The House Health Quality Subcommittee met today - Here is the link to VIDEO testimony

Dr Sue Sisley was on hand to testify and was spectacular, as always.

Please share this information - and be sure to watch what's happening up at the Capitol and communicate with both the committee members and your elected officials.

We have a ton of news on our Facebook page - be sure you Like our page and stay appraised of news from Florida and around the Nation pertaining to Cannabis.

Facebook Page HERE

If you like the information in this post, please share it with others you think may like it too.

Spot zoning, however, may be countered when the challenged zoning is found to be consistent with a municipality’s recent zoning trends in the area, not just with the present surrounding uses. To illustrate the importance that each factual scenario must be closely addressed, rather than merely labeled, it should be noted that one Illinois court found that the rezoning of small parcels inconsistent with the zoning of surrounding areas is not necessarily unlawful. The size of a parcel is just one factor to be considered in determining spot zoning.
A claim of spot zoning may also lack merit, for instance, when the zoning or planning regulations consider the boundaries of the property in dispute to contain a line of demarcation between zoning districts which would appropriately separate one zoning district from another. 
Most importantly though, if the zoning is enacted in accordance with a comprehensive plan, it is typically not “spot zoning.”

*excerpted from  :PlannersWeb.com*
​

There's a brief lesson in Zoning and Spot Zoning above - and you may be there wondering

"Why all the Hullabaloo?"

This was a HUGE issue in Colorado and Michigan back in 2011-2013, and many issues still continue today in multitudes of states. We as an industry in Florida must be PROACTIVE within our communities and work diligently to avoid these situations. Making legal errors in these areas is vastly expensive and time consuming, and many times the cost of all of that lands on the patients through upped product costs, delay or services if not entire loss, and complete upset and unrest within the community.

Let's talk about Boulder Colorado - March - 2012

District Attorney Stan Garnett addresses Attorney General John Walsh regarding the zoning of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries.

​See letters below

Once you have absorbed the content of these letters you will start to recognize the importance of understanding Spot Zoning, and not allowing it to happen.

In addition, it is imperative to ensure cannabis business locations not be located by schools, daycares, boys and girls clubs, and public parks. Once a business is located and licensed, it is important to ensure the previously mentioned schools, etc. not be allowed to license a location within the parameters and drive a dispensary out of a location or cause a local fight.

Please see Denver Westword story regarding issue HERE

​Below, we close with a Public Policy Brief presented by Michigan State University Extension.

It's a jungle out there folks! Please remember - we're here for you. Be sure to subscribe to our Newsletter HERE

If you found this article useful, please share on your social media and e-mail. 

Thank you

​Hiedi & Irv

Irvin and Hiedi discuss the confusion surrounding Amendment 2 implementation. 

Please be sure to share - we want to keep everybody safe.

​Patients - sign up at www.FPFU.org please. 

Prospective Business Owners - read carefully please. This information is HUGELY important to your business and how Florida moves forward.

As of today, January 3, 2017 - Amendment 2 is in effect. 

What does that mean?

Well........that means the will of the voter is in place, and the Amendment is moving forward as directed in the language of the Amendment. It does NOT mean businesses can fling doors open yet. The rules have to be set in place - Session for Florida starts in March.

The BEST thing you can do know is understand COMPLETELY the law, the process, and follow along very closely.

Let's throw some history and resources down here:

​First - The Amendment 

​Next - Financial Impact Statements - first listed is abbreviated statement - after that is full analysis. 

Now we head on over to the Florida Department of Health website - Always remember we have these links here so they are easy for you to find.

Committee on Health Policy Page - Click HERE - page will open in another window

They held their first meeting December 13, 2016 - You may view in entirety HERE 

​Below - you will find the entire meeting packet. 

Here's the proverbial "Fly in the Ointment"

Florida Statute 381.986 Compassionate use of low-THC and medical cannabis

​Click HERE to read this law. When you do, you will realize the problems of understanding the two laws and trying to merge them together. 

They cannot be "auto-merged" - as a matter of fact - the current licensees are requesting to be Grandfathered in to the new licensing structure. 

​Do your research folks! It's important!

If you are considering getting into the Cannabis Industry in Florida - it is IMPERATIVE you understand and absorb the information listed above. The opposition was present at the meeting in December - we need to ensure OUR people are there in force for the next meetings.


​My Medicine Consulting is here to assist you with these endeavors - Please contact us today to guide you through this process. 

Irvin Rosenfeld - 954-536-9011 - [email protected]
Hiedi Handford - 202-760-1924 - [email protected]
​

THIS is the kind of Trainwreck we hope to see soon in Florida - In Compliance!

Amendment 2 passed - patients are rejoicing across the state.

Now what???

Hurry up and wait - that's what you do, unless you wish to get onto the program developed in 2014 - the CBD law.

​Amendment 2 goes into effect January 3, but THAT'S IT for now. 

Rules have to be written, guidelines established, and Physicians have to come on board. Not all Doctors out there are going to issue medical marijuana referrals. 

