James Call
Growers and patient advocates used court challenges to force the Legislature to revisit a medicinal marijuana law approved last session. Tuesday they get another chance to persuade lawmakers to increase the allowable level of THC in medicinal oil authorized for use in Florida by the Compassionate Medicinal Cannabis Act of 2014.
A Charlotte’s Web fix approved without an amendment last week by one Senate panel is on Tuesday’s agenda of a Health Policy Committee meeting. SPB 7066 addresses the concerns many think drove the lawsuits against a proposed rule for a medicinal marijuana industry. It increases the number of licenses available to grow marijuana, provides a shield to protect testing laboratories and growers’ banking relationships from federal law, and increases the number of illnesses eligible to be treated with cannabis oil.
However, it does not address THC levels, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that produces the “high” but that research indicates relieves pain and the side effects of other drugs.
Patient advocates say they want access to higher levels of THC and growers argue the more effective the medicine is the better it is for the industry’s bottom line. They get a chance to make their case Tuesday but both Sen. Rob Bradley, who sponsored last year’s law, and Sen. Aaron Bean, chair of Health Policy, say they do not want to consider loosenimg restrictions on THC.
“Let me give you a dose of reality,” Bean said to a packed committee room after people testified in support of permitting higher levels of THC.
“Do we take this bill and go forward or do we keep talking about other bills. There are no other bills. This is it. This is our bill,” Bean said.
Former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp who lobbies for Florida for Care in support of a much broader medicinal marijuana law, had handed research findings to Bean and other senators. It showed that an increased level of THC helps treat more illnesses and provides more relief for some of the conditions listed in SPB 7066.
“It is almost cruel because it will not help terminally ill patients who are now forced to take pain killers that don’t provide true relief,” Kottkamp said about the proposal before the Senate.
Dr. Juan Sanchez Ramos is a professor of neurology at the University of South Florida and a staff neurologist with the James Haley VA Medical Center. He wrote a research paper that reported THC levels higher than 0.8 percent reduced painful spasms for MS patients, a 3.5 percent level of THC showed significant improvement in pain management for HIV patients, and a 9.4 percent level helped patients suffering neuropathic pain to sleep.
“There are many Class I trials supporting the efficacy of cannabis preparations containing greater than 0.8 percent THC,” Ramos said, adding that more studies should be conducted.
Like Bean, Sen. Oscar Braynon is on Regulated Industries, which approved SPB 7066 last week, and Health Policy, which is considering it this week. Braynon supports authorizing strains of marijuana with higher THC levels.
“I think we can go a lot farther,” Braynon said in debate. “We have things like tobacco, alcohol, oxycodeine, all these different things that are definitely proven to be dangerous and can hurt us and we regulate them, so I think this is something that should be put in the same exact category.”
Braynon and others get a chance to make their case again Tuesday but Bean and Bradley say they want to go slowly. Bradley talks about seeing what’s it like to go around the block “with training wheels,” and Bean talks about taking “baby steps” when it comes to adjusting THC levels.
“I will remind you what a tremendously dangerous drug marijuana remains,” Bean said. “We talk about all of its benefits. I know there are benefits there, but it is also a dangerous devastating drug particularly to the minds of adolescents it is highly addictive. There are other problems this drug causes so I want us to be cautious as a state; I want us to take a baby step.”
If that’s not OK with the growers and patient advocates, then Sen. Joe Abruzzo advised recalling that a proposed medicinal marijuana initiative came 2 points short of passage in 2014.
“If we do not go far enough with our legislation,” said Abruzzo arguing in favor of higher levels of THC. “(Then) get it on the ballot. Have the people put it on the ballot and we will see what happens when we have a mass turn out election (2016). “
