Melissa Ross
Even though a 120-day moratorium on dispensing Charlotte’s Web is still in place in Jacksonville, one official involved with regulating the drug for cultivation and sale says the process is moving forward, albeit very slowly, for getting the non-euphoric THC oil into the hands of sick patients.
“Over the past few weeks, everyone has learned an awful lot,” said City Councilman Scott Wilson. Wilson chairs the body’s LUZ, or Land Use and Zoning Board.
“Going forward, I could see the City Council passing an ordinance that allows this to take place in agricultural and commercial zoning districts,” he said during an appearance on WJCT’s First Coast Connect.
That’s welcome news to parents who say the wait for Charlotte’s Web to become available in Florida has been agonizing.
“It’s been a slow process, honestly,” said Holly Moseley of Gulf Breeze. Moseley has been lobbying for more than a year to make Charlotte’s Web available for her daughter, RayAnn, who suffers from frequent epileptic seizures.
“We thought the oil would be available to patients January 1. And we’re still patiently waiting. Every single day I watch my child have a seizure and I think ‘ What if we had this oil? Would we still be experiencing this?’ We’re waiting for the day that our child and patients in Florida can try this. It’s non-euphoric and we know it has medicinal value.”
Although the Legislature legalized the Charlotte’s Web strain for medicinal use last year, lawsuits and red tape have delayed the process of approving applications for nurseries who’d like to become one of the five approved vendors for the medication. That includes two in North Florida who’ve applied.
This dismays former City Council candidate Lisa King, Vice Chair of the Jacksonville Planning Commission.
“I think we need to move quickly. As the state moves to select one of these growers, we need to be ready. There are parents who have been working very hard to get this drug for their children. Some parents have had to move out-of-state. So my suggestion is we pick a zoning category for cultivation and for dispensing, and set it up so that it is only allowable by exception. That way we would review each application as it came in. And when medical marijuana goes back on the ballot, if it’s approved, we’re setting the stage for responsible dispensing,” she said.
The LUZ Board meets again on the issue in September.
For Moseley, the process of educating public officials about Charlotte’s Web has been frustrating.
“At the last meeting, someone compared this to maybe being like a methadone clinic, and said it would be detrimental. That’s very frustrating to hear because this is going to change the lives of so many citizens. We’re not trying to get our children high. My daughter takes Klonopin every night. She already lives in kind of a high state. I want to do the opposite for her. I want to give her the opportunity to get her life back. So there’s a lot of education that’s still needed. The goal of all this is compassion for the patients who deserve it and need it.”
