Another Florida Committee Approves Bill To Slash Medical Marijuana Fee For Military Veterans

Another Florida committee has approved a bill to significantly reduce the fee for military veterans to obtain medical marijuana registry identification cards, slashing the cost to one-fifth of the current amount.

About a week after moving through the House Health Professions & Programs Subcommittee, members of the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee followed suit and advanced the legislation from Reps. Susan Valdés (R) and Michelle Salzman (R) in a unanimous on Thursday.

Valdés called the proposal “a simple bill with a big impact” ahead of the vote.

“Medical cannabis has shown promise in alleviating symptoms commonly experienced by military veterans, like managing chronic pain, alleviating the effects of PTSD, improving sleep and reducing the dependency on opioids, which is really the most important part of this,” she said. “This bill will largely reduce the financial barriers veterans face when accessing medical marijuana, which is also their chosen healthcare solution.”

If enacted into law, veterans who have been honorably discharged would need to pay a $15 fee to obtain a medical cannabis card—down from the current $75 fee for most qualifying patients.

The $15 charge would also apply to any replacement cards, as well as annual renewals.

In order to qualify for the reduced fee, veterans would need to supply the state Department of Health (DOH) with a copy of their discharge release form, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) identification card or a Florida driver license “bearing the veteran designation.”

The law would take effect beginning on July 1 of this year.

According to a bill analysis, the reform would have an “indeterminate, negative fiscal impact on DOH.” While there are currently more than 931,000 registered medical marijuana patients in Florida, the “number of veterans who hold active medical marijuana use registry identification cards is unknown,” and so “the amount of revenue reduction is unknown.”

That said, the analysis states that the policy change would “have a positive fiscal impact on veterans who will experience a $60 reduction in the cost of the identification card under the bill.”

The subcommittee vote son the fee reduction bill comes after the Senate Regulated Industries Committee advanced separate legislation to ban smoking or vaping marijuana in public places. Rep. Alex Andrade (R) is sponsoring a similar bill to ban public cannabis smoking in the House of Representatives.

Here’s an overview of other pending Florida marijuana bills:

— Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments. Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access. —

Meanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday cancelled oral arguments and closed a case concerning a marijuana legalization ballot initiative that was under review at the request of the state attorney general.

Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) notified the court on Monday that he was withdrawing his request for a legal review into the cannabis measure because election officials determined the campaign behind it had fallen short of the signature requirements for ballot placement. But while the campaign urged the court to reject the notice of dismissal, contesting the signature count, justices on Wednesday accepted the attorney general’s motion.

Smart & Safe Florida has disputed the secretary of state’s signature count, claiming the campaign submitted over 1.4 million petitions—hundreds of thousands more than the 880,062 valid signatures required to go before voters.

In a filing with the Supreme Court, Uthmeier said his office was withdrawing its earlier request for a legal review in the constitutionality of the proposed cannabis initiative  because the state claims the campaign submitted an insufficient number of signed petitions. The last count, according to the secretary of state’s office, was 783,592 validated signatures.