A.G. Gancarski
The House is signing on to Senate language that would remove patients and caregivers convicted of crimes around the abuse of drugs from the state’s medical marijuana registry, including some who have participated in the state’s illicit market over the years.
In the latest bump offer in the health care silo, the House is accepting the Senate position “requiring the Department of Health to revoke the registration of a qualified patient or caregiver when the qualified patient or caregiver is adjudicated guilty, or pleads guilty or no contest, to a violation of ch. 893, F.S.” (the Florida Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act).
While the item isn’t “grayed out” yet and entirely finalized, it’s looking very likely that the criminal records of program participants may have new relevance in the medical framework.
Per SB 2517, the Department of Health “must revoke the registration of the qualified patient upon such final disposition if the qualified patient entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or was found guilty of the offense.”
Regarding caregivers, the Department must “revoke the registration of the caregiver upon such final disposition if the caregiver entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or was found guilty of the offense.”
The law was first passed in 1973 (and amended often since) in an effort to “comprehensively address drug abuse prevention and control in this state.” And true to the spirit of its genesis, that definition of “drug abuse” includes people who have participated in the illegal pot market commercially.
The language covers pleas and guilty verdicts for people who “purchase more than 10 grams of any substance named or described in” the legislation or a “person who delivers, without consideration, 20 grams or less of cannabis.”
This excludes what the law calls “low-THC cannabis,” but includes Delta-6, 8, 9, and 10 and “synthetic cannabinoids.” It also excludes hemp and industrial hemp.
Harder drugs also fall under those provisions, of course. But for those who found the medical marijuana program as a way to escape the black market, the new language may complicate their legal status. While Florida may legalize adult use weed in 2026, there will likely be a conflict for a while for users who have criminal records around recreational cannabis and other illegal substances.
Chapter 893 also asserts that not knowing of the illegal nature of a substance is not an “affirmative defense” and that possession implies a “permissive presumption that the possessor knew of the illicit nature of the substance.”
