Florida Senate - 2018                                    SB 1134
       
       
        
       By Senator Rouson
       
       
       
       
       
       19-01232-18                                           20181134__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to medical marijuana treatment center
    3         licensure; amending s. 381.986, F.S.; deleting an
    4         obsolete date; revising a requirement that the
    5         Department of Health license one applicant who is a
    6         member of a certain class to exclude a requirement
    7         that the applicant also be a member of the Black
    8         Farmers and Agriculturalist Association-Florida
    9         Chapter; providing an effective date.
   10          
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subsection (8) of section
   14  381.986, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   15         381.986 Medical use of marijuana.—
   16         (8) MEDICAL MARIJUANA TREATMENT CENTERS.—
   17         (a) The department shall license medical marijuana
   18  treatment centers to ensure reasonable statewide accessibility
   19  and availability as necessary for qualified patients registered
   20  in the medical marijuana use registry and who are issued a
   21  physician certification under this section.
   22         1. As soon as practicable, but no later than July 3, 2017,
   23  the department shall license as a medical marijuana treatment
   24  center any entity that holds an active, unrestricted license to
   25  cultivate, process, transport, and dispense low-THC cannabis,
   26  medical cannabis, and cannabis delivery devices, under former s.
   27  381.986, Florida Statutes 2016, before July 1, 2017, and which
   28  meets the requirements of this section. In addition to the
   29  authority granted under this section, these entities are
   30  authorized to dispense low-THC cannabis, medical cannabis, and
   31  cannabis delivery devices ordered pursuant to former s. 381.986,
   32  Florida Statutes 2016, which were entered into the compassionate
   33  use registry before July 1, 2017, and are authorized to begin
   34  dispensing marijuana under this section on July 3, 2017. The
   35  department may grant variances from the representations made in
   36  such an entity’s original application for approval under former
   37  s. 381.986, Florida Statutes 2014, pursuant to paragraph (e).
   38         2. The department shall license as medical marijuana
   39  treatment centers 10 applicants that meet the requirements of
   40  this section, under the following parameters:
   41         a. As soon as practicable, but no later than August 1,
   42  2017, the department shall license any applicant whose
   43  application was reviewed, evaluated, and scored by the
   44  department and which was denied a dispensing organization
   45  license by the department under former s. 381.986, Florida
   46  Statutes 2014; which had one or more administrative or judicial
   47  challenges pending as of January 1, 2017, or had a final ranking
   48  within one point of the highest final ranking in its region
   49  under former s. 381.986, Florida Statutes 2014; which meets the
   50  requirements of this section; and which provides documentation
   51  to the department that it has the existing infrastructure and
   52  technical and technological ability to begin cultivating
   53  marijuana within 30 days after registration as a medical
   54  marijuana treatment center.
   55         b. As soon as practicable, but no later than October 3,
   56  2017, the department shall license one applicant that is a
   57  recognized class member of Pigford v. Glickman, 185 F.R.D. 82
   58  (D.D.C. 1999), or In Re Black Farmers Litig., 856 F. Supp. 2d 1
   59  (D.D.C. 2011) and is a member of the Black Farmers and
   60  Agriculturalists Association–Florida Chapter. An applicant
   61  licensed under this sub-subparagraph is exempt from the
   62  requirements of subparagraphs (b)1. and 2.
   63         c. As soon as practicable, but no later than October 3,
   64  2017, the department shall license applicants that meet the
   65  requirements of this section in sufficient numbers to result in
   66  10 total licenses issued under this subparagraph, while
   67  accounting for the number of licenses issued under sub
   68  subparagraphs a. and b.
   69         3. For up to two of the licenses issued under subparagraph
   70  2., the department shall give preference to applicants that
   71  demonstrate in their applications that they own one or more
   72  facilities that are, or were, used for the canning,
   73  concentrating, or otherwise processing of citrus fruit or citrus
   74  molasses and will use or convert the facility or facilities for
   75  the processing of marijuana.
   76         4. Within 6 months after the registration of 100,000 active
   77  qualified patients in the medical marijuana use registry, the
   78  department shall license four additional medical marijuana
   79  treatment centers that meet the requirements of this section.
   80  Thereafter, the department shall license four medical marijuana
   81  treatment centers within 6 months after the registration of each
   82  additional 100,000 active qualified patients in the medical
