Medical marijuana licenses granted for eight more Florida operators

Florida is adding eight more medical marijuana operators to the 14 businesses currently selling cannabis throughout the state.

The new additions to Florida’s rapidly growing medical-marijuana industry — projected to generate more than $2.5 billion in annual revenue within five years — come from a pool of applicants that lost out in the first round of licensing in 2015 under an initial state law that allowed non-euphoric cannabis.

Since then, Florida voters broadly legalized medical marijuana, but the state has not begun an application process for investors eager to enter the state’s cannabis market, which is expected to eventually become one of the largest in the nation. Florida has more than 200,000 patients qualified for medical marijuana, and that number continues to increase.

Tuesday’s joint settlement agreement between the Department of Health and what are known within the industry as “one-pointers” means that all of the original applicants that sought licenses in a highly competitive process have now been approved as medical marijuana “treatment centers.” [Read more at the Sun Sentinel]