House And Senate Consider Medical Marijuana Bills

November 11, 2015

House and Senate Senate panels next Tuesday will consider proposals that would allow terminally ill patients to obtain medical marijuana to help cope with pain, according to legislative calendars.

The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee is slated to take up a bill (HB 307), sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, and Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, during a Tuesday morning meeting. Hours later, the Senate Health Policy Committee is scheduled to consider a similar proposal (SB 460), filed by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island.

The bills piggyback on a law passed earlier this year that allows terminally ill patients to gain access to experimental drugs that have not been approved for general use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That law, dubbed the “Right to Try Act,” is limited to patients who have terminal conditions and requires that they get approvals from two physicians.

Lawmakers are considering extending the law to allow the use of medical marijuana. Both bills are filed for the 2016 legislative session that starts in January.

They also come as a political committee known as People United for Medical Marijuana seeks to get a broader medical-marijuana initiative on the November 2016 ballot.

by The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News