Florida’s estimated 920,000 medical marijuana patients are now at risk of losing their legal cannabis access if they break state drug laws.
Under a bill signed into law on June 30 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, state health officials can permanently revoke the patient or caregiver registrations for those who “enter certain pleas or are found guilty of certain (drug) offenses.”
But Senate Bill 2514 also grants health officials the power to “immediately suspend” the registration of a patient who’s charged with a violation of the state’s drug statutes – with no conviction required.
MMJ access is a ‘privilege’ that can be revoked
Florida Republicans and other supporters of DeSantis, who campaigned against an adult-use marijuana legalization measure last fall, say the new laws emphasize that cannabis access is a “privilege.”
That’s according to Evan Power, chairperson of the state Republican Party, who says SB2514 is one of several Florida statutes that takes away rights from people who violate other laws.
Additionally, it’s crackdown on alleged abuses of Florida MMJ.
“It’s also a place where we don’t want people abusing that medical marijuana process to achieve other goals, other than that healthy remedy for certain illnesses that we have deemed important,” Power said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ anti-marijuana crusade
DeSantis is earning a reputation as an anti-marijuana crusader.
The governor, a one-time favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, broke with President Donald Trump on marijuana legalization in Florida.
Trump endorsed Amendment 3, which was bankrolled by Tallahassee-based marijuana multistate operator Trulieve Cannabis to the tune of $150 million.
“(Gov. Ron) DeSantis has decided that being against medical marijuana is really a good thing,” attorney John Morgan told WESH 2 News.
“I think he’s wrong about it.”
According to Morgan, pharmaceutical companies and drug stores are behind the anti-medical cannabis efforts in the state.
“The people who do not want medical marijuana are the people who make OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax – you know, all poisons – and what happened with the pharmaceutical industry with the opioid crisis was criminal, and it killed so many people,” he said.
“That’s who doesn’t want medical marijuana.”
Trulieve is backing another adult-use legalization initiative for 2026.
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