This past June, the Florida Legislature passed a law requiring state health officials to issue 10 new “medical marijuana treatment center” licences. The law provided a schedule for the officials to follow in order to get the new businesses up and running in a timely manner.
Under the plan, the officials had until August 3 to distribute some of the licenses and until October 3rd to issue five more. Once the statewide registry of medical marijuana patients reaches 100,000 people, more licenses become available.
Now, all of that has changed. Following complaints from advocacy groups, a new set of rules is in effect, Orlando Weekly reports.
The rules, which will go into effect immediately, outsources all licence application evaluations to “subject matter experts.”
In addition, all applications will be evaluated blind in order to avoid accusations of favoritism. Critics of the last round of license distribution noted that most of the awarded licenses seemed to go to those with ties to Florida's governor.
There previously also was no actual application form for applicants to fill out, just a set of loose guidelines. That has been changed as well.
Finally, the new rules provides a diversity incentive where applicants will receive bonus points if their plan ensures involvement of “minority persons, minority businesses or veteran business enterprises in ownership, management and employment.”
Doubling down on its diversity efforts the state has also mandated that one of the five new licenses must go to a member of the Florida Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.
Due to the new rules, industry insiders are skeptical as to whether the goal of awarding the first set of licenses by the first week of October is still reachable. However, Department of Health spokeswoman Mara Gambineri confirmed via email, “The goal is still Oct. 3.”
The state of Florida currently has 12 marijuana vendors. The new law will allow businesses previously ineligible under the old law to join their ranks. Now, all businesses that have 5 years of operation in Florida and a Department of Agriculture certificate can apply.
“This is a tremendous victory for the hundreds of thousands of Floridians who will ultimately need safe, affordable, convenient access to medical marijuana. It's also great to see the department has learned from the mistakes of the previous process and taken significant steps to make the licensing process as fair and transparent as possible,” said Tallahassee lawyer John Lockwood.
Lockwood, who represents medical marijuana clients, hopes that the state will be the home of 20 medical marijuana vendors soon.
