Florida’s hurricane season officially got underway Friday but the storm season actually got an early start when Alberto formed just off the Yucatán Peninsula a week ago.
Three days later it made landfall in the Panhandle. Alberto brought tropical storm force winds, up to three feet of storm surge and periods of heavy rains.
Two days before landfall Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for the entire state.
Did the governor cry wolf?
Storms are tests of leadership. Are politics playing a role?
Alberto, what there was of it, was the first storm for the governor’s new emergency management director. Wesley Maul got the job after serving as interim for two and a half months. He’s 30 years old.
After a destructive and deadly storm season last year, is he ready to lead Florida’s disaster efforts?
Elizabeth Koh from the Miami Herald and Bryan Norcross, a meteorologist and hurricane expert, who is a hurricane specialist at WPLG-TV in Miami and The Weather Channel joined us for a discussion along with Rachel Iacovone, a producer and reporter with WGCU in Fort Myers
We also looked at residents that are still struggling after last year’s hurricane season.
The State Of Medical Marijuana In Florida
Last week a judge in Leon County ruled that Florida’s ban on smokable medical marijuana is unconstitutional.
Medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 2016- but you haven’t been allowed to smoke the drug, only to take it in other forms through vaping, or with pills, oils and sprays.
But don’t light up just yet- the judge’s ruling was automatically delayed when the Florida Department of Health appealed it. That’ll impose a temporary delay until an appellate court can issue a final order.
As that legal battle plays out, patients in the state are getting medical marijuana. And doctors are being trained in how to prescribe it.
In fact, Florida has nearly 1,300 physicians qualified and registered to determine if a patient should use medical marijuana.
So how’s all this working? We talked with one doctor who’s treating patients with cannabis. He’s Dr. Harold Laski of the Medical Marijuana Clinic in Jacksonville.
