The Jacksonville City Council and city planners met Tuesday to work on rules governing non-euphoric medical marijuana.
Last year, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed off on the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act, which allows patients on a special state-registry to use marijuana that won’t make them high, but can help with issues like seizures.
The Council is taking a slow and deliberate approach to regulating its growing, processing and dispensing in Jacksonville. Councilman Jim Love suggests the medicine be dispensed through pharmacies.
Love said, “I just don’t see a whole lot of demand for this in the form it’s in now. Unlike in Colorado where it’s recreational, it’s not recreational here. It’s just for a specific need, a specific drug which pharmacies, that’s what they do.”
But legal administrator Christopher Ralph says most pharmacies can’t dispense medical marijuana because it isn’t FDA approved but compounding pharmacies can.
Meanwhile, Councilwoman Lori Boyer is worried about dispensaries causing blight.
“But I will say in my district there is a methadone clinic, clearly permitted, authorized use [and] legal, and we have people lined up in the mornings at 5 a.m. who just hang out there,” Boyer said, “and it’s had a very detrimental effect on the neighborhood.”
The committee is set to meet again in a month.
Photo Credit: "LEGAL Colorado Marijuana Grow" by Brett Levin is licensed under CC BY 2.0
