TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - A legislative panel agreed this week to boost the budget of the state Office of Medical Marijuana Use by more than $13 million to help pay for issuing new licenses and covering the costs of ongoing litigation.
The Joint Legislative Budget Commission unanimously approved funding to help the office process an estimated 400 applications that are expected as companies compete for four potentially lucrative medical-marijuana licenses.
Office of Medical Marijuana Use deputy director Courtney Coppola says part of the money will also help pay for ongoing lawsuits against the agency.
“We are currently litigating in 11. I do not have the total number since 2015, but I would like to say it’s almost double that," said Coppola.
The funding boost comes less than a month after the start of the 2018-2019 fiscal year and reflects controversy and criticism that the Florida Department of Health has not moved quickly enough to implement the medical-marijuana program, which got its start in 2014 when lawmakers legalized non-euphoric cannabis.
The debate intensified in 2016, when voters approved a constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley says lawmakers have funded “every single” request made by the medical-marijuana office.
“I think many of us, on a bipartisan basis, are frustrated by the pace that the law has been implemented," said Bradley. "The law itself works and is a solid piece of legislation. The implementation has not proceeded as quickly as many of us would like.”
Money will also be spent to help develop a computer software system to track the distribution of medical marijuana “from seed to sale” as well as to pay for providing patient identification cards and for operating a call center.
