Amendment 3 on the General Election ballot would legalize marijuana for all adults 21 and older, possibly shaking up Florida's current, highly regulated medical marijuana industry.
The leading companies that sell medical marijuana, like Trulieve and Curaleaf, have invested heavily in Amendment 3. Their licenses and dispensaries will give them a head start if recreational use is approved.
In the most recent tally, Florida has approved 2,396 doctors to recommend medical marijuana for 882,438 patients with qualifying medical conditions. A good number of those, somewhere between 13% and 18%, are thought to be seniors.
If the amendment, which needs 60% of the vote, passes, patients will eventually need to decide if they want to keep their card, which costs $75 a year and requires a doctor's visit every seven months.
Those costs can add up to more than $400 a year.
'A better quality of life'
Tom Unrath is a retired Air Force chaplain and Lutheran pastor living with multiple sclerosis. It causes significant pain, but a cannabis soft chew he takes at night helps with that.
"It's not so much a fun thing, but it's a helpful thing," he said during an interview at his home in Melbourne. "It helps me to feel better and thus have a better quality of life."
Unrath’s wife, Anita Unrath, is a retired school teacher. She goes with her husband to the neurologist -- to take notes, she said -- and one time the doctor suggested she try medical marijuana for her nerve pain.
"But as far as whether or not we'll keep, you know, paying the $400 a year for the doctor's appointments and the cards, I don't really know. We'll have to see how it works out." Anita UnrathAnita Unrath
Anita Unrath said it enabled her to stop using two prescription drugs for the pain, including one that caused her legs to swell.
She uses a cannabis cream for arthritic knees, plus the soft chew and things like capsules and lozenges.
"[T]hey won't make you high because they have the CBD and the THC in them," she said. "So at 69 we are not at all interested in getting high."
CBD and THC are two of the compounds in marijuana. It's the THC that makes you high.
The Unraths support Amendment 3. They also believe the medical program is worth saving, especially for people with serious conditions who need advice on drug interactions.
But they aren’t sure they’ll keep the card themselves. It could depend on how the Legislature implements the amendment if it passes.
For instance, will a steep tax on recreational weed create a financial incentive to keep the medical card so they can still get their marijuana tax free? And will they need the medical program to get the products they use?
"But as far as whether or not we'll keep, you know, paying the $400 a year for the doctor's appointments and the cards, I don't really know," Anita Unrath said. "We'll have to see how it works out."
The industry angle
Aaron Bloom is CEO of DocMJ, a medical marijuana practice with offices throughout Florida. DocMJ surveyed 900 patients about the amendment. Seventy-four percent were in favor of it, 10%were opposed and the rest unsure.
Their top concern was continued access - at affordable prices - to the products that give them relief.
"And even now, there's some concern that many of the dispensaries are being geared towards the rec market," Bloom said. "So those would be products that are higher in THC, and not focusing on the products that are higher in CBD, that are generally favored by not only seniors, but all medical patients in Florida."
If Amendment 3 passes, lawmakers will need to get involved, he said. "The Legislature needs to put guardrails around the medical program so that the licensees ... do not forget and do not fail to provide the medicine that the Florida patients need."
Dr. Barry Gordon, who operates the Compassionate Cannabis Clinic in Venice, said that for seniors education is key.
"It's continued education," he said, "and that's why a senior should continue to want to have a good, strong medical presence, education and the products that we need."
He said that in "today's modern world of cannabinoids," it's certainly not just the smokeable flower form of cannabis that's used. "But patches and creams and the edibles and tinctures. So the medical patient needs to be assured that those types of quality products will continue to be produced."
At Curaleaf, which operates 66 dispensaries in Florida, Senior Vice President Karim Bouaziz said they’re preparing to meet the soaring demand that will come with recreational use and to lessen the upward pressure on prices.
"I think a lot of groups will take the more short-sighted approach," he said, "and they will chase the higher margin, higher volume products. But you know, Curaleaf has now, at this point, reached a scale where we feel we can service in a sustainable way the recreational user and the medical user."
He said the company has no plans to drop the products, like topicals and tinctures, that medical customers want.
A 'massive experiment'
Recreational marijuana is legal already in 24 states, two territories and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Now the federal government is looking to reclassify it from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug -- which would open up research, tax benefits and banking.
In Florida, industry data company Headset projects passage of Amendment 3 would create a booming market worth $4.9 to $6.1 billion in the first year.
"Should it become recreational, you know, estimates suggest there are probably between nine and 15 million potential customers," said Jeffrey Sharkey, president of the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida.
It’ll be a massive experiment, he said. The business model for Florida’s medical marijuana program would change -- but would it survive? Would the Legislature protect it?
"[T]he physicians have to … advocate for the value of that as a policy, right? And I know they will," he said.
Sharkey doesn't think it's going away, he said. "I think it's just, you know, how it ends up getting regulated to complement the adult use."
State Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, was key to the Legislature authorizing telemedicine for the doctor’s appointments needed for marijuana card renewals.
On this issue, though, his office said there would be more information closer to the legislative session, that is, if the measure passes.
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