Doctors and Patients In Florida Are Embracing Medical Marijuana

Florida has been back and forth on medical marijuana for a few years, but now the market is booming and looks like it will only be getting much busier. In less than a year since the the medical marijuana law was approved, almost 1,000 additional doctors have registered to prescribe cannabis to patients. Florida has a large population of elderly people, who often seek medical marijuana for chronic pain, and as time passes the patient number is expected to rise from 30,000 to aroundd 500,000. Current issues with the program seem to be getting patients registered with their Compassionate Use Registry ID Cards in a timely manner, though the state now claims it should only take 30 days. Patients are not able to grow their own cannabis, however anyone with cancer, ALS, Chohn's Disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, chronic muscle spasms, seizures, multiple sclerosis, or Parkison's disease is eligible to recieve medical marijuana.

Sales started this year and business has rapidly expanded across the state. A list kept by the state shows that more than 1,200 doctors have been authorized to prescribe medical marijuana. When voters approved legalized medical marijuana in November 2016, that number stood at fewer than 300. The state Office of Medical Marijuana is granting licenses to doctors at the rate of about 20 per day.

The state is the third most populous in the country,with nearly 21 million people living there according to recent estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. And 19.1 percent of the population is 65 years old or older, according to the Pew Research Center.