Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is speaking out against new caps on medical marijuana allotments imposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ administration.
In Tallahassee Thursday with cannabis advocates, Commissioner Fried voiced objections to new rolling limits in concentrates.
The Florida Department of Health imposed a cap last month on patients, restricting them to 24,500 MG of THC per 70-day period, in the wake of Emergency Rule 64ER22-8 from the state’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use.
The rule establishes daily limits for each individual route in categories ranging from edibles and topicals to vape carts and concentrates, but for many patients the aggregate cap is the real impact.
For some patients, the new restrictions subvert doctors’ recommendations, and restrict them from buying their medicine until they are below the rolling cap, which at least in theory could be a boon for the black market.
The rule does allow for doctors to petition for exceptions on behalf of patients to both the new regulation and a parallel rolling cap on marijuana flower, which is a new amelioration from the OMMU.
Yet despite that potential window for exception, Fried and allies condemned what they framed as the latest crackdown on the cannabis program, with Fried saying this emergency rule was an “act of cruelty” designed to circumvent patient input with hearings.
“You wanted to come out here and hurt the patients of the state,” Fried said of the DOH.
“Instead of moving this…
