28 Cultivators Vie for 5 Florida Licenses

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Florida legislators are moving forward with the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act of 2014 (Senate Bill 1030). As the application deadline passed earlier this month for cannabis cultivators hoping to enter the limited medical-marijuana market in the Sunshine State, the State Department of Health has released the list of nearly 30 applicants vying for one of five licenses (one per region: northwest, northeast, central, southwest, and southeast) to cultivate low-THC cannabis.

The applicants (and their respective regions) are:

1 McCrory’s Sunny Hill Nursery (Central)

2 Loop’s Nursery and Greenhouses, Inc. (Northeast)

3 Keith St. Germain Nursery Farms (Southeast)

4 Plants of Ruskin (Southwest)

5 Deleons’ Bromeliads, Inc. (Central)

6 Bill’s Nursery, Inc. d/b/a Almond Tree Nursery (Southeast)

7 Bill’s Nursery, Inc. d/b/a Almond Tree Nursery (Northeast)

8 Chestnut Hill Tree Farm, LLC (Northeast)

9 Costa Nursery Farms, LLC (Southeast)

10 George Hackney, Inc. d/b/a Hackney Nursery (Northwest)

11 Nature’s Way Nursery of Miami (Southeast)

12 Alpha Foliage, Inc. (Northwest)

13 Alpha Foliage, Inc. (Southwest)

14 Redland Nursery, Inc. (Central)

15 Redland Nursery, Inc. (Southeast)

16 Hart’s Plant Nursery, Inc. (Northeast)

17 Hart’s Plant Nursery, Inc. (Northwest)

18 Sun Bulb Company, Inc. (Southwest)

19 Treadwell Nursery (Central)

20 Spring Oaks Greenhouse, Inc. (Central)

21 Knox Nursery, Inc. (Central)

22 San Felasco Nurseries, Inc. d/b/a Grandiflora (Northeast)

23 Tropiflora, LLC (Southwest)

24 Dewar Nurseries, Inc. (Central)

25 Tornello Landscape Corp. d/b/a 3 Boys Farm (Southwest)

26 Perkins Nursery, Inc. (Southwest )

Tree-King Tree Farm, Inc. (Northwest)

28 Razbuton, Inc. (Central)

SB 1030, voted into law in 2014, authorizes "specified physicians to order low-THC cannabis for use by specified patients; requiring the Department of Health to create a compassionate use registry; authorizing certain medical centers to conduct research on cannabidiol and low-THC cannabis; requiring the department to establish an Office of Compassionate Use, etc."

Here are additional highlights of the bill:

  • The bill defines "low-THC cannabis" as "a plant of the genus Cannabis the dried flowers of which contain .8 percent or less of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and more than 10 percent of cannabidiol weight for weight.' The definition includes extracted resin and any compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such a plant. In order to meet the definition low-THC cannabis must also be dispensed only from a dispensing organization. The term 'medical use' is also defined to exclude smoking and the transfer of low-THC cannabis to a person other than the patient for whom it was ordered or that patient’s legal representative."
  • Qualifying patients must be Florida residents who suffer from "cancer or a physical medical condition that chronically produces seizures or severe and persistent muscle spasms, and have no acceptable alternative treatment options available to them."
  • "Physicians must also maintain a treatment plan that includes dose, route of administration, planned duration, and monitoring of their patient’s symptoms and other indicators of tolerance or reaction to the low-THC cannabis. This treatment plan must be submitted quarterly to the University of Florida, College of Pharmacy, for research on the safety and efficacy of low-THC cannabis."
  • "Physicians who wish to order low-THC cannabis must complete an 8-hour course and examination offered by the Florida Medical Association (FMA) or the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association (FOMA) before ordering for a patient."
  • The DOH is required to keep a Compassionate Use registry of all participating doctors and patients.

  • Feature image © Glopphy | Dreamstime.com 

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