Florida senators have approved an amended bill to increase the amount of medical marijuana a registered patient can buy and slash the fee for medical cannabis identification cards for military veterans.
At a hearing before the Senate Health Policy Committee on Wednesday, members advanced the legislation from Sen. Alexis Calatayud (R) in a vote of 10-1 after adopting a substitute version.
Under the proposal as amended, a doctor would be able to recommend up to five 70-day supply limits of cannabis or up to 10 35-day supply limits of smokable marijuana products. Under current law, they can only provide recommendations for a maximum of three 70-day supply limits for non-smokable cannabis and six 35-day supply limits for smokable marijuana.
The bill, SB 1032, would further make it so doctors would need to evaluate patients for medical marijuana qualification every 52 weeks, rather than the current statutory requirement of evaluations every 30 weeks.
A similar version of medical cannabis legislation was introduced in the House by Rep. Bill Partington (R) in late December.
Calatayud’s proposal as amended in committee would additionally reduce the fee for medical cannabis identification cards for honorably discharged veterans to $15—down from the current $75 fee for most qualifying patients.
Two House panels have advanced separate standalone legislation from Reps. Susan Valdés (R) and Michelle Salzman (R) that would similarly reduce veterans’ medical marijuana card fee to $15.
If enacted into law, the broader Senate bill would take effect on July 1, 2026.
Wednesday’s committee vote comes after the Senate Regulated Industries Committee passed separate legislation to ban smoking or vaping marijuana in public places. Rep. Alex Andrade (R) is sponsoring a similar bill to ban public cannabis smoking in the House.
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Here’s an overview of other pending Florida marijuana bills:
Meanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court last week cancelled oral arguments and closed a case concerning a marijuana legalization ballot initiative that was under review at the request of the state attorney general.
Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) notified the court on Monday that he was withdrawing his request for a legal review into the cannabis measure because election officials determined the campaign behind it had fallen short of the signature requirements for ballot placement. But while the campaign urged the court to reject the notice of dismissal, contesting the signature count, justices on Wednesday accepted the attorney general’s motion.
Smart & Safe Florida has disputed the secretary of state’s signature count, claiming the campaign submitted over 1.4 million petitions—hundreds of thousands more than the 880,062 valid signatures required to go before voters.
In a filing with the Supreme Court, Uthmeier said his office was withdrawing its earlier request for a legal review in the constitutionality of the proposed cannabis initiative because the state claims the campaign submitted an insufficient number of signed petitions. The last count, according to the secretary of state’s office, was 783,592 validated signatures.
Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.
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