Growers Continue to Challenge for Marijuana Licenses as Patients Wait
July 6th, 2016 by flanewsA law change this year allowed more Florida growers to try and obtain medical marijuana licenses. As Matt Galka tells us, the state faced another challenge for a licenses Wednesday, as families who say they desperately need medicine for their children are still waiting two years after the original law was passed.
Holley Moseley and her severely epileptic daughter RayAnn thought they’d have medicine by now.
“We were told January 1, 2015, oil would be available to patients,” said Holley.
In 2014, the Moseley’s helped pass Florida’s first medical marijuana law. It allowed a low-THC cannabis known as Charlotte’s web to be grown and distributed in the state. It’s been shown to help seizure patients.
“There are kids waiting for treatment that deserve treatment,” she said.
And after two years – nothing. The state licensed five growers originally, but things have been tangled in a web of legal issues causing a change in state law where a grower could challenge for a license if they weren’t originally granted one.
The Moseley’s traveled to Tallahassee Wednesday to support an administrative challenge from Gainesville based Loop’s Nursery – a business excluded from the original list of five.
“One of the reasons Loop’s nursery was selected as a partner is because they have greenhouse space, they’re ready to go, they can start growing immediately,” said Moseley.
The state argues the selected growers were qualified and that Loop’s is challenging based on just the ability to grow Charlotte’s Web.
“You have to prove that you have more than a brand name,” said Department of Health Attorney Eduardo Lombard.
The Department of Health’s Office of Compassionate use says their confident the medicine will be available this fall.
“It’s entirely likely that product will be available before September,” said OCU Director Christian Bax.
The lucrative licenses could mean millions of dollars in revenue if the marijuana industry continues to expand in the state.
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