President-elect
Donald Trump speaks during a stop Thursday at U.S. Bank Arena in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Trump took time off from selecting the cabinet for
his incoming administration to celebrate his victory in the general
election. (Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images)
More than 71 percent of voters approved an amendment expanding
medical marijuana in Florida last month, but the fate of patients who
rely on the drug and the burgeoning marijuana industry could largely
depend on President-elect Donald Trump.
"A
lot of what the industry is based on is some of the discretion that's
going on at the federal level," said Michael Bronstein,
co-founder of the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp.
Florida
and 27 other states now have laws legalizing marijuana in some form.
But federal law still bans the growth, cultivation, sale and
possession of marijuana for any purpose.
Yet
the marijuana industry has been allowed to grow in recent years
because of a memo issued by the Obama administration in October 2009
to federal prosecutors telling them to direct limited federal
resources into investigations of large-scale drug dealers that aren't
in compliance with state laws or are involved with foreign drug
cartels. The memo said sick patients following state laws shouldn't
be targeted.
But
that could change with the switch to a new administration. Trump's
recent announcement of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., as his pick
for attorney general could spell trouble for the industry. Sessions
is a former federal prosecutor and harsh anti-drug warrior. During a
hearing in April he called marijuana "dangerous" and said
"good people don't smoke marijuana."
"Are
there people panicking and should people be panicking? Absolutely,"
said Ben Pollara, campaign manager for United for Care, the group
that pushed for the medical marijuana amendment. "But there are
also reasons to not be so terrified."
For
one thing, he said, marijuana is popular among voters, including some
Trump supporters. More than half of states have some form of law
legalizing marijuana, so he said it's becoming "too big to
fail."
"[Trump's]
base was white men without a college education," Pollara said.
"Guess what marijuana's base is?"
Trump
has taken contradicting positions on marijuana over the years. In the
1990s he said drugs should be legalized. During the campaign he told
the Washington Post it should be left to the states. He later told
Fox News he was "100 percent" in favor of medical marijuana
but unclear on how he would handle the issue as president.
In
an emailed statement, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the
president-elect is focused on filling Cabinet posts "and there
will be plenty of time to discuss detailed policy specifics after the
swearing-in."
Compared
with other states such as Washington and Colorado that allow
recreational pot use, Florida's medical marijuana industry is
smaller, newer and more tightly regulated. The Florida Legislature
passed a law in 2014 letting patients with chronic seizures have
access to a non-euphoric form of the drug.
The
amendment passed by voters last month expanded state laws to offer
more potent pot to patients with HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, cancer,
glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder, Parkinson's disease,
Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis and other ailments.
Lawmakers,
though, must pass a bill next year setting the regulatory framework
for how the new industry will operate. Then there are the rules that
cities and counties could pass regarding where pot dispensaries can
set up shop. It all adds up to an uncertain future for those in the
medical marijuana industry.
"No
one has a crystal ball as to how this will work," said Jake
Bergmann, CEO and co-founder of Surterra, a Tampa-based company that
began providing medical marijuana to Florida patients this year. "We
are taking a pretty big risk not knowing what the regulatory
environment is. That's just part of the territory."
Ken
Sukhia served as a U.S. attorney for the North Florida region in the
1990s when Sessions was a federal prosecutor in a nearby Alabama
district. He said despite Sessions' staunch anti-marijuana positions,
he didn't target small-timers.
"His
office was no different than ours. He didn't go after possessors,"
Sukhia said. "There were much more significant cases."
Arresting
growers and medical marijuana company operators would also snuff out
a growing industry. According to a report from the Arcview Market
Research firm, legal pot sales topped $5.4 billion in 2015 and are
projected to rise to $6.7 billion this year. Florida sales could hit
$1.4 billion by 2020.
Sukhia
also noted that a crackdown on pot by the Trump administration could
lead to a backlash from states. That could create unnecessary
headaches for Trump, who is more likely to be focused on immigration
and economic policies.
Story
Source: The above story is based on materials provided
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