The University of Florida’s latest education venture, UF Online, may have some formidable competition: Cannabis University of Florida.
The Jacksonville school hosts seminars on medical marijuana and advocates for the passage of Amendment 2 in the upcoming November 2014 Florida general election, which would legalize medical marijuana in the Sunshine State.
Schools like CUF have been quietly popping up all over the state, according to the News-Press, poised to satisfy the state’s potential need for education should Amendment 2 be passed later this year.
“The motivation is two-fold: compassion and cash,” the News-Press reported. “There is a population suffering from illnesses waiting to be helped and the opportunity to make money helping them.”
So with the elections on the horizon, entrepreneurs are excited by the prospect of the medical marijuana industry entering Florida. Dispensaries and growers aren’t the only strings attached with the budding — no pun intended — industry: attorneys, accountants, processing facilities, labs for quality testing, consultants for licensing and zoning and more, the News-Press reported.
But while so many are eager to capitalize on Amendment 2 if it’s passed, the question of how medical marijuana would be regulated in Florida remains unanswered. The amendment calls for legalization of full-scale medical marijuana but leaves the details of growth, maintenance and dispensing for the legislature and Florida Department of Health to figure out, according to the Sun Sentinel.
Quinnipiac University conducted a poll in May and found that 88 percent of Floridians supported the amendment, so its passage come November is likely. However, with the issues of cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, prescribing and retail sale still up in the air, the legislature and DOH need to do their part in letting Florida know how it intends to implement Amendment 2 once it’s passed.
Other states have made grave mistakes when it came to legalizing marijuana. Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA, argues in Washington Monthly that the current approach to implementing marijuana legalization could open the door to future power struggles between a wealthy cannabis industry and state and national governments.
Though Kleiman’s argument deals primarily with recreational marijuana and not medical marijuana, which is what Amendment 2 deals in, it still stands that Florida voters have no access to information on how cannabis would be regulated in Florida.
The private sector, clearly, has done a good — maybe too good — job of educating voters on what medical marijuana would mean to the Florida economy. But for now, it’s impossible for Floridians to make an educated decision on an amendment that leaves so much important information in the air. The bill is almost guaranteed to pass, and Scott will likely let it pass without a veto. Florida needs to know what how the Legislature and DOH intend to help specific patients and avoid a California-like free-for-all situation.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 6/3/2014 under the headline "Floridians need Amendment 2 Info"]
