While it may not be the progress we were hoping for after Amendment 2 failed to get the 60-40% vote in 2014, there is still progress for medical marijuana in Florida!
In 2014 Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a bill that would allow a high CBD and low THC strain of marijuana called Charlotte’s Web to be grown and distributed to epileptic children.
Charlotte’s Web is the medicinal oil extracted from the cannabis. This oil has been clinically proven to be useful in the prevention of seizures in epileptic patients as well as improving other neurological conditions. It will also be allowed for patience of Parkinson’s and some types and stages of cancer to use this cannabis oil for medical purposes.
It hasn’t been an easy road since the bill was first signed. The whole thing was more or less sent back to the drawing board over the fact that the rules designed in the bill to regulate production and distribution were considered vague.
However this was thrown out last month as Florida Administrative Law Judge W. David Watkins opened up by reading an excerpt from the children’s book Charlotte’s Web before throwing out the case against the low-THC strain.
After this long wait parents of epileptic children may finally see progress by the end of 2015. Depending on how quickly things move, the cannabis oil may even be available to patients by the end of the year rather than waiting until early 2016.
Regardless of the set-backs Charlotte’s Web being given the official “green light” is a first step in the right direction for Florida. While Amendment 2 failed the first time around it was not nearly as detailed as it could have been and this likely lead to an under informed population.
Only five nurseries in Florida will be given a license to grow this strain – so it’s no doubt everyone is going to be after those licenses as soon as they can apply.
It may not be Amendment 2 and it may not help all the patients in Florida access to the medical marijuana they need, but it’s definitely a step in right direction. Any progress is better than no progress.
Maybe the progress with Charlotte’s Web will be the push that the opposing 42% needed to see just how important and beneficial medical marijuana really is.
