TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Smokable medical marijuana is now legal in Florida after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a recently passed bill Monday.
The Florida Legislature passed the bill Wednesday to repeal the state's ban on smoking medical marijuana.
5 things you need to know about the smokable medical marijuana law
“Over 70 percent of Florida voters approved medical marijuana in 2016,” DeSantis said. “I thank my colleagues in the Legislature for working with me to ensure the will of the voters is upheld. Now that we have honored our duty to find a legislative solution, I have honored my commitment and filed a joint motion to dismiss the state’s appeal and to vacate the lower court decision which had held the prior law to be unconstitutional.”
During an event in Winter Park shortly after taking office, DeSantis said that qualified patients should be permitted to smoke medical marijuana and that if the Legislature couldn't come up with a solution to fix that, he would.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that the new law takes effect immediately but the Florida Department of Health still needs to come up with guidelines for doctors who plan to prescribe smokable medical marijuana, which means that it won't immediately be available for patients.
Under the new law, smokable medical marijuana would not be available to anyone under 18 unless the patient is terminally ill and if two doctors approve. Among other limitations, it could not be smoked in public or at private businesses subject to a cigarette smoking ban, according to The Associated Press.
To read the bill in its entirety, click here.