By Lois Thomson
After a delay of several years, Florida’s Department of Health (DOH) has set in place rules for how businesses may apply for a medical-marijuana treatment center license. The license will allow a business to cultivate, process and dispense medical marijuana. However, considering the length of the delay, the fact that questions and concerns still abound is not surprising.
As background, the state’s marijuana industry currently has 22 licensed operators. A state law requires the DOH to issue new licenses to correspond with the increase in the number of new patients – four licenses for every 100,000. Because the state’s demographics include an aging population, more than 750,000 patients in Florida are now authorized to use medical marijuana, and that number continues to increase. For that reason, at least 22 more licenses need to be issued to keep pace with the demand.
These new rules are hoping to create a system for doing that. One states that the licenses will be handed out by “batching” them, meaning they will not all be offered at one time. This will allow those who do not receive a license the first time to apply again, although neither the length of time in between the batches, nor the number of licenses that will be available each time, has been specified.
In 2017, the Legislature passed a bill requiring health officials to set aside one license for black farmers who participated in litigation known as the “Pigford” lawsuits, which claimed federal government discrimination against blacks in allocating farm loans and assistance between 1981 and 1996. The state awarded that license in 2022, but it has been subject to litigation because the majority stakeholder of the farm died during the process and the license was not awarded. The man’s family is suing, saying it should have nonetheless received the license.
In addition, the new rules include a “citrus preference,” which leans toward businesses that own at least one facility that was or is being used to can, concentrate, or in some way process citrus fruit, and will use or convert that facility to process marijuana.
Most license applications require a non-refundable fee of $146,000 – more than double that of the initial licensing fee that took place five-plus years ago – and there is concern that smaller applicants might find themselves out of the running because of the high cost.
Those who have licenses will also find it more expensive to renew them, a requirement that takes place every two years. This rule raises the cost from approximately $60,000 per year to more than $1.3 million for renewals due between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2024. The higher fees are based on a formula that includes the amount of money it costs the state to regulate the industry.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the reason for the increase is that medical marijuana companies weren’t paying enough to operate in Florida. He added that everybody wants one and the licenses are very valuable, and this is true, as once medical-marijuana licenses are awarded, they could be resold for tens of millions of dollars.
