If you want to be a law abiding citizen in the State of Florida, you may NOT want to light up that joint just yet. Florida recently past The Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act, known as the Charlotte’s Web law, but the law specifically excludes smoking marijuana. The law legalized only a specific strain known as Charlotte’s Web which is taken orally and is high in cannabidiol (CBD), a substance that may help alleviate seizures, but low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance that produces a “high.”

Charlotte’s Web is named after Charlotte Figi, a little girl who had a severe form of epilepsy causing her to suffer 300 grand mal seizures every week which dropped to two or three times a week after taking a strain consisting of 0.5 percent THC and 20 percent CBD. However, the strain legalized in Florida only has up to 0.8 percent THC and 10 percent or more CBD, much less than the original 20 percent CBD, so the marijuana now legal in Florida may not be potent enough to help the more than 200,000 people in Florida that suffer from epilepsy. This legalized strain may only be prescribed to patients suffering from a cancer or “a physical medical condition that chronically produces symptoms of seizures or sever and persistent muscle spasms.”

Amendment 2, to be voted on in our next election, would make smoking marijuana with a higher strain of THC (which get one “high” and acts as a painkiller, curbs nausea, and increases ones appetite) legal for patients with cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis or any “other condition for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential risks for a patient.”

The Law Offices of Steven S. Farbman are always interested in the safety for the people of our community. We welcome your thoughts on this controversial subject. As always please feel free to contact my office with any legal questions you may have. For more than 30 years Steven S. Farbman has been helping members of this community who have been seriously injured due to others carelessness and negligence.