Tag Archives: medical marijuana

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Tampa Bay Times: Retirees on St. Pete Beach have big plans for the medical marijuana industry

Here are some of the members of Gulf Coast Canna Meds. (From left to right) back row, Michael Welch, Thomas J. Murphy, Lonnie Orns, Oscar Mouton and front row Andrew Hano, MD, Linda Colindres, RN; and David Kitenplon pose for a portrait at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg. [EVE EDELHEIT | Times]

By Justine Griffin

While Florida politicians have butted heads over how to regulate the growing medical marijuana industry this year, Tom Murphy and Michael Welch have been busy working behind the scenes to try to ensure their company gets a piece of it.

Murphy, 71, and Welch, 79, are two of the founders of Gulf Coast Canna Meds, a burgeoning medical marijuana company in St. Petersburg that wants to distribute cannabis products to patients in Florida. They’re just one of many groups in Florida eager to be part of this growing new medical industry. But that’s easier said than done.

While Florida voters have overwhelmingly voted to make medical marijuana legal, it’s been up to the Legislature to translate how it will work. To many, it may seem like a basic humanitarian issue for patients who want simple and affordable access to medical marijuana — but it’s not. There’s a lot at stake.

“We’re the guys on the outside looking in,” said Murphy, a former beer distributor who retired to St. Pete Beach. “We learned that the small business man didn’t stand much of a chance in Tallahassee with the bills that were being discussed. We’re small business people. We’re not these deep-pocketed cartels. We’re the free enterprise people. The mom and pops.”

Read more here.

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Meet Florida’s Legal Drug Cartels

By Justine Griffin, Tampa Bay Times, April 14, 2017

While Florida voters have overwhelmingly voted to make medical marijuana legal, it’s up to the Legislature to translate how it will work. There’s a lot at stake. It may seem like a basic humanitarian issue for patients who want simple and affordable access to medical marijuana. But it’s not. Why? For one, medical marijuana is projected to become a $1 billion industry in Florida within the next three years.

So far, only seven companies have been licensed by the state to produce, cultivate and sell it. They are responsible for providing patients who suffer from debilitating conditions with a medicinal alternative to prescription drugs. Often described as the “cartels,” Florida’s seven licensed cannabis companies have millions in investment behind them. They donated more than a half-million dollars in campaign contributions and employ well-known lobbyists in Tallahassee. Some have started to open dispensaries while others are just getting their production facilities up and running. But none has made any significant profit yet, nor have they since the start in 2014, as the state’s burgeoning patient population is only just starting to grow.

While those who defend the cartel system say it will ensure tight state control, others argue that it will keep prices needlessly high for some patients. When I visited a handful of dispensaries around the state, prices ranged from $50 to $250 for monthly supplies of some products.

“Florida is very different than other states’ medical marijuana programs. The argument is that having only seven companies gives the state more control, but it also creates a quasi monopoly — all the production is concentrated and you lose variety and quality that way,” said Peter Sessa, co-founder of the Tampa-based Florida Cannabis Coalition. “Without an open market, prices will be high for patients who can’t use their insurance to pay for it.”

Midway through the legislative session, the two chambers are still working out how the system will work — laws that would take effect this summer. This much is known. Seven companies will have much of the action, maybe all of it. Here are the seven CEOs behind the state’s currently approved medical marijuana companies.

The Tampa Bay Times analyzed campaign contributions and interviewed executives behind the state’s legal cannabis companies. Here are their backgrounds.

Click here to read more about each company.

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Tampa Bay Times: Could you lose your job for testing positive for marijuana if you’re a patient in Florida? Maybe

By Justine Griffin

As Florida legislators consider passing laws this year to regulate the new and growing medical marijuana industry, employers in the state are still faced with mounting grey areas in how to handle employment policies related to drug use.

There are more questions than answers for companies big and small, which enforce a drug-free workplace policy with their employees, said Greg Hearing, a shareholder with the Thompson, Sizemore, Gonzalez & Hearing law firm in Tampa. Hearing, who specializes in employment law, published an article in the Florida Bar Journal last month with his associate, Michael Balducci, outlining what employers need to know.

“This is a lawyer’s dream,” said Hearing during an interview with the Tampa Bay Times at the firm’s downtown Tampa office. “Employers in the private sector will have more ability to enforce drug-free policies and no drugs in the workplace. But still, there’s not much they can do until the laws change. Technically marijuana is still illegal under federal law.”

The Times sat down with Hearing to learn more.

Read more here.

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It may be legal now, but opening a medical marijuana store in Florida is harder than you think

By Justine Griffin, Tampa Bay Times, March 3, 2017

surterra

TAMPA — The Surterra Therapeutics storefront on Fowler Avenue doesn’t look like the kind of place where people can buy pot.

There’s no green marijuana leaves lit in neon lights nor blacked-out windows. No security guard is checking IDs at the front door. Visitors don’t have to be escorted into another room to see the product.

And that’s on purpose.

As one of seven select companies licensed to grow, manufacture, distribute and sell marijuana in Florida, Surterra Holdings Inc. executives are used to explaining that they’re not in business to be another smoke shop. But that’s tough to do when even the bank lenders, real estate brokers, landlords and insurance agents are wary of doing business with them.

“We’re trying to change the stigma,” said Monica Russell, a spokeswoman for Surterra, who noted even securing insurance for the company’s fleet of delivery trucks has been a challenge. “We want people to come here so they can have a conversation and see we’re actually a health and wellness company.”

Marijuana is still considered an illegal substance at the federal level, despite the 28 states that have legalized it for recreational or medicinal use in recent years. That makes it nearly impossible for banks to fund marijuana distributing companies, which in turn makes it hard to sign a lease for a commercial store or warehouse.

Read more here.