Florida Governor Signs Bill to Legalize Medical Marijuana Use

The People of Florida voted with an overwhelming 71% of the voters approving the legalization of medical marijuana in November of 2016. Now, more than 7 months later Governor Rick Scott signed a bill that is aiming to carry out the wishes of the voters.
Lawmakers have passed the bill, SB 8-A, during a very special session this month over the struggle to reach an agreement on the plans for medical marijuana constitutional amendment, that the voters had approved of.
Governor Scott’s office sent out a news release on Friday that said he signed the medical marijuana bill, as well as 37 others, but had no further comments. It was indicated at an earlier date that Scott would approve this bill.
This amendment is giving doctors the authority to order medical marijuana for a substantial amount of patients who suffer from different debilitating conditions that include cancer, epilepsy, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma, PTSD, ALS, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and MS.
A plan still needs to be put in place to carry out the amendment. This bill will resolve problems such as how many companies will be receiving medical marijuana licenses and the amount of retail outlets that they can operate.
The bill that was passed was not passed with the legalization of smoking medical marijuana due to the health effects that could come from the smoking of marijuana to the patient’s lungs. Vaping and injecting, as well as other methods of using medical marijuana have been passed to be used. Orlando lawyer John Morgan is fighting to file a lawsuit to try to overturn the ban on smoking marijuana saying, “(Smoking) clearly was called for in the amendment, and so what they’ve done for me is allowed me to step back up on my soapbox and go get what the people of Florida wanted when they passed this bill with 71 percent,”
Along with this bill there were other such as HB 687 is going to help telecommunications companies that are dealing with local government regulations. There have been some objections to this bill, that will become lay on July 1, 2017, from local governments because it will be taking away authority.

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