming majority of Floridians support legal cannabis, yet the state legislature and Department of Health have done everything possible to make access to this plant as cumbersome as possible.

Florida is currently a legal medical marijuana state, but with some twists. The road to get here wasn’t easy, and there is still a long way to go before Floridians have any form of adult use or recreational cannabis available to them.   

In November of 2016 Floridians voted on a constitutional amendment to introduce medical cannabis to the state. The amendment passed with 71.3% of voters in favor of the initiative.   

A proposed cap on the level of euphoria-inducing THC in medical marijuana has hit a snag in the Florida Senate, leaving a priority of the House in jeopardy as time runs down on the legislative session.

Senate Health Policy Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, introduced a proposal Monday that would have capped THC levels in medical marijuana for patients under age 21. Harrell tried to add the plan to a broad Department of Health legislative package but backed away after facing questions from members of the Senate Rules Committee.

Monday — 11 days shy of the scheduled March 13 end of the legislative session — was the first time lawmakers in either chamber had formally considered a proposed 10% THC cap.

In Florida, qualifying patients can obtain a medical marijuana prescription—but some state lawmakers don’t want them getting too high. 

On Friday, Republican state Sen. Gayle Harrell filed an amendment banning medical marijuana with THC levels exceeding 10 percent potency for patients under the age of 21. According to the Miami Herald, Florida’s medical cannabis law currently “places a limit on the amount of THC in edible products only, which may only contain 10 mg of THC per serving and 200 mg in total,” levels that are “much higher than what most patients would normally consume.” 

“I have been very concerned about this,” Harrell told the Miami Herald. “You’re seeing increasing percentages of THC in marijuana. This is not your granddaddy’s marijuana from the ‘60s.”

Throughout history, cannabis was regulated by federal law on reservations, so it was generally illegal. But after the 2013 Cole Memo, the topic of cannabis on tribal land and how it ties into the tribe’s government autonomy became increasingly prevalent.

The CBD University Podcast, produced and published by Global Widget, the manufacturer and distributor of premium hemp-derived CBD products from Hemp Bombs and Nature's Script, has surpassed 5,000 downloads in its first three months. The podcast is now available on  iHeartRadio. Full video of each episode is available on Global Widget's YouTube Channel.

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