The parking lot was just paved, the walls are being painted, and soon the medical landscape in Tampa Bay will be forever remade.
Tucked in an innocuous set of office buildings behind a car dealership on U.S. 19 in Clearwater, the second medical marijuana dispensary in Florida is expected to open in the next few weeks. A month later, the state’s third store is scheduled to debut on N Dale Mabry in Tampa.
This is how medical marijuana is supposed to grow in Florida. Subtlety and orderly, if not exactly slowly. When the state’s first store opened in Tallahassee last week, it fielded nearly 600 phone calls in the first 24 hours.
Some were surely cranks, but the majority were patients and parents who have been waiting two years for this very specific, non-euphoric blend that is effective in easing spasms and seizures.
The reality is marijuana isn’t just for stoners anymore. In its medicinal form in Florida, it isn’t supposed to be for stoners at all.
That means dispensaries will look more like pharmacies than head shops. No bongs. No rolling papers. No Bob Marley posters.
The product comes in several forms, none of which looks like something you would get on a street corner. Trulieve, the company behind Florida’s first legal crops, produces capsules, droppers, syringes and vaporizer cartridges similar to an electronic cigarette.
“The notion that there will be lines out the door with people taking advantage of medical cannabis is not true by any stretch of the imagination,” said Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers. “Our goal was to design with patients in mind: People with serious medical conditions, or terminal cancer.”
While the state has limited production of marijuana to six nurseries in geographic regions, each grower is free to sell anywhere in Florida to keep pricing competitive. That means, as more growers begin to harvest, more shops will likely begin to appear.
The more immediate concern for patients could be the medical community. Doctors must take a class and register with the state to write prescriptions. And patients need at least a three-month relationship with that physician before getting the non-euphoric blend.
Terminal cancer patients – who can get full strength marijuana – must have their condition verified by two doctors before receiving prescriptions.
As of Friday, there were only 13 doctors among Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando who were certified. On the bright side, that was six more than the week before.
Doctors do not need to specialize in illnesses commonly treated by marijuana in order to prescribe it. Dr. Kathy Anderson of Clearwater is a dermatologist who decided to get her certification for patients who had nowhere else to turn.
“One patient told her oncologist that she was coming to see me, and he looked at her like she had four heads,” Anderson said. “I just think these patients are grateful to have this opportunity because they’re so sick, not able to eat or sleep. I know a lot of them have been getting their supplies in inappropriate ways.”
There are bound to be abuses. Probably even more if a November referendum expands availability further. But pain killers are also abused. So are steroids. And amphetamines.
The bottom line is marijuana can help people in need. And so we should welcome an overdue arrival.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: The Neighborhood Medical Marijuana Shop Is About To Become A Welcome Reality
Author: John Romano
Contact: Tampa Bay Times
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