We have been watching the Florida Department of Health website for any guidance, and what is there is very vague. Look for yourself: Florida Department of Health​

What they are talking about is the 2014 CBD law - NOT Amendment 2 - so don't go thinking you are "safe to use" under Amendment 2 just yet. 

Found a great resource here at Florida Medical Marijuana Doctors  so be sure and read up there too.

In the meantime - we highly recommend to all patients to sign up for Florida Patients and Families United. Communications will be starting by the end of December. WHY join Florida Patients and Families United?

Because we're giving the patient a voice at the Capital. We have direct feed from Tallahassee from people working directly on the issues so we can guide and instruct you on communicating with your civic leaders on the building of this bill. The patient's voice MUST BE HEARD or regulations will be written without proper feedback. We're going to guide you and instruct you on what's going on, and responses to send to your civic leaders. 

Sign up HERE please - and be sure to join the Facebook group HERE

We hope to see the best law in the Nation in Florida, and we can't do it without you and your voice. 

If you like this story Please be sure to like and share this post so we don't see a bunch of Floridians getting in hot water with the law January 3, 2017. In other states drug "crime" convictions can result in inability to participate in medical cannabis program (don't shoot the messengers - we know diseases aren't selective) and we need to ensure sick patients in Florida don't make the same mistakes. It could cost people their lives.

Thank you for your attention to this. It's VERY important. We have NO CLUE what's going to happen in Tallahassee regulating this industry. Be sure you get your 2 cents in. We need every person possible in Florida having educated conversations with their elected officials. 

A clerk handles the merchandise at a Southern California medical marijuana dispensary. (Los Angeles Times)
​By Sun Sentinel Editorial Board

With 71 percent of Floridians having voted to legalize medical marijuana, it might seem surprising to see so many South Florida communities impose moratoriums on dispensaries.So far, Boca Raton, Delray Beach and the village of Golf have imposed year-long timeouts. Also, six-month freezes have been imposed in Coral Springs, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach and Hallandale Beach, although Hallandale's will expire in January.
Given the unknowns, the moratoriums are understandable. For while voters agreed to give residents with certain medical ailments a constitutional right to medical pot, the Legislature has yet to write the implementing language that clarifies how the process will work, exactly.

After all, no one wants a dispensary next door to a school or church, or congregated in a single neighborhood, changing its character. We've also yet to learn whether legislators will outlaw packaging that looks like candy or overwrite another law that prohibits anyone from smoking marijuana, medical or otherwise.

Coral Springs Vice Mayor Dan Daley, who supported the ballot effort, said city leaders "are taking a lot of flak" about their moratorium. "People are asking, 'Why didn't you prepare?' That's not the issue. We're waiting to see what the state does."
Absent a moratorium, cities fear businesses will apply for conditional use permits when the amendment takes effect on Jan. 3, but before the state's regulatory framework is established. From there, the courts could get involved.
So it makes sense to call a timeout and track one of the hottest topics facing lawmakers next spring: how to regulate the medical marijuana industry.

Let's hope they do a better job than the scheme they created after passing a 2014 law that allows doctors to prescribe a non-euphoric version of cannabis — a process that ended with only six large companies being allowed to grow and distribute medical marijuana in Florida.

State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, who filed a medical marijuana bill last year, favors a system that lets anyone apply for a medical marijuana business license and lets dispensers operate separately from growers, opening up opportunities for small, minority-owned companies.

Brandes also wants cities to have some say on where dispensaries may be located. "We really do want to have local control," he said. "My constituents want that."

Local control could allow some communities to ban dispensaries altogether, but Brandes envisions someone creating a regulated delivery service that helps patients too sick to travel.

Boca Raton vice mayor Robert Weinroth said that while he believes in local control, this is a situation where "the Legislature should preempt and have a statewide policy on how we're going to handle this."

"If we start going city by city, county by county, and one county is a little bit more lenient in regulation, it could find itself the pot capital of Florida," he said. "We'd be much better served with uniform regulations that come down from the legislature using the same criteria, enforcement and implementation."

A Coral Springs memo said the moratorium will allow staff to "study the impact on crime, demand on city services, surrounding property values, traffic, congestion, and other aspects of the general public health, safety and welfare."

While crime is a concern anywhere, comparisons to pill mills appear unwarranted. Those clinics allowed shady doctors to prescribe deadly controlled substances for cash and drew out-of-state drug addicts to South Florida.

By contrast, everyone expects the medical marijuana industry to be tightly regulated. The amendment limits its use to patients with a list of debilitating conditions, including cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress syndrome and other related diseases.

Besides, over half the country has legalized medical marijuana, and there's no indication that local dispensaries have created an increase in crime. Few would question pharmacies in their cities.
​
With more questions than answers right now, it makes sense for cities to pass temporary moratoriums. But once the state draws the roadmap for medical marijuana, local leaders should remember that a vast majority of Floridians have said they support access to those it can help.

