Several bills to expand Florida’s medical cannabis program have stalled out for the year, including a measure to exempt military veterans from patient ID card registration fees that was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives.
HB 555, from Rep. Alex Andrade (R), was one of a handful of marijuana-related measures withdrawn in recent days. Unlike the other bills, however, it had passed out of the chamber where it was filed, with House members voting 110–0 in favor. Nonetheless, the Senate indefinitely postponed it and withdrew it from consideration without a vote.
The Senate action occurred on May 3. Florida lawmakers have voted to extend the legislative session into early June, though they’re expected to focus mostly on budgetary matters after returning to Tallahassee.
Other bills that have been set aside without votes include proposals to allow patients to cultivate marijuana at home, expand the list of qualifying conditions for the program and protect employment and parental rights of people who use medical cannabis.
As originally filed, HB 555 would have made significant changes to the state’s existing medical cannabis program, for example allowing home cultivation as well as reciprocity for out-of-state patients. But a House committee amendment replaced its language with a two-page substitute that would make only small adjustments to the medical program.
First, the bill would change how often patients need to renew their medical marijuana cards, from the current annual process to once every two years.
Second, it would waive the $75 registration and renewal fees for veterans, specifying that the state “may not charge a fee for the issuance, replacement, or renewal of an identification card for a qualified patient who is a veteran.”
Sponsor Andrade didn’t respond to multiple requests from Marijuana Moment for comment on the bill’s withdrawal and any possible future action.
Kevin Caldwell, Southeast legislative manager for the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), said that whether or not lawmakers find a way to revive HB 555 during the extended session, “it has been a dismal session for cannabis policy reform in Florida.”
“There were a plethora of good cannabis policies submitted for debate,” he said in an email, “but as has been the case in most legislative sessions in the past few years, the legislature simply doesn’t want to even talk about cannabis policy.”
As for the newly withdrawn measure, Caldwell said lawmakers “whittled HB 555 down from a bill that would have created a much more robust medical cannabis program to a bill that would extend the lifespan of an ID card and waive fees for veterans.”
Hellbound and Down 