The state “should charge these people more,” DeSantis told reporters Tuesday.
DeSantis urged lawmakers to repeal a prohibition against smokable marijuana, which the Republican-controlled Legislature had outlawed after voters in 2016 passed a constitutional amendment broadly legalizing medical marijuana. The DeSantis administration, however, has dragged its feet on complying with a state law requiring the Department of Health to effectively double the number of players in the industry, which now has 22 licensed operators.
The 2016 constitutional amendment went far beyond the 2014 law. Nearly all of the operators, who were allowed to add medical marijuana with uncapped levels of THC to their product lines after the amendment passed, have changed hands since the licenses initially were granted. The law also gave health officials the ability to establish “supplemental licensure fees” to help cover the costs of the program, but the health department has never authorized such fees., a lawyer who is the founder and CEO of Green Sentry, said in a phone interview this week.
The department is expected to launch a new round of applications for licenses after the Black-farmer license is finalized, but the state hasn’t laid out a timeline. At least 150 hopefuls --- and possibly twice that number --- are expected to apply.