Here is the meat of this bill, a step in the right direction but very restrictive and geared towards corporate cannabis cultivation.
If passed into law, this bill would create a medical cannabis system regulated by the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture and Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The law provides for up to 22 cultivation centers and 60 dispensing organizations throughout the state. It would allow safe and legal access to medical cannabis for sick people with one of the more than 35 specific conditions listed in the legislation.
The patients would be allowed to purchase 2.5 ounces every two weeks and any cannabis used in edibles, tinctures or topicals would count towards that allotted medicine limit. Medical cannabis would be taxed at the same rate as pharmaceutical and over the counter medicines of 1%. Public safety officials, school bus drivers, police officers, firefighters, commercial drivers, anyone convicted of a drug related felony and probation officers are prohibited from being patients. There are limits as to where cannabis may be consumed and carried and patients would be subject to a Standardized Field Sobriety Test if suspected of driving under the influence of cannabis.