Florida Senate - 2018               CS for CS for CS for SB 1134
       
       
        
       By the Committees on Rules; Appropriations; and Health Policy;
       and Senators Rouson, Bradley, and Young
       
       
       
       
       595-04004-18                                          20181134c3
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to Department of Health
    3         responsibilities related to the medical use of
    4         marijuana; amending s. 381.986, F.S.; deleting an
    5         obsolete date; revising a requirement that the
    6         department license one applicant who is a member of a
    7         certain class to exclude a requirement that the
    8         applicant also be a member of the Black Farmers and
    9         Agriculturalist Association-Florida Chapter; providing
   10         an effective date.
   11          
   12  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   13  
   14         Section 1. Paragraph (a) of subsection (8) of section
   15  381.986, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:
   16         381.986 Medical use of marijuana.—
   17         (8) MEDICAL MARIJUANA TREATMENT CENTERS.—
   18         (a) The department shall license medical marijuana
   19  treatment centers to ensure reasonable statewide accessibility
   20  and availability as necessary for qualified patients registered
   21  in the medical marijuana use registry and who are issued a
   22  physician certification under this section.
   23         1. As soon as practicable, but no later than July 3, 2017,
   24  the department shall license as a medical marijuana treatment
   25  center any entity that holds an active, unrestricted license to
   26  cultivate, process, transport, and dispense low-THC cannabis,
   27  medical cannabis, and cannabis delivery devices, under former s.
   28  381.986, Florida Statutes 2016, before July 1, 2017, and which
   29  meets the requirements of this section. In addition to the
   30  authority granted under this section, these entities are
   31  authorized to dispense low-THC cannabis, medical cannabis, and
   32  cannabis delivery devices ordered pursuant to former s. 381.986,
   33  Florida Statutes 2016, which were entered into the compassionate
   34  use registry before July 1, 2017, and are authorized to begin
   35  dispensing marijuana under this section on July 3, 2017. The
   36  department may grant variances from the representations made in
   37  such an entity’s original application for approval under former
   38  s. 381.986, Florida Statutes 2014, pursuant to paragraph (e).
   39         2. The department shall license as medical marijuana
   40  treatment centers 10 applicants that meet the requirements of
   41  this section, under the following parameters:
   42         a. As soon as practicable, but no later than August 1,
   43  2017, the department shall license any applicant whose
   44  application was reviewed, evaluated, and scored by the
   45  department and which was denied a dispensing organization
   46  license by the department under former s. 381.986, Florida
   47  Statutes 2014; which had one or more administrative or judicial
   48  challenges pending as of January 1, 2017, or had a final ranking
   49  within one point of the highest final ranking in its region
   50  under former s. 381.986, Florida Statutes 2014; which meets the
   51  requirements of this section; and which provides documentation
   52  to the department that it has the existing infrastructure and
   53  technical and technological ability to begin cultivating
   54  marijuana within 30 days after registration as a medical
   55  marijuana treatment center.
   56         b. As soon as practicable, but no later than October 3,
   57  2017, the department shall license one applicant that is a
   58  recognized class member of Pigford v. Glickman, 185 F.R.D. 82
   59  (D.D.C. 1999), or In Re Black Farmers Litig., 856 F. Supp. 2d 1
   60  (D.D.C. 2011) and is a member of the Black Farmers and
   61  Agriculturalists Association–Florida Chapter. An applicant
   62  licensed under this sub-subparagraph is exempt from the
   63  requirement of subparagraph (b)2 requirements of subparagraphs
   64  (b)1. and 2.
   65         c. As soon as practicable, but no later than October 3,
   66  2017, the department shall license applicants that meet the
   67  requirements of this section in sufficient numbers to result in
   68  10 total licenses issued under this subparagraph, while
   69  accounting for the number of licenses issued under sub
   70  subparagraphs a. and b.
   71         3. For up to two of the licenses issued under subparagraph
   72  2., the department shall give preference to applicants that
   73  demonstrate in their applications that they own one or more
   74  facilities that are, or were, used for the canning,
   75  concentrating, or otherwise processing of citrus fruit or citrus
   76  molasses and will use or convert the facility or facilities for
   77  the processing of marijuana.
   78         4. Within 6 months after the registration of 100,000 active
   79  qualified patients in the medical marijuana use registry, the
   80  department shall license four additional medical marijuana
   81  treatment centers that meet the requirements of this section.
   82  Thereafter, the department shall license four medical marijuana
   83  treatment centers within 6 months after the registration of each