Click here for original story by Sun Sentinel Editorial Board

BY DAVID SMILEY
[email protected]
When Irvin Rosenfeld runs low on his monthly allotment of federal government marijuana, the Lauderhill stock broker drives south for about an hour to Miami’s health district, the only location where he can legally pick up a circular tin packed with 300 joints.
It’s inconvenient: The pot he smokes every day to fight and treat a rare and painful bone tumor disorder is what allows him to make the drive. But like most other medical marijuana patients in Florida, the options for acquiring his medicine remain limited — for now.
As the state prepares to expand its highly restrictive medical cannabis program on Jan. 3 following the overwhelming passage of Amendment 2, dispensaries providing oils, low-THC pills, vape pens and other products are expected to pop up by the hundreds around the state. Given that federal law keeps pharmacies from distributing marijuana, dispensaries will likely be a key cog in a fledgling industry that today requires the vast majority of legal users to receive their medication by personal delivery.
But there’s uncertainty about how and when that will happen. State legislators and the Department of Health will likely set the parameters for the expanded program by June, which figures to be its own battle. But just as important as patients’ access to their medication is how — and whether — cities and counties regulate the location and operation of dispensaries, which critics fret will flood neighborhoods with “seedy elements” of the drug industry.
“Take Miami. Can you imagine if you’ve got 20 cities that do it and 10 that don’t?” said Rosenfeld, who plans to keep the rare federal prescription that gives him access to smokeable marijuana “flower” but also participate in the state’s separate, expanded program. “There’s got to be a way to implement it in a way that all the communities see the benefits.”
The process has already begun.
In 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 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’ Modern 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 expansion is coming. This month, North Miami Beach passed zoning laws that effectively limit storefronts where marijuana products can be purchased (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.
“I’m sure that a lot of cities are going to try to zone it out [through over-regulation], and my research is to the effect that once the Legislature says something is legal, you can’t do that,” said Smith. “You can’t say we’re not going to have strip clubs in our city, and you can’t say we’re not going to have marijuana dispensaries in our city because it’s a legal business.”
But the issue may not be that simple.
Due to federal laws that continue to hold that marijuana is an illicit drug without medicinal value, some cities say the conflict between state and federal law prohibits dispensaries. Miami, the largest city in South Florida, holds that opinion today, as does Coral Gables, where a 2014 law regulating dispensaries allows them only if the city attorney opines that medical marijuana is legal both under state and federal law.
“It’s still unsettled whether [dispensaries] are really legal or not,” said city attorney Craig Leen.

Underscoring that point, states have been left alone 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.”
Another complication for cities caused by the federal government’s stance on marijuana: Most banks remain wary of doing business with marijuana dispensaries, meaning many storefronts could be cash-only operations.
For the most part, though, South Florida municipalities are monitoring Amendment 2 but have passed no laws and made no decisions on how and whether to regulate dispensaries. Broward County’s government, for instance, is undecided. Others, including Miami Beachand Hialeah, have implemented temporary bans on dispensaries, which has been both hailed and criticized.
“They should be moving very, very slowly,” said Gerald Greenspoon, a lawyer and co-founder of Greenspoon Marder, which has a cannabis practice. “[Cities] don’t have the implementing state legislation yet, nor state regulation by the Department of Health stating what is and what isn’t permitted.”
How these municipalities move forward won’t determine whether a state-estimated half-million future patients receive their medication, since they can receive up to a 45-day supply through delivery. It may not even be the biggest issue affecting access, which some physicians say is prohibitively restricted by Florida’s current requirement that patients hold a relationship with a state-certified doctor for three months before being accepted into the state’s compassionate-use registry and receiving medical marijuana.
But the prevalence and existence of dispensaries — which Amendment 2 opponents warned would bring “seedy elements of the pot industry” next door to churches and schools — could go a long way toward normalizing the medical use of marijuana and ensuring patients receive the same kind of guidance afforded someone picking up antibiotics from a Walgreens. When Amendment 2 kicks in, Florida’s program, currently limited to fewer than 1,000 patients suffering from terminal illness and chronic seizures and spasms, will open to scores also dealing with HIV, glaucoma, PTSD, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis and other debilitating conditions.
“We want to be treated as a pharmacy because we’re delivering medicine,” said Richard Young, CEO of Modern Health Concepts.
​Rosenfeld, who along with selling stocks runs My Medicine Consulting with his partner, Hiedi Handford, is hoping to work with South Florida cities to establish dispensary regulations, navigate conflicting state and federal laws and help them deal with the crush of patients coming down the pike. They note that treatments are specifically tailored to patients down to the dose, strain of marijuana and application, and that the industry is highly regulated by the state.
“We’re not slinging weed here,” he said. “We’re providing medicine.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article117065203.html#storylink=cpy

Thank you to the Miami Herald, David Smiley, and Jose Iglesias

They are enacting a 180 day moratorium folks. We need to be on this NOW all across Florida.