Status
Operational
Law Signed:
2016
QUALIFYING CONDITIONS
- ALS
- Cancer
- Crohn’s disease
- Chronic nonmalignant pain*
- Epilepsy
- Glaucoma
- HIV/AIDS
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson’s disease
- PTSD
- Seizures
- Terminal illness (patients diagnosed with no more than 12-months to live)
- Other debilitating medical conditions comparable to those enumerated *Defined as “pain that is either caused by or originates from a qualifying medical condition”
PATIENT POSSESSION LIMITS
Patients who possess a physician’s recommendation may legally obtain medical cannabis provided by state licensed dispensaries. A qualified physician may not issue a physician certification for more than three 70-day supply limits of marijuana. The Department of Health shall quantify by rule a daily dose amount with equivalent dose amounts for each allowable form of marijuana dispensed by a medical marijuana treatment center. A 2017 law enacted by the legislature barring the inhalation of herbal forms of medical cannabis was amended in 2018 by SB 182. The measure permits qualified patients are permitted to possess up to four ounces of herbal cannabis if a recommending physician opines “that the benefits of smoking marijuana for medical use outweigh the risks for the qualified patient.” Emergency rules enacted by the Department of Health in 2020 permit the sales of cannabis-infused edible products by licensed retailers.
HOME CULTIVATION
No
STATE-LICENSED DISPENSARIES
Yes
STATE-LICENSED DISPENSARIES OPERATIONAL
Yes
CAREGIVERS
Yes. A “caregiver” means a person who is at least twenty-one (21) years old who has agreed to assist with a qualifying patient’s medical use of marijuana and has qualified for and obtained a caregiver identification card issued by the Department of Health. The Department may limit the number of qualifying patients a caregiver may assist at one time and the number of caregivers that a qualifying patient may have at one time.
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF REGISTERED PATIENTS
- 527,432
- Source: Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use, as of April 2021
RECIPROCITY
No
CONTACT INFORMATION
Department of Health regulators must finalize rules by July 3, 2018. The law must be implemented by October 3, 2018.
Read the full text of SB-8, the Amendment 2 implementation bill »