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Florida gets closer to repealing smokable medical pot ban

Florida House and Senate are in position to pass medical marijuana bills
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (News Service of Florida) — Florida legislators are ready to vote on measures that would allow patients to smoke medical marijuana, ahead of a mid-March deadline set by Governor Ron DeSantis.

The House and Senate moved closer to a consensus measure, after the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday stripped a provision from the bill that would have limited medical marijuana dispensaries to only selling pre-rolled cannabis cigarettes with filters.

Two sticking points that remain between the chambers' plans are whether dispensaries should be limited to selling pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes and whether smoking cannabis should be limited to adults.

"At each committee stop, I believe the two chambers have moved closer. I think by the time we put the bills on the floor, we will have them aligned," said State Representative Ray Rodrigues.

Under the proposal adopted by the House committee Thursday, patients could only buy pre-rolled, filterless marijuana cigarettes from dispensaries.

The Senate plan would allow patients to purchase any kind of whole-flower marijuana products from dispensaries and let patients buy equipment from other retail outlets, such as smoke shops.