Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
More patients could be allowed to use medical marijuana under recently filed legislation in the Florida Legislature.
On Thursday, Rep. John Wood, a Winter Haven Republican, filed legislation, HB 1183, that could expand medical marijuana options beyond a narrow category of patients, including children with a rare form of epilepsy.
Wood’s proposal would allow use among patients who have been certified by a physician to be suffering from a wide variety of diseases, including cancer, epilepsy, HIV and “a terminal illness.” The proposal does not allow a patient to smoke medical marijuana.
Wood told The Lakeland Ledger he did not “believe medicine should be smoked. When you do that it blurs the line.”
Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican, has also filed legislation, SB 852 that also would expand who could use medical marijuana. Unlike Wood’s bill, Brandes’ measure would allow a patient to smoke medical marijuana if “two physicians have separately submitted recommendations on patient certification forms to the department.”
In 2014, state lawmakers passed a law that allowed a low-THC strain of marijuana, called Charlotte’s Web, to be used for medicinal purposes. The state, however, has been slow to enact the law.
The push to expand coverage comes as United for Care once again tries to get a medical marijuana ballot on Florida’s ballot this fall. In 2014, a similar amendment received 57.6 percent support, just shy of the 60 percent needed to pass.
