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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

New Florida marijuana dispensary opens in Tallahassee

Both supporters and opponents of medical marijuana agree there is a lot of work left to be done in Florida’s budding industry.

The state’s first authorized medical marijuana dispensary, Trulieve, opened its store Tuesday in Tallahassee.

Brady Bauer, a 20-year-old UF aerospace engineering senior and president of UF’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said the store’s opening is great news.

“Our main goal is to diminish the stigma about stoners,” Bauer said.

He said the low-THC strain being sold is safe for children and will lead to even more effective legislation.

Karen Goldstein, the executive director and founder of Florida’s state chapter of NORML, said the store’s opening shows progress, but it only represents a small step forward for her organization’s mission to end the prohibition of adult use of marijuana.

Goldstein said low-THC levels will only help a small number of patients, and the state needs to grow both its legislation and dispensaries.

“I’d like to see the state have regulated adult use of marijuana,” Goldstein said. “Treat it like alcohol.”

She said her organization is hopeful Florida legislators will consider the successes of other states, such as Colorado, that allow easy access to medical marijuana.

“Making something illegal doesn’t regulate it, and it doesn’t make it stop,” she said.

Amendment 2, which would expand the list of medical conditions that qualify a patient for medical marijuana, along with the number of places it could be purchased, will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Calvina Fay, the executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation, an organization that fights the use of illicit drugs and the legalization of marijuana, said a synthetic form of THC (Marinol) is already legal in Florida and on a federal level.

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“We don’t really need a constitutional amendment that would forever alter our state’s constitution and would open the floodgates for anyone…to get high with marijuana under the guise of medicine,” said Calvina Fay in a statement provided by her communications staff.

“It remains to be seen if these dispensaries that are now opening can be properly regulated,” Fay said.

There are currently five other companies growing marijuana and awaiting approval to begin selling, according to the Florida Department of Health’s website, and two of the companies are based in Alachua County.

Patients need to be approved by one of Florida’s 82 doctors before ordering from dispensaries, according to DOH. The closest approved doctor is Dr. Justin Davis in Archer, Florida, about 20 minutes from Gainesville.

As for UF Health Shands, the hospital will not distribute medical marijuana while it remains federally illegal, because that could threaten UF’s federal funding, said Rossana Passaniti, the hospital’s media relations coordinator.

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