Ryan Nicol
As Florida braces for impact due to a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, a major marijuana conference in Tallahassee will be rescheduled for next month.
The 2024 Florida Marijuana Policy Conference was initially scheduled for Wednesday. But with Tropical Storm Helene — which is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane — expected to make landfall on Thursday, event organizers decided to postpone the conference and encourage people not to travel to the capital city.
“The new date will be set for the latter half of October and will be announced in the coming week,” said Taylor Biehl, Vice President and co-founder of the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida, the group set to host the event.
“Our top priority is everyone’s safety, and we strongly urge anyone who has not yet traveled to avoid coming into the storm’s path.”
Biehl invited those already in Tallahassee to meet up before the storm’s arrival, but the full conference is not workable due to Helene’s expected impact, he said.
“If you are already in Tallahassee or local to the area, we invite you to join us for a relaxed gathering and a ‘hurricane beer’ at Oyster City, sponsored by Cannabis Labs. We’d love to take this opportunity to connect in a more informal setting. We look forward to gathering with all of you under safer conditions soon and hope everyone stays safe during this storm.”
The conference was planned for the Florida State University Turnbull Center in Tallahassee. Amendment 3 likely would have been a hot topic, given that the election is just weeks away. However, the group’s timetable for a rescheduled event still puts it before the election.
According to a Florida Politics write-up earlier this month, other topics for the conference would have included “updates on new Medical Marijuana Treatment Center (MMTC) license awards, federal rescheduling of cannabis to a Class III drug, the SAFE Banking Act to usher in streamlined banking options for the cannabis industry, and mergers and acquisitions of MMTCs.”
