Medical marijuana users risk losing cards under new Florida law – WESH
Nearly one million people in Florida have prescriptions to buy medical marijuana, but under a new law, patients who violate the state’s “Drug Abuse Prevention and Control” laws could lose their medical marijuana cards temporarily or permanently.
The law, SB 2514, went into effect this month.
The law explains that the state will “suspend the registration of a qualified patient charged with a violation” and “revoke the medical marijuana use registry registration of qualified patients and caregivers who enter certain pleas or are found guilty of certain (drug) offenses.”
“[Governor Ron] DeSantis has decided that being against medical marijuana is really a good thing,” said local attorney John Morgan during an interview at the Winter Park studios of WESH 2 News.
“I think he’s wrong about it,” Morgan said.
Morgan bankrolled the 2016 campaign to legalize medical marijuana. He was opposed then by the pharmaceutical industry, which is now seeing fewer patients turning to addictive medications and instead choosing cannabis.
Morgan points to massive Republican campaign contributions from Pfizer and big chain pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens for driving the anti-medical cannabis narrative in the Legislature, which created this new law.
Morgan added, “The people who do not want medical marijuana are the people who make OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax — you know, all poisons — and what happened with the pharmaceutical industry with the opioid crisis was criminal, and it killed so many people. That’s who doesn’t want medical marijuana.”
“Obviously, that card is a privilege, and there can be responsibilities added to that,” said Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power.
He repeatedly called medical marijuana a “privilege,” despite the fact that voters approved it as a permanent fixture in the state Constitution.
Power says the new law is one example among many that strip citizens of some of their rights when they violate other laws, adding, “It’s also a place where we don’t want people abusing that medical marijuana process to achieve other goals, other than that healthy remedy for certain illnesses that we have deemed important.”
Dr. Joseph Rosado is a local medical marijuana prescriber who vehemently opposes the new law.
He compares it to someone being arrested for driving under the influence and often having their driving privileges quickly restored, adding, “They’re still eligible to get a driver’s license once that suspension has been lifted. So why penalize or criminalize someone for that?”
It’s unclear whether the new law would have to be amended if a new effort to place recreational marijuana on the ballot next year succeeds and is approved by 60% of Florida voters.
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