While on the campaign trail Florida’s new Governor, Ron DeSantis, declared he was in support of Medical Cannabis. He even eluded that he would consider intervening in lawsuits challenging the way the Florida Legislature and the State Department of Health implemented Amendment 2, “The Medical Use of Cannabis for Debilitating Conditions” that passed on November 8, 2016 with 71.3% support from Florida voter’s.

Now that the Governor has officially taken office, it appears as though those campaign promises may actually come to fruition. The headline of an article published in the Herald Tribune on January 14, 2019 reads: “Governor has Indicated he Intends to Abandon the State’s Appeal.”

The article also states: “The new governor and his lieutenants have indicated DeSantis intends to abandon an appeal of a court decision that said a ban on smoking medical marijuana violates the constitutional amendment. Former Gov. Rick Scott’s administration appealed the decision to the 1st District Court of Appeal, which heard arguments in the case Tuesday, the same day DeSantis was sworn into office.”

What our new Governor ultimately does still remains to be seen. These new reoprts, undoubtedly, offer hope to the 200,000 thousand full time and Seasonal Florida residents already registered to receive cannabis for disease management and symptom control through the State’s Medical Cannabis Program, as well as to those who have been waiting to become “certified” until the program more closely resembles what they believed they voted on back in 2016. (Josephine Cannella-Krehl, LCSW)

For more information on this developing story, please click on the link:

https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20190114/ron-desantis-poised-to-make-florida-marijuana-changes