TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — During a year when the state lost more than 400,000 jobs, Florida’s cannabis industry in 2020 added nearly 15,000 employees, according to the cannabis website Leafly.
Four years after Florida voters approved its legalization for medical purposes, marijuana is a $1.2 billion business. Industry insiders say it’s growing every day.
That type of success would usually earn support in Florida’s business friendly Legislature. But the 2021 lawmaking session is anything but a victory lap for Florida’s pot sector. Entrepreneurs and medical marijuana patients are worried about a slate of sweeping reforms in the form of legislation or a Florida Supreme Court opinion.
Currently, Florida’s medical marijuana market is notoriously difficult to enter: only 22 companies have licenses from the state to dispense the drug. The companies that are allowed by the state to sell medical marijuana must also have enough resources to be vertically integrated, meaning they harvest, package and sell the products prescribed to patients.
In 2017, the state denied Tampa-based Florigrown the right to become one of the companies licensed to sell medical marijuana. Now, the company is suing, arguing that the 2017 law which created the Florida medical marijuana program amounts to an unconstitutional series of government giveaways to certain fortunate…
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — During a year when the state lost more than 400,000 jobs, Florida’s cannabis industry in 2020 added nearly 15,000 employees, according to the cannabis website Leafly.
Four years after Florida voters approved its legalization for medical purposes, marijuana is a $1.2 billion business. Industry insiders say it’s growing every day.
That type of success would usually earn support in Florida’s business friendly Legislature. But the 2021 lawmaking session is anything but a victory lap for Florida’s pot sector. Entrepreneurs and medical marijuana patients are worried about a slate of sweeping reforms in the form of legislation or a Florida Supreme Court opinion.
Currently, Florida’s medical marijuana market is notoriously difficult to enter: only 22 companies have licenses from the state to dispense the drug. The companies that are allowed by the state to sell medical marijuana must also have enough resources to be vertically integrated, meaning they harvest, package and sell the products prescribed to patients.
In 2017, the state denied Tampa-based Florigrown the right to become one of the companies licensed to sell medical marijuana. Now, the company is suing, arguing that the 2017 law which created the Florida medical marijuana program amounts to an unconstitutional series of government giveaways to certain fortunate…
