Lawmakers introduce bill for strong medical pot

Two Republican state lawmakers on Wednesday said they were filing legislation to allow stronger varieties of pot as medical marijuana in Florida.

State Rep. Matt Gaetz of Fort Walton Beach and state Sen. Rob Bradley of Fleming Island announced the bill (HB 307) at a morning press conference in the Capitol.

Gaetz told reporters he joined other legislators who were frustrated over the Health Department’s delay in putting into motion the medical marijuana law passed last year.

In 2014, the state legalized low-THC, or “non-euphoric,” marijuana to help children with severe seizures and muscle spasms.

The Department of Health is charged with setting up a system to make sure sick kids can get the drug. That includes approving five nurseries in the state to grow the plant.

Gaetz did say state health officials have told him it would be “days or weeks” before those final five are announced, rather than “months or years.”

The lawmakers, both attorneys, said their bill would allow “non-smokeable” higher-THC cannabis in Florida for patients who can’t get relief from the milder strain, particularly the terminally ill. The stronger stuff would also be grown by the same approved nurseries.

The new legislation would amend the state’s current “Right to Try Act,” which allows patients facing death to take experimental medicines, and not add it to the “Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act.”

“It is not the proper role of government to stand between dying people and the pain management that they and their families choose,” Gaetz said. “These decisions should be made by families, not politicians and bureaucrats.”

Bradley added that such a policy was best put into state law, not the state constitution.

“We need to make sure we do it right,” Bradley said. “If we just turn it over to a constitutional amendment, it will be taking a sledgehammer to an issue rather than a surgeon’s scalpel.”

Orlando trial attorney John Morgan is again backing an initiative for a constitutional amendment allowing medical pot. An attempt last year failed at the ballot boxes.

“The voters of Florida – and specifically, the sick and suffering Floridians who are so desperate for medical marijuana – have no reason to trust the Legislature to handle this effectively, and every reason not to,” said Ben Pollara, campaign manager of United for Care.

“A sledgehammer over the head may in fact be the only way for Floridians to have their voices heard by the largely deaf ears of Tallahassee politicians, who despite valiant efforts by courageous, thoughtful members like Sens. Bradley and (Jeff) Brandesand Reps. Gaetz, (Greg) Steube and (Katie) Edwards, have simply failed to enact meaningful laws on this issue,” Pollara said.