Florida health officials have released a highly anticipated rule setting THC dosage amounts and supply limits on products doctors can order for medical marijuana patients.
The emergency rule sets a 70-day total supply limit of 24,500 mg of THC for nonsmokable marijuana and establishes dosage caps for different routes of administration such as edibles, inhalation and tinctures.
The rule, which was sent to patients and doctors on Friday and went into effect Monday, also carries out a state law that imposed a 2.5-ounce limit on smokable marijuana purchases over a 35-day period.
While the rule lays out limits for THC in nonsmokable products, the limit for whole flower and other products that can be smoked are based on weight. They are not based on levels of THC, the euphoria-inducing component in marijuana.
And the emergency rule creates a process for doctors to seek an override for patients they believe need to exceed the limits. The rule does not identify a way for patients or doctors to appeal if the requests are denied.
The dosing and supply caps came nearly six years after Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment broadly legalizing medical marijuana and more than three years after the Legislature, at the behest of Gov. Ron DeSantis, authorized smokable marijuana.
In setting up the framework for the medical marijuana program, lawmakers gave the Department of Health the power to use emergency rules to craft regulations. Emergency rules can be published without taking public input, as is required for non-emergency regulations.
The use of the emergency rule is “kind of the burr in my bonnet” about the dosage and supply caps, Pensacola doctor Michelle Beasley told……