   84  additional 100,000 active qualified patients in the medical
   85  marijuana use registry that meet the requirements of this
   86  section.
   87         5. Dispensing facilities are subject to the following
   88  requirements:
   89         a. A medical marijuana treatment center may not establish
   90  or operate more than a statewide maximum of 25 dispensing
   91  facilities, unless the medical marijuana use registry reaches a
   92  total of 100,000 active registered qualified patients. When the
   93  medical marijuana use registry reaches 100,000 active registered
   94  qualified patients, and then upon each further instance of the
   95  total active registered qualified patients increasing by
   96  100,000, the statewide maximum number of dispensing facilities
   97  that each licensed medical marijuana treatment center may
   98  establish and operate increases by five.
   99         b. A medical marijuana treatment center may not establish
  100  more than the maximum number of dispensing facilities allowed in
  101  each of the Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southwest, and
  102  Southeast Regions. The department shall determine a medical
  103  marijuana treatment center’s maximum number of dispensing
  104  facilities allowed in each region by calculating the percentage
  105  of the total statewide population contained within that region
  106  and multiplying that percentage by the medical marijuana
  107  treatment center’s statewide maximum number of dispensing
  108  facilities established under sub-subparagraph a., rounded to the
  109  nearest whole number. The department shall ensure that such
  110  rounding does not cause a medical marijuana treatment center’s
  111  total number of statewide dispensing facilities to exceed its
  112  statewide maximum. The department shall initially calculate the
  113  maximum number of dispensing facilities allowed in each region
  114  for each medical marijuana treatment center using county
  115  population estimates from the Florida Estimates of Population
  116  2016, as published by the Office of Economic and Demographic
  117  Research, and shall perform recalculations following the
  118  official release of county population data resulting from each
  119  United States Decennial Census. For the purposes of this
  120  subparagraph:
  121         (I) The Northwest Region consists of Bay, Calhoun,
  122  Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson,
  123  Leon, Liberty, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Taylor, Wakulla,
  124  Walton, and Washington Counties.
  125         (II) The Northeast Region consists of Alachua, Baker,
  126  Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist,
  127  Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Marion, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns,
  128  Suwannee, and Union Counties.
  129         (III) The Central Region consists of Brevard, Citrus,
  130  Hardee, Hernando, Indian River, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Pasco,
  131  Pinellas, Polk, Seminole, St. Lucie, Sumter, and Volusia
  132  Counties.
  133         (IV) The Southwest Region consists of Charlotte, Collier,
  134  DeSoto, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee,
  135  Okeechobee, and Sarasota Counties.
  136         (V) The Southeast Region consists of Broward, Miami-Dade,
  137  Martin, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties.
  138         c. If a medical marijuana treatment center establishes a
  139  number of dispensing facilities within a region that is less
  140  than the number allowed for that region under sub-subparagraph
  141  b., the medical marijuana treatment center may sell one or more
  142  of its unused dispensing facility slots to other licensed
  143  medical marijuana treatment centers. For each dispensing
  144  facility slot that a medical marijuana treatment center sells,
  145  that medical marijuana treatment center’s statewide maximum
  146  number of dispensing facilities, as determined under sub
  147  subparagraph a., is reduced by one. The statewide maximum number
  148  of dispensing facilities for a medical marijuana treatment
  149  center that purchases an unused dispensing facility slot is
  150  increased by one per slot purchased. Additionally, the sale of a
  151  dispensing facility slot shall reduce the seller’s regional
  152  maximum and increase the purchaser’s regional maximum number of
  153  dispensing facilities, as determined in sub-subparagraph b., by
  154  one for that region. For any slot purchased under this sub
  155  subparagraph, the regional restriction applied to that slot’s
  156  location under sub-subparagraph b. before the purchase shall
  157  remain in effect following the purchase. A medical marijuana
  158  treatment center that sells or purchases a dispensing facility
  159  slot must notify the department within 3 days of sale.
  160         d. This subparagraph shall expire on April 1, 2020.
  161  
  162  If this subparagraph or its application to any person or
  163  circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect
  164  other provisions or applications of this act which can be given
  165  effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this
  166  end, the provisions of this subparagraph are severable.
  167         Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.