Now that courts have overturned the Florida Legislature’s ban on smoking medical marijuana, lawmakers are looking into how they can restrict high-potency forms of the drug.
Florida voters approved medical marijuana in Florida in 2016. The next year, state Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, filed a bill implementing that voter-approved constitutional amendment. His bill, signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scott, banned smoking of the substance, but courts overturned that restriction.
Now chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, Rodrigues has offered a bill in this year’s legislative session that would cap the amount of THC that could be in smokable medical marijuana at 10 percent. The bill was approved by his committee Wednesday along party lines.
Here are the arguments for each side.
On the one hand, Rodrigues and other supporters of the measure point to studies, especially a study published March 19 in the British medical journal “Lancet,” that show daily use of high-potency medical marijuana is linked to an increased risk of developing psychosis.
But opponents of the bill, including the organizers behind the original 2016 amendment, say the cap will mean greater use of lower-potency marijuana, which will mean more marijuana will have to be purchased, effectively raising prices on patients to get the dose they need.
They also point to a dearth of studies like that published in “Lancet,” a particular issue in the United States, where federal law continues to outlaw marijuana for all uses, stymieing medical studies.
We want to know what you think. Do you think the legislature should prevent growers from producing high-potency strains of medical marijuana? Let us know by emailing dsweeney@SunSentinel.com or tweeting @Daniel_Sweeney. Your response could be used in a future story.
dsweeney@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney