Florida Senate - 2019                          SENATOR AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS for CS for SB 188
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì313496DÎ313496                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
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                  Floor: WD            .                                
             05/02/2019 12:13 PM       .                                
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       Senator Berman moved the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment to House Amendment (822543) (with
    2  directory and title amendments)
    3  
    4         Between lines 142 and 143
    5  insert:
    6         (a) The department shall license medical marijuana
    7  treatment centers to ensure reasonable statewide accessibility
    8  and availability as necessary for qualified patients registered
    9  in the medical marijuana use registry and who are issued a
   10  physician certification under this section.
   11         1. As soon as practicable, but no later than July 3, 2017,
   12  the department shall license as a medical marijuana treatment
   13  center any entity that holds an active, unrestricted license to
   14  cultivate, process, transport, and dispense low-THC cannabis,
   15  medical cannabis, and cannabis delivery devices, under former s.
   16  381.986, Florida Statutes 2016, before July 1, 2017, and which
   17  meets the requirements of this section. In addition to the
   18  authority granted under this section, these entities are
   19  authorized to dispense low-THC cannabis, medical cannabis, and
   20  cannabis delivery devices ordered pursuant to former s. 381.986,
   21  Florida Statutes 2016, which were entered into the compassionate
   22  use registry before July 1, 2017, and are authorized to begin
   23  dispensing marijuana under this section on July 3, 2017. The
   24  department may grant variances from the representations made in
   25  such an entity’s original application for approval under former
   26  s. 381.986, Florida Statutes 2014, pursuant to paragraph (e).
   27         2. The department shall license as medical marijuana
   28  treatment centers 10 applicants that meet the requirements of
   29  this section, under the following parameters:
   30         a. As soon as practicable, but no later than August 1,
   31  2017, the department shall license any applicant whose
   32  application was reviewed, evaluated, and scored by the
   33  department and which was denied a dispensing organization
   34  license by the department under former s. 381.986, Florida
   35  Statutes 2014; which had one or more administrative or judicial
   36  challenges pending as of January 1, 2017, or had a final ranking
   37  within one point of the highest final ranking in its region
   38  under former s. 381.986, Florida Statutes 2014; which meets the
   39  requirements of this section; and which provides documentation
   40  to the department that it has the existing infrastructure and
   41  technical and technological ability to begin cultivating
   42  marijuana within 30 days after registration as a medical
   43  marijuana treatment center.
   44         b. As soon as practicable, the department shall license one
   45  applicant that is a recognized class member of Pigford v.
   46  Glickman, 185 F.R.D. 82 (D.D.C. 1999), or In Re Black Farmers
   47  Litig., 856 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2011). An applicant licensed
   48  under this sub-subparagraph is exempt from the requirement of
   49  subparagraph (b)2.
   50         c. As soon as practicable, but no later than October 3,
   51  2017, the department shall license applicants that meet the
   52  requirements of this section in sufficient numbers to result in
   53  10 total licenses issued under this subparagraph, while
   54  accounting for the number of licenses issued under sub
   55  subparagraphs a. and b.
   56  
   57  The recipient of a medical marijuana treatment center license
   58  issued pursuant to a settlement or resolution of any claim
   59  against the department may not be counted as 1 of the 10
   60  licensed applicants.
   61         3. For up to two of the licenses issued under subparagraph
   62  2., the department shall give preference to applicants that
   63  demonstrate in their applications that they own one or more
   64  facilities that are, or were, used for the canning,
   65  concentrating, or otherwise processing of citrus fruit or citrus
   66  molasses and will use or convert the facility or facilities for
   67  the processing of marijuana.
   68         4. Within 6 months after the registration of 100,000 active
   69  qualified patients in the medical marijuana use registry, the
   70  department shall license four additional medical marijuana
   71  treatment centers that meet the requirements of this section.
   72  Thereafter, the department shall license four medical marijuana
   73  treatment centers within 6 months after the registration of each
   74  additional 100,000 active qualified patients in the medical
   75  marijuana use registry that meet the requirements of this
   76  section.
   77  
   78  The recipient of a medical marijuana treatment center license
   79  issued pursuant to a settlement or resolution of any claim
   80  against the department may not be counted as one of the four
   81  licensed medical marijuana treatment centers.
