Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
The Florida Department of Health is beginning to develop rules for issuing registration cards for medical marijuana patients.
The Department of Health’s Office of Compassionate Use is expected to begin the process of establishing a system for issuing registration cards for medical marijuana patients and their legal representatives.
It is also expected to establish fees to implement the system.
Lawmakers amended state law dealing with medical marijuana during the 2016 Legislative Session. State law now allows the Department of Health to establish a system for issuing and renewing registration cards for patients.
At a minimum, cards must include the name, address and date of birth of the patient or legal representative. They also must have a full-face, color photo of the card holder, similar to that of a passport photo.
Further, the cards must identify whether the cardholder is the patient or a legal representative, have a unique numeric identifier that matches the person in the department’s Compassionate Use registry and provide an expiration date.
The registration cards were included in a bill (HB 307) aimed at expanding the use of medical marijuana this legislative session.
Among other things, the measure amended the state’s Right to Try Act, passed last year, to include medical marijuana and gave the Department of Health more regulatory authority.
