FL: Experts Debate Expanded Use Of Medical Marijuana

Katelyn Baker

Well-Known Member
Thanks to Amendment 2, a lot more seriously ill Floridians will be able to rely on medical marijuana for relief. But what forms medicinal cannabis will come in, and whether it will be lawful to smoke it, appears far from settled.

That's in part because while the amendment expands the use of medical cannabis for sick people with certain "debilitating" illnesses, smoking marijuana for any reason is illegal in Florida. The only medical cannabis products currently allowed must be consumed in a smokeless manner, such as in capsules, balms, sprays or oils that can be used with a vaporizer device.

What's unclear to prescribing physicians, potential patients, licensed dispensaries and law enforcement is how the Florida Legislature and the Department of Health will go about modifying medical marijuana laws to allow patients to be prescribed a harvested plant-form of cannabis. Health department officials, too, won't confirm whether the state's ban on smoking cannabis will be lifted under rules that will be drafted over the next six months.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Ben Pollara, a co-author of Amendment 2 and director of United for Care, a group that backs comprehensive medical marijuana laws, said the ballot language voters supported opens the way for qualified patients to have access to any or all parts of a cannabis plant.

"What I envision being available for sale to patients is all parts of the plant, whether we're talking about dried flowers, or oils or food, or vaporization cartridges or whatever. It's pretty explicit under the law that all of that is allowed," Pollara said. "I think they might be within their rights to say 'you can only consume it in this way,' but the enforceability of that would be almost impossible."

Added Pollara: "It possibly would be within the purview of the Department (of Health) to take a position that smoking was not allowed. However, I don't think it would be within their authority to ban the sale of forms of marijuana that could be smoked."

Currently, two types of medical marijuana are allowed: non-euphoric strains, such as "Charlotte's Web," which is used to help control seizures; and full-strength marijuana to alleviate pain and symptoms for terminally ill patients.

Florida Department of Health Communications Director Mara Gambineri said in an email she could only discuss existing medical marijuana laws. She declined to confirm what may be recommended related to smoking, or the variations of medical cannabis expected to be approved.

Current law, Gambineri said via email, "prohibits patients from smoking low-THC or medical cannabis. This means that patients will not have any whole flower as part of their qualified order."

BIG QUESTION

Monica Russell, spokeswoman for the Tampa medical marijuana dispensary Surterra Wellness, which is operated by the state-licensed Surterra Therapeutics in partnership with Alpha Foliage in Homestead, said they won't know how the state's very limited medical cannabis industry might expand until after the Legislature takes action in March.

"The big question of the day is what is the implementing language actually going to say? And what is the Legislature going to do, and ultimately, what is the Department of Health going to do?" Russell said. "They are the regulating body, and we are going to follow the rules."

As one of six companies with approval to grow medical marijuana, Surterra in July produced its first harvest of marijuana, currently stored in a secured facility.

Russell said because lawmakers could, under Amendment 2, draft changes to existing medical marijuana laws, they're encouraging interested people to contact their legislators and voice their opinions.

"They could change whether or not the product can be smokeable, how long the (90-day patient) waiting period can be, the credentials for doctors and they could change how patients are credentialed," she said.

"We want it to be in whatever format doctors tell us is going to be the most beneficial format and delivery device for patients," Russell added. "If doctors tell us smokeable is that - for a certain segment of the patient population - then we would advocate for that."

Jensen Beach emergency medicine physician Jonathan Adleberg, who has practiced 32 years in Canada and Florida, and is a state-certified prescriber, expects that Amendment 2 rules will permit qualified patients to be able to take delivery of plant-based medical cannabis products. But he questioned whether the state will allow patients to smoke it - a move he said he'd oppose.

"I think smoking is bad for you," Adleberg said, "and vaporization is a more efficient way to use it."

Still, he agreed with Pollara, and predicted a state smoking ban might be useless, since plant-based product packaged for a vaporizing device, "is exactly the same as cannabis prepared for smoking."

"What people do in their own homes, that's up to them," Adleberg added, "but you'll probably have a hard time finding a physician that says smoking is good for you."

What doctors want, he said, are guidelines guaranteeing medical cannabis free of contaminants and specific rules about the maximum THC amounts that will be prescribed.

Tampa lawyer Michael Minardi, who has used a medical defense to win a Hobe Sound woman and a man from Hollywood acquittals at trial for illegally cultivating cannabis, said Amendment 2 was written to make medical marijuana more widely available with the option of smoking it.

Minardi said voters intended for Florida residents like Cathy Jordan, who has Lou Gehrig's disease, to be prescribed a smokeable form of medical marijuana by a qualified physician.

"If you look at the intent of the drafters of the amendment," he said, "their intent was it to be allowed to use cannabis in any and all forms."

"POT CANDY"

What to do about edible forms of medical marijuana will likely be another flashpoint. Groups opposed to Amendment 2 campaigned against legalizing "pot candy."

Pollara said lawmakers "can and should restrict the packaging and marketing of edible marijuana products."

Andrew Sutton, with the Drug Free Florida Committee, said they want all medical cannabis tightly regulated.

Lawmakers should keep the smoking ban, Sutton said, and "outright ban pot candy in Florida."

"Our position is marijuana is not medicine," he said, "and it's certainly not medicine when it's being smoked."

Senate President Joe Negron said he didn't believe it was the voters' intent "to simply allow for the smoking of marijuana as a medical procedure."

"The issue ... regarding modality of treatment, I think it's too early to tell how those issues will be resolved. That will be up to individual committees in the House and Senate," Negron said. "My guiding principle is that the voters want medical marijuana available for a limited number of medical conditions, and I'm committed to implementing the amendment according to the will of the voters."

Lawmakers, he said, will draft rules based on testimony from doctors, patients and health experts.

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Full Article: Experts Debate Expanded Use Of Medical Marijuana
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