   83  marijuana use registry that meet the requirements of this
   84  section.
   85         5. Dispensing facilities are subject to the following
   86  requirements:
   87         a. A medical marijuana treatment center may not establish
   88  or operate more than a statewide maximum of 25 dispensing
   89  facilities, unless the medical marijuana use registry reaches a
   90  total of 100,000 active registered qualified patients. When the
   91  medical marijuana use registry reaches 100,000 active registered
   92  qualified patients, and then upon each further instance of the
   93  total active registered qualified patients increasing by
   94  100,000, the statewide maximum number of dispensing facilities
   95  that each licensed medical marijuana treatment center may
   96  establish and operate increases by five.
   97         b. A medical marijuana treatment center may not establish
   98  more than the maximum number of dispensing facilities allowed in
   99  each of the Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southwest, and
  100  Southeast Regions. The department shall determine a medical
  101  marijuana treatment center’s maximum number of dispensing
  102  facilities allowed in each region by calculating the percentage
  103  of the total statewide population contained within that region
  104  and multiplying that percentage by the medical marijuana
  105  treatment center’s statewide maximum number of dispensing
  106  facilities established under sub-subparagraph a., rounded to the
  107  nearest whole number. The department shall ensure that such
  108  rounding does not cause a medical marijuana treatment center’s
  109  total number of statewide dispensing facilities to exceed its
  110  statewide maximum. The department shall initially calculate the
  111  maximum number of dispensing facilities allowed in each region
  112  for each medical marijuana treatment center using county
  113  population estimates from the Florida Estimates of Population
  114  2016, as published by the Office of Economic and Demographic
  115  Research, and shall perform recalculations following the
  116  official release of county population data resulting from each
  117  United States Decennial Census. For the purposes of this
  118  subparagraph:
  119         (I) The Northwest Region consists of Bay, Calhoun,
  120  Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson,
  121  Leon, Liberty, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Taylor, Wakulla,
  122  Walton, and Washington Counties.
  123         (II) The Northeast Region consists of Alachua, Baker,
  124  Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist,
  125  Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Marion, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns,
  126  Suwannee, and Union Counties.
  127         (III) The Central Region consists of Brevard, Citrus,
  128  Hardee, Hernando, Indian River, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Pasco,
  129  Pinellas, Polk, Seminole, St. Lucie, Sumter, and Volusia
  130  Counties.
  131         (IV) The Southwest Region consists of Charlotte, Collier,
  132  DeSoto, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee,
  133  Okeechobee, and Sarasota Counties.
  134         (V) The Southeast Region consists of Broward, Miami-Dade,
  135  Martin, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties.
  136         c. If a medical marijuana treatment center establishes a
  137  number of dispensing facilities within a region that is less
  138  than the number allowed for that region under sub-subparagraph
  139  b., the medical marijuana treatment center may sell one or more
  140  of its unused dispensing facility slots to other licensed
  141  medical marijuana treatment centers. For each dispensing
  142  facility slot that a medical marijuana treatment center sells,
  143  that medical marijuana treatment center’s statewide maximum
  144  number of dispensing facilities, as determined under sub
  145  subparagraph a., is reduced by one. The statewide maximum number
  146  of dispensing facilities for a medical marijuana treatment
  147  center that purchases an unused dispensing facility slot is
  148  increased by one per slot purchased. Additionally, the sale of a
  149  dispensing facility slot shall reduce the seller’s regional
  150  maximum and increase the purchaser’s regional maximum number of
  151  dispensing facilities, as determined in sub-subparagraph b., by
  152  one for that region. For any slot purchased under this sub
  153  subparagraph, the regional restriction applied to that slot’s
  154  location under sub-subparagraph b. before the purchase shall
  155  remain in effect following the purchase. A medical marijuana
  156  treatment center that sells or purchases a dispensing facility
  157  slot must notify the department within 3 days of sale.
  158         d. This subparagraph shall expire on April 1, 2020.
  159  
  160  If this subparagraph or its application to any person or
  161  circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect
  162  other provisions or applications of this act which can be given
  163  effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this
  164  end, the provisions of this subparagraph are severable.
  165         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2018.