TALLAHASSEE — About half of the 13 Florida businesses allowed to grow, process and sell medical marijuana could be suspended from processing cannabis because of a little-noticed deadline in state law requiring food safety inspections—even though edible forms cannot be sold in the state.
The requirement mandates that those medical marijuana treatment centers complete third-party inspections in the first year to ensure "good manufacturing practices" but went largely ignored or unnoticed by some centers because the Department of Health has still not cemented rules relating to edible medical marijuana.
But in letters sent last week by the department, the state indicated it intends to enforce the provision that any business complete the certification within the first year or stop operating its processing facilities immediately.
One center, Gainesville-based The Green Solution, has already been forced to stop processing products until it can complete the required inspections. At least seven more have not submitted proof they have completed the inspection before their deadlines, though some do not yet have dispensing locations for patients. Most of those deadlines fall in July and August.
The decision could affect the availability of medical marijuana in a nascent market that has already been dealing with spotty supply.
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