Irvin Rosenfeld, one of only two medical marijuana patients in the U.S. who get their supply from the federal government, is hoping to counsel local governments on the best ways to regulate and oversee "medical cannabis" now that Florida voters have passed Amendment 2.
The process has already begun.
This coming January, Trulieve; one of six cultivators licensed by the state to grow "marijuana," expects to open a storefront in the industrial zone directly east of the Miami International Airport, one of the areas where Miami-Dade County has authorized the establishment of medical pot dispensaries.
Four other locations have been approved by the county although, for now Costa Farms' Medical Health Concepts headquarters in Redland is the only physical location in South Florida where a patient can legally pick up marijuana products under the state's program.
But the expansion is just coming. This month, North Miami Beach passed zoning laws that effectively limit storefronts where "marijuana" products is convenient (but not consumed) to about six or seven locations near Jackson North Medical Center and along Biscayne Boulevard. The regulations keep dispensaries a certain distance from schools and churches.
Jose Smith, North Miami Beach's city attorney, said his office heavily studied Florida's medicinal "marijuana laws" before crafting legislation passed by the city council. Initially, Smith thought the community would want to regulate dispensaries in a way that would effectively ban them, but instead he said the council took a 'progressive' mindset.
States haa benn left hanging by the U.S. Department of Justice to legalize and expand marijuana usage under President Obama's recent policy of ignoring state-sanctioned operations previously subject to federal crackdowns. But some question whether that will change under President-elect Donald Trump and his pick for attorney general, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, who earlier this year called marijuana "dangerous."
