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A committee of stakeholders – a patient, a grower, a doctor and others – will sit down next month to negotiate rules for Florida's stalled medical-marijuana law.
The Florida Department of Health missed a Jan. 1 deadline to carry out a law making certain noneuphoric marijuana extracts available to treat patients with intractable epilepsy and a few other disorders.
Under the measure passed last spring, the department set up rules for doctors and patients to register. But the proposed regulations for growers and sellers were challenged in court, so officials started over.
State officials late Monday announced they will appoint an eight-member committee "to draft mutually acceptable proposed rules" in early February. The department invited people to apply for spots representing specific interests.
Set to meet Feb. 4 and 5, the panel would negotiate how Florida would select plant nurseries to be licensed to grow, process and sell medical-marijuana products, where those activities could be conducted and how the state would regulate the people and businesses involved.
At a rules workshop last week in Orlando, some of the stakeholders – notably the Winter Park-based Florida Medical Cannabis Association – urged state officials to set up such a committee to avoid further challenges.
Others, however, expressed concerns, including worry that the wrong committee representatives could tilt competition among the companies vying for the five state growers' licenses that will be available.
"If they get the wrong grower [on the committee], there will be a problem," said Kerry Herndon, owner of Kerry's Nursery in Apopka.
Pete Sessa, spokesman for the Tampa-based Florida Cannabis Coalition, said he is worried the committee will unavoidably, though unintentionally, cause further program delays.
The delay in the rules has brought criticism from the families of patients, many of them young children, who believe that the oil, commonly known by the name "Charlotte's Web," could help them.
Medical experts say about 125,000 people in Florida with epilepsy that has not responded to other drugs or therapies could be helped by the treatment.
News Moderator: 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: State health officials set up panel to help write medical-marijuana rules - Orlando Sentinel
Author: Scott Powers
Contact: smpowers@tribune.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Orlando News, Weather & Sports - Orlando Sentinel
The Florida Department of Health missed a Jan. 1 deadline to carry out a law making certain noneuphoric marijuana extracts available to treat patients with intractable epilepsy and a few other disorders.
Under the measure passed last spring, the department set up rules for doctors and patients to register. But the proposed regulations for growers and sellers were challenged in court, so officials started over.
State officials late Monday announced they will appoint an eight-member committee "to draft mutually acceptable proposed rules" in early February. The department invited people to apply for spots representing specific interests.
Set to meet Feb. 4 and 5, the panel would negotiate how Florida would select plant nurseries to be licensed to grow, process and sell medical-marijuana products, where those activities could be conducted and how the state would regulate the people and businesses involved.
At a rules workshop last week in Orlando, some of the stakeholders – notably the Winter Park-based Florida Medical Cannabis Association – urged state officials to set up such a committee to avoid further challenges.
Others, however, expressed concerns, including worry that the wrong committee representatives could tilt competition among the companies vying for the five state growers' licenses that will be available.
"If they get the wrong grower [on the committee], there will be a problem," said Kerry Herndon, owner of Kerry's Nursery in Apopka.
Pete Sessa, spokesman for the Tampa-based Florida Cannabis Coalition, said he is worried the committee will unavoidably, though unintentionally, cause further program delays.
The delay in the rules has brought criticism from the families of patients, many of them young children, who believe that the oil, commonly known by the name "Charlotte's Web," could help them.
Medical experts say about 125,000 people in Florida with epilepsy that has not responded to other drugs or therapies could be helped by the treatment.
News Moderator: 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: State health officials set up panel to help write medical-marijuana rules - Orlando Sentinel
Author: Scott Powers
Contact: smpowers@tribune.com
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Orlando News, Weather & Sports - Orlando Sentinel
