Florida lawmakers passed legislation last week to allow medicinal cannabis patients to renew their medical marijuana recommendation with a physician via telehealth appointments. The measure, House Bill 387, was passed by the Florida House of Representatives on Thursday after the state Senate approved an amended version of the legislation earlier in the day. The bill, which also includes provisions to help Black farmers obtain licenses to cultivate medical marijuana, now heads to the desk of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for consideration. 

Under the bill, patients seeking treatment with medical marijuana would still be required to conduct an in-person office visit with a physician to receive an original recommendation and state-issued medical marijuana identification card. Once approved to use marijuana, however, House Bill 387 would allow patients to complete required renewal consultations with a doctor through a remote telehealth appointment. Currently, Florida state law requires patients to receive an updated recommendation to use medical marijuana every 210 days, or approximately seven months.

Medical marijuana patients in Florida were permitted to renew their medical marijuana recommendations via telehealth appointments temporarily under emergency rules put in place in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. House Bill 387 would make permanent that policy, which expired in June 2020, and allow patients to once again renew their medical marijuana authorization by visiting with their physician via a telehealth appointment.

“[The bill] would treat the use of medical marijuana just like other medicines in the state of Florida,” Republican state Representative Spencer Roach, the sponsor of the bill, said after introducing the legislation earlier this year. “We sort of had an unforced trial run with this in Florida for approximately eight months. [We] really didn’t see any problems there.”

Last week’s passage of the bill was welcomed by Kim Rivers, CEO of Trulieve, Florida’s largest medical marijuana provider with more than 120 licensed dispensaries statewide.

“We are supportive of anything that increases accessibility for medical patients,” Rivers wrote in a message to High Times.

House Bill 387 also includes provisions to help Black farmers in Florida obtain licenses to cultivate medical marijuana. 

After voters passed Amendment 2, the 2016 ballot measure that legalized medical marijuana in Florida, state regulators established a vertically integrated infrastructure that limited medicinal cannabis production and sales to a few regulated companies. Under the amendment, at least one medical marijuana cultivation was supposed to be issued to a Black farmer who was a “recognized class member” in class-action lawsuits over lending discrimination by the federal government known as the Pigford litigation, according to a report from Orlando Weekly.

But under the plan, no Black farmers were licensed to cultivate medical marijuana for the state’s patients for two years. A group of Black farmers sued the state, and in September, Terry Gwynn became the first Black grower to receive a license to cultivate medical marijuana. Other farmers who applied for the license but were not successful have continued the legal action, however.

House Bill 387 authorizes up to a dozen additional licenses for Pigford class farmers. After the bill passed, lawmakers praised the legislation to bring more fairness to Florida’s medical marijuana cultivation infrastructure.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Democratic state Senator Darryl Rouson. “The Black farmers were already victimized, and this Legislature in 2017 started to make that situation right.”

“Today we’re going to make history not just because we’re going to make good on the Pigford litigation that started back in 2017, six years ago,” Roach added, “but you’re going to make history today because for the first time in the House, Representative (Angie) Nixon has spoken in favor of one of my bills.”

Nixon praised her colleagues in the House for passing the bill with the Senate’s amendments.

“This is a great deal,” Nixon said. “I’m happy that the Black farmers will have the opportunity to get a license because of it.”

House Bill 387 passed with strong bipartisan support, passing in the Senate by a vote of 38-0 on Thursday. The measure also received unanimous approval in the House of Representatives later in the day, passing by a vote of 105-0.

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A bill that would expand the list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis and lower the cost of the treatment was approved by lawmakers in Arizona. 

The bill, SB 1466, was approved on Monday by a legislative committee. If it were to become law, the measure would result in a host of changes to the state’s medical cannabis law––perhaps most notably, the addition of autism and post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of qualifying conditions. 

It was approved by a 7-2 vote by members of the Health and Human Services Committee Hearing.

The outlet AZMarijuana has a rundown of the key points of the bill, which includes: “Reduction of medical marijuana card costs to $50, with renewals every 2 years; 100% waiver of medical marijuana card costs to veterans; Adding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder into statute; Adds Autism Spectrum Disorder as a debilitating medical condition; Alignment of the advertising, packaging, and branding to match the rules in Smart and Safe; Requires protections for children – child resistant packaging, prohibits advertising attractive to children, adds advertising restrictions; Alignment of the definition of marijuana and marijuana products; Codifying the use of telehealth; Updating the details of the requirements in the QR Code and track/traceability; Provide a unified cover sheet for COAs to simplify consumer/patient experience; Removes a government-led lab testing council and replaces with a full public forum.” 

The group Arizona Dispensaries Association has strongly backed the legislation.

