The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As the 2023 Florida legislative session comes to an end, it could most accurately be called, “The good, the bad, and the ugly.” Many of our readers will be too young to remember the famous Clint Eastwood movie by the same title, but here’s a refresher. In this 1966 film, a bounty-hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery. None of the men are particularly good, mostly they are bad, and their behavior is definitely ugly.

The Good? SB1676 the “hemp” bill

It’s hard to say that anything good came out of the 2023 legislative session. But for the millions of people who have begun using over-the-counter cannabis products available most everywhere, nothing much has changed. This year, SB 1676 and HB 1475 were called the “hemp bill”. Though they weren’t so much about hemp, the industrial cousin to cannabis, as about the many different cannabinoids on the shelves in Florida. You can read the final draft for yourself here.

The original bill was designed to eliminate synthetic cannabinoids. That version’s definition of synthetic cannabis was so broad that even CBD extracted in olive oil fit the definition. That bill also created packaging limits that would have devastated most companies. Throughout the session, the “over-the-counter cannabis industry” rolled out over 100 people to speak at committee hearings. They created reels and short videos for social media, agitated consumers, and spent a lot of money influencing lawmakers. We heard they raised over 1.5 million dollars. The bill was changed from its original form to a much milder set of guidelines for over-the-counter cannabis sales.

The 2023 Hemp Bill:
· Mandates that products using “hemp extract” shall be treated as the food product.
· Must be created in an industrial kitchen, licensed for commercial use.
· Must be packaged in a container not attractive to children.
· Must be packaged in a way that controls for temperature and light.
· Can only be sold to persons 21 and older. Sales to minors is a criminal offense.
· May not be sold in a shape attractive to children and may not contain food coloring.

The Bad. SB 210 – Substance Abuse

And then there was the bad. Substance Abuse Services, SB210 and HB 295 dealing with substance abuse led Florida Cannabis Action Network to the 1988 Federal Drug-free Workplace Act. During testimony on SB 210, we learned that all substance abuse providers in the state of Florida must agree to a zero-tolerance marijuana policy in order to maintain their state license. Senator Gayle Harrell (R-Saint Lucie County), stated during questions that making all substance abuse providers forbid the use of cannabis products was necessary because they receive federal funding.

Team CAN immediately reached out to US Senator Marco Rubio’s office to find out if any University, business, or entity had lost federal funding after the state changed its marijuana policies. Although the Congressional Research Office replied that no funding losses have been documented, they pointed out that any entity receiving more than $100,000 in federal funding must comply with the 1988 Drug-Free Workplace Act. As the Florida Cannabis Action Network, we recognize that cannabis in the form of medical marijuana, and over-the-counter products legal under the US Farm Act, can be beneficial in substance abuse treatment. But not in Florida, not at a licensed facility, not anymore.

The Ugly!! Telehealth for MMJ Certifications

The truly ugly side of politics. The “Physician Certification for the Medical Use of Marijuana End” bill was introduced by none other than Representative Spencer Roach. You may remember Representative Roach from the THC Cap bills in 2020 and 2021. This bill would restore a patient’s access to medical marijuana through telehealth. Patients who were part of the program in Florida during COVID or after Hurricane Ian might remember that they were able to use telehealth, also called telemedicine, to renew their medical marijuana recommendation under an emergency order by the Governor.

Florida Cannabis Action Network has been a proponent of telehealth for many years. This year, with the support of Representative Roach in the House, and Senator Jason Brodeur, we thought we had a path to the Governor’s desk. This was the first really pro-patient bill, sponsored by Republicans in both the House and the Senate, that looked like it would go the distance. During the last several sessions bills that actually helped patients in the medical marijuana program have been introduced mostly by Democrats and the leadership, Republicans, showed little interest in moving those bills.

The ugly part is the physicians who practice medical cannabis in this state. While small independent cannabis practitioners got together to support the bill, the big doctor’s groups used high-powered lobbyists behind the scenes to erode confidence in telehealth for patients. For the past year, the big doc-in-a-box groups such as DocMJ and Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers of Florida (mmtcfl.com), have spent considerable dough on lobbyists in Tallahassee. Telehealth provider, Veriheal, whose model is all about telehealth, has also been paying lobbyists.

Big doctors’ groups are worried that telehealth will affect their bottom line. They are concerned that patients won’t pay as much for a telehealth visit and “good doctors “ won’t be able to compete with telehealth providers. Veriheal lobbyists argued for a broadly worded telehealth bill that would have allowed patients to see any doctor in a doctor’s “group”. Patients would then be able to see any other doctor in the “doctor’s group” for their renewal. Senator Brodeur, against the urging of Veriheal, tighten the language of the bill to only allow telehealth for renewals, and then only with your most recent recommending physician.

Even that limited access to telehealth was too much for the doc-in-a-box groups. During the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services, one doctor spoke passionately about how dangerous cannabis is and how unsafe it is to use telehealth for recommending medical cannabis. The testimony was disgusting, misguided, and dangerous. It took a bill that was already at risk and created roadblocks that may very well have killed the bill.

If these “well-meaning doctors’ groups” are willing to sacrifice a patient’s access to telemedicine in order to protect their bottom line, how far do you think they will go to defeat efforts to legalize marijuana for those 21 and older? One of the many consequences of cannabis legalization is doctors are no longer the gatekeeper between people and cannabis.

Among the other bills that passed this year, there was the Florida Kratom Consumer Protection Act, a gun bill allowing all law-abiding Floridians to carry a weapon without a concealed carry permit, and a few technical changes with the Department of Health.

Florida Cannabis Action Network is committed to its mission of creating a world where all people will have access to the cannabis plant without fear. This session of the Florida legislature failed to get us closer to that goal, but with your support, we will continue to support the people who are working to put the cannabis plant back in the hands of people. Please click here to make a contribution to this work.