Florida quietly publishes medical marijuana edibles rules

In 2015, a small group of Department of Health employees including Florida’s chief medical marijuana regulator, Christian Bax, and then-surgeon general Celeste Philip hopped on a plane to Denver.

They linked up with the Colorado Department of Public Health to tour cannabis production facilities and see what a nascent marijuana industry could achieve. Edibles worthy of top-tier culinary status rolled off production lines and into packaging, sometimes sponsored by celebrities like Snoop Dogg.

These were not the pot brownies of the past.

“I’m always struck by how sophisticated these things are and how much technology goes into these facilities,” Bax told the Miami Herald on Wednesday. “I remember it was just very real, seeing those things in person, knowing that those products were going to make it to Florida. I think it’s one of the most creative products of cannabis.”

Wednesday night, four years after Florida voters approved the legalization of medical marijuana and one year after the Legislature allowed patients to smoke it, edible marijuana products were allowed to enter the market.

The Florida Department of Health, which oversees the Office of Medical Marijuana Use, quietly published emergency rules for edible medical marijuana late Wednesday night. [Read more at Tampa Bay Times]