The Florida Department of Health’s Office of Compassionate Use has until next Monday to finalize medical marijuana rules now that Gov. Rick Scott has signed the bill into law.
The law allowing the sale of full-strength medical cannabis under Amendment 2 takes effect Oct. 3.
Hernando Bongionni drove from Miami to buy non-euphoric cannabis for his epileptic son.
“The doctors have to wait three months to dispense the cannabis,” Bongionni said.
Bongionni’s hoping the rules will mean less time waiting for a doctor’s approval and allow more stores to be open so it’s convenient for patients and their families.
“If you have more stores open then you have more options to buy that (medical cannabis),” Bongionni said.
The state will allow 17 companies to each open 25 stores, and even more when patient numbers top 100,000.
Records show Knox will soon be joined in Metro Orlando by competing stores.
The city said Trulieve, with cannabis stores open in The Villages and Volusia County, has a permit to turn the former “Florida Trophy” shop on North Orange Blossom Trail into a dispensary.
The city also said Grow Healthy Farms of Lake Wales is interested in an Orlando store, but a company spokesman told WESH 2 News only that it will open its first store in Florida in September.
Source: WESH 2