   82         5. Dispensing facilities are subject to the following
   83  requirements:
   84         a. A medical marijuana treatment center may not establish
   85  or operate more than a statewide maximum of 25 dispensing
   86  facilities, unless the medical marijuana use registry reaches a
   87  total of 100,000 active registered qualified patients. When the
   88  medical marijuana use registry reaches 100,000 active registered
   89  qualified patients, and then upon each further instance of the
   90  total active registered qualified patients increasing by
   91  100,000, the statewide maximum number of dispensing facilities
   92  that each licensed medical marijuana treatment center may
   93  establish and operate increases by five.
   94         b. A medical marijuana treatment center may not establish
   95  more than the maximum number of dispensing facilities allowed in
   96  each of the Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southwest, and
   97  Southeast Regions. The department shall determine a medical
   98  marijuana treatment center’s maximum number of dispensing
   99  facilities allowed in each region by calculating the percentage
  100  of the total statewide population contained within that region
  101  and multiplying that percentage by the medical marijuana
  102  treatment center’s statewide maximum number of dispensing
  103  facilities established under sub-subparagraph a., rounded to the
  104  nearest whole number. The department shall ensure that such
  105  rounding does not cause a medical marijuana treatment center’s
  106  total number of statewide dispensing facilities to exceed its
  107  statewide maximum. The department shall initially calculate the
  108  maximum number of dispensing facilities allowed in each region
  109  for each medical marijuana treatment center using county
  110  population estimates from the Florida Estimates of Population
  111  2016, as published by the Office of Economic and Demographic
  112  Research, and shall perform recalculations following the
  113  official release of county population data resulting from each
  114  United States Decennial Census. For the purposes of this
  115  subparagraph:
  116         (I) The Northwest Region consists of Bay, Calhoun,
  117  Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson,
  118  Leon, Liberty, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Taylor, Wakulla,
  119  Walton, and Washington Counties.
  120         (II) The Northeast Region consists of Alachua, Baker,
  121  Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist,
  122  Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Marion, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns,
  123  Suwannee, and Union Counties.
  124         (III) The Central Region consists of Brevard, Citrus,
  125  Hardee, Hernando, Indian River, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Pasco,
  126  Pinellas, Polk, Seminole, St. Lucie, Sumter, and Volusia
  127  Counties.
  128         (IV) The Southwest Region consists of Charlotte, Collier,
  129  DeSoto, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee,
  130  Okeechobee, and Sarasota Counties.
  131         (V) The Southeast Region consists of Broward, Miami-Dade,
  132  Martin, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties.
  133         c. If a medical marijuana treatment center establishes a
  134  number of dispensing facilities within a region that is less
  135  than the number allowed for that region under sub-subparagraph
  136  b., the medical marijuana treatment center may sell one or more
  137  of its unused dispensing facility slots to other licensed
  138  medical marijuana treatment centers. For each dispensing
  139  facility slot that a medical marijuana treatment center sells,
  140  that medical marijuana treatment center’s statewide maximum
  141  number of dispensing facilities, as determined under sub
  142  subparagraph a., is reduced by one. The statewide maximum number
  143  of dispensing facilities for a medical marijuana treatment
  144  center that purchases an unused dispensing facility slot is
  145  increased by one per slot purchased. Additionally, the sale of a
  146  dispensing facility slot shall reduce the seller’s regional
  147  maximum and increase the purchaser’s regional maximum number of
  148  dispensing facilities, as determined in sub-subparagraph b., by
  149  one for that region. For any slot purchased under this sub
  150  subparagraph, the regional restriction applied to that slot’s
  151  location under sub-subparagraph b. before the purchase shall
  152  remain in effect following the purchase. A medical marijuana
  153  treatment center that sells or purchases a dispensing facility
  154  slot must notify the department within 3 days of sale.
  155         d. This subparagraph shall expire on April 1, 2020.
  156  
  157  If this subparagraph or its application to any person or
  158  circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect
  159  other provisions or applications of this act which can be given
  160  effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this
  161  end, the provisions of this subparagraph are severable.
  162  
  163  ====== D I R E C T O R Y  C L A U S E  A M E N D M E N T ======
  164  And the directory clause is amended as follows:
  165         Delete line 6
  166  and insert:
  167  paragraphs (a) and (e) of subsection (8), and paragraph (a) of
  168  subsection
  169  
  170  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  171  And the title is amended as follows:
  172         Delete line 546
  173  and insert:
  174         status; providing that a medical marijuana treatment
  175         center license issued pursuant to a settlement or
  176         resolution of a certain claim does not count toward
  177         the number of licenses required to be issued by the
  178         apartment; authorizing the department to