Florida will have 10 additional marijuana operators — more than double the number of the state’s current vendors — within four months, under a medical marijuana proposal approved by lawmakers Friday.
The Legislature signed off on the compromise measure, which limits each marijuana company to 25 retail stores across the state, after failing to reach consensus during this spring’s regular legislative session on how to implement a medical-marijuana constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by voters in November.
Back in town this week for a three-day special session originally focused on funding for education and economic development, lawmakers — under intense pressure to revisit the marijuana issue — scurried to iron out differences that blew up a deal during the regular session.
After it became apparent that Republican legislative leaders were close to sealing a deal on the pot bill, Gov. Rick Scott added it to the special session, which ended late Friday afternoon.
A disagreement about how many dispensaries the pot operators should be allowed to run caused a potential deal to collapse six weeks ago. [Read more at WLRN Miami]
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