Christine Jordan Sexton
The state has issued a pair of emergency rules that lay out how new licenses will be awarded and what current medical marijuana treatment centers must do to maintain their licenses.
New entities wanting to operate in Florida’s lucrative medical marijuana market will be required to submit a $146,000 non-refundable fee to the state and submit an application that will be competitively reviewed by the state under a new emergency rule issued Monday.
Taylor Patrick Biehl, a lobbyist with Capitol Alliance Group, said businesses are eager to operate in Florida and medical marijuana companies are no different.
“We’ve been anticipating this for the past several years,” he told Florida Politics, saying the emergency rules now allow for expansion.
The initial application fee is more than double what licensees initially paid, but reflects the amount the state charged so-called Pigford applicants. While Gov. Ron DeSantis has been loath to increase operating costs for Florida businesses, he has complained in the past that he didn’t think the state charged enough for lucrative medical marijuana licenses.
It’s not only application costs that will increase. The state appears to also be increasing the costs for businesses to stay licensed. Medical marijuana treatment centers currently are required to pay $60,063.
In determining the fee, the state will calculate how much money it spent regulating the industry over the previous two fiscal years and subtract from that the amount it collected in application fees. The sum will be divided by the number of medical marijuana treatment centers licensed.
It’s not clear how much the state has spent regulating the industry over the last several years, but the Department of Health included a $6.2 million increase for the Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU) in its most recent budget request to state legislators. About half of that will be spent on hiring an additional 31 staff at its Tallahassee headquarters. It also wants to staff new regional offices.
The other half will be spent on outside contractors that administer the seed-to-sale tracking systems; produce medical marijuana identification cards; conduct background screenings; review licenses; and provide outside legal work.
The state is projecting 1,044,072 patients will qualify for medical marijuana treatment and register with the state by June 2024 and, as a result, an additional eight medical marijuana treatment center licenses will be awarded in FY 2023-24.
While the emergency rules take effect immediately it’s not clear when the state will announce the first batching cycle for the new licenses, though applicants will have five days to submit their applications. The five-day clock starts with the publication of the cycle.
The new emergency rule requires the state to establish the batching cycles by separate rule, however. The state will announce the number of licenses it will award each batching cycle. Budget documents show the OMMU anticipated there will be eight new medical marijuana treatment center licenses awarded between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
10 comments
April
December 19, 2022 at 1:21 pm
Of course ron is why it’s going up should have got him out of office
Steven Heller
December 19, 2022 at 6:01 pm
Isn’t it expensive enough to get a medical Marijuana card…they are going to make it so expensive people will just go to there GUY
Ron Kirkland
December 20, 2022 at 7:06 am
Republican Railroad! Sending vacationers out west where cannabis is legal! Hello Las Vegas
James R. Miles
December 20, 2022 at 7:47 am
The GOP would F’up a wet dream if they could!!
Dennis
December 20, 2022 at 10:57 am
Yea, freedom to them is creating as many restrictions as they can find to make our lives more miserable and less free. Bunch of hypocrites!
tom palmer
December 20, 2022 at 8:11 am
They were against it to begin with. This appears to be payback. Wonder how much of this gets passed on to patients.
rasta
December 20, 2022 at 8:28 am
Hard to see how this qualifies for emergency rulemaking. Seems like easy picking for a crafty lawyer to get invalidated.
Boaz
December 20, 2022 at 3:59 pm
Medical marijuana is still much cheaper here than in some northern and western states, such as New Jersey, California, Colorado, where regulatory and taxing policies make legal weed more expensive in many instances than illegal weed. Governor DeSantis is doubling the number of medical-marijuana licenses while working within the legal framework of a state law enacted in 2015 — several years before he was elected to his first term as our Governor. That said, however, marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and taxed, using all the tools of the free market to facilitate competition and lower prices for Florida residents. The war on drugs has been a abject failure.
Boaz
December 20, 2022 at 4:17 pm
Medical-marijuana products in Florida are, in many instances, cheaper than in several northern and western states, such as New Jersey and Colorado — where their regulatory and taxing policies have made medical marijuana more expensive than illegal marijuana sold on the black market. Governor DeSantis has just doubled the number of licenses for medical-marijuana businesses while working within the framework of a state law enacted in 2015 — several years before he was elected to his first term as our Governor. That said, however, the war on drugs has been an abject failure for decades now. Marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and taxes, much like alcoholic beverages; and elements of the free market should be utilized to facilitate greater competition to lower prices for Florida consumers.
Boaz
December 20, 2022 at 5:15 pm
Medical-marijuana products in Florida are, in many instances, cheaper than in several northern and western states, such as New Jersey and Colorado — where their regulatory and taxing policies have made medical marijuana more expensive than illegal marijuana sold on the black market. Governor DeSantis has just doubled the number of licenses for medical-marijuana businesses while working within the framework of a state law enacted in 2015 — several years before he was elected to his first term as our Governor. That said, however, the war on drugs has been an abject failure for decades now. Marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and taxes, much like alcoholic beverages; and elements of the free market should be utilized to facilitate greater competition to lower prices for Florida consumers.
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