“ADA supports SB1466, which gives veterans the ability to acquire a medical marijuana card at no cost,” said Ann Torrez, executive director of the Arizona Dispensaries Association, as quoted by AZMarijuana. “Often veterans suffer from PTSD, insomnia, heightened anxiety and chronic pain. A free medical marijuana card gives veteran patients access to medical cannabis treatment for any of these common conditions.”

“The ADA’s primary mission is to promote and advocate for a safe, consumer-focused cannabis industry in Arizona,” Torrez continued. “We aim to continuously educate consumers on the importance of visiting only licensed dispensaries and consuming only THC and CBD products that have been lab tested and approved.”

The bill is being considered at a time when Arizona’s medical cannabis industry is enduring sluggish sales. 

In October, medical marijuana sales in the state amounted to a little more than $31 million, which was the eighth consecutive month of decline. 

Meanwhile, the state’s adult-use cannabis market, which launched in January 2021, continues to thrive.

In that same month, recreational cannabis sales in Arizona totaled $73.8 million, which was a new high.

As AZ Mirror reported earlier this year, the “crumbling of the medical program follows a pattern other states have seen with medical markets outpaced by recreational sales in the wake of legalization.”

The outlet reported in January: “The state collects 16% excise tax on recreational sales in addition to the standard sales tax; medical patients pay roughly 6% in state sales tax, levied as a Transaction Privilege Tax on cannabis outlets. Local jurisdictions charge an additional 2% or so for all marijuana sales. One-third of recreational taxes collected are dedicated to community college and provisional community college districts; 31% to public safety — police, fire departments, fire districts, first responders — 25% to the Arizona Highway User Revenue Fund, and 10% to the justice reinvestment fund, dedicated to providing public health services, counseling, job training and other social services for communities that have been adversely affected and disproportionately impacted by marijuana arrests and criminalization. The medical market has continued to bleed both sales and participants, following a trend in some states that have legalized adult-use cannabis years after establishing medical cannabis markets.”

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Telemedicine is a modern-day solution to healthcare problems for those in rural parts of the world, and now cannabis telemedicine also exists. Folks in Montana now have access to a platform called NuggMD that connects state licensed medical marijuana doctors to patients virtually. 

NuggMD, an already-established medical cannabis telemedicine platform, is launching its service in Montana. People who wish to be patients simply have to cough up the barrier of entry of $129 to be able to use the service. The platform is already being used by doctors and patients in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia.

Despite its rural population, Montana is doing well when it comes to legal cannabis. They made record sales in June of over $17.2 million spent on recreational pot and over $7 million spent on medical cannabis, totaling almost $25 million in cannabis sales just for the month. The total for the year so far is $148 million. The highest cannabis sales are in Yellowstone County, which hit $4.1 million in June, 32% of those being recreational. On opening weekend of legal cannabis sales in the state, the total was already at $1.5 million.

“Yellowstone’s success makes it obvious that cannabis has been a huge boon for the tourist industry in Montana,” says Alex Milligan, CMO and co-founder of NuggMD. “But the medical market is still running strong in the state because the program provides powerful advantages for Montana patients.”

In Montana, medical patients can purchase the same amount of cannabis as recreational users, but there are still some perks. They can purchase more potent cannabis and save 16% on their sales taxes. They can also grow twice as many plants and, like in many other legal and medical states, go to special, medical-only dispensaries, which is a major bonus for those who don’t live close to a bigger town or city with lots of recreational spots.

“It’s easy to see why so many Montanans still carry medical marijuana cards, despite recreational legalization,” says Collin Mann, CEO and NuggMD co-founder. “We’re excited to join the cannabis community in Montana and provide them with the best service in the state.”

Those who want to utilize the NuggMD platform can log in seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time. No appointment is necessary, and those who don’t end up qualifying for a medical cannabis card are not charged for their meeting with doctors. 

In addition to taking medical patients seriously, the state is also working on overturning past convictions in order to heal the harms done by the War on Drugs. As such, the state has been doing the work to clear those charges and provide resources to those who are struggling. An expungement ruling passed by the state’s Supreme Court claims “anyone convicted of an offense that would now be legal in the state can petition to have their conviction removed from their record, get a lesser sentence for it or reclassify it to a lesser offense.”

“From the start, I’ve been clear that we need to bring more resources to bear to combat the drug epidemic that’s devastating our communities,” Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte says regarding bringing legal cannabis to the state. “Funding a full continuum of substance abuse prevention and treatment programs for communities, the HEART Fund will offer new support to Montanans who want to get clean, sober and healthy.”

As more cannabis resources continue to make their way to Montana, the already booming legal and recreational cannabis industries will keep surviving and thriving, paving the way for even more revenue and patient access. 

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