Florida measure caps THC levels at 10 percent for underage medical marijuana patients

House Speaker Jose Oliva said in early February that capping the THC content of medical marijuana at 10 percent was among his priorities for the 2020 legislative session, although no measure proposing to do so had surfaced in the House.

One emerged Friday in the Senate in the form of an amendment filed to a 65-page Senate Appropriations Committee bill that will be heard by the Senate Rules Committee on Monday – its final stop before presentation on the chamber’s floor.

Senate Health Policy Committee Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, filed an amendment that would cap THC levels at 10 percent for medical marijuana patients under 21 years old.

The amendment to Senate Bill 230 is not quite what Oliva, R-Hialeah, suggested, but it may be a concession to veterans’ groups that held a news conference Tuesday to let lawmakers know they would oppose any such THC cap for medical marijuana patients.

“The amendment imposes a 10 percent THC cap on medical marijuana for children only,” the Senate Majority Office said in a Friday news release. “Specifically, the amendment imposes a 10 percent THC cap on medical marijuana for qualified patients under 21 years of age, providing exceptions to the 10 percent THC cap for terminally ill patients under 21 years of age and for patients under 21 who may need higher concentrations due to the severity of their medical condition.”

As of Friday, according to the Department of Health’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use, 321,144 state residents had received prescriptions from 2,591 physicians to purchase medical marijuana at 233 state-certified dispensaries statewide. [Read More @ The Washington Examiner]