Telehealth Medical Cannabis Prescriptions Could Be Coming to Florida Under New Bill

Discreet prescription refills via telehealth visits are already the norm for medications like hair loss and erectile dysfunction medication for men, which is easier to do when it’s not in-person. The same methods could be used to be discreet and quietly get prescriptions for medical cannabis under a new Florida bill.

House Bill 387 is sponsored by Spencer Roach (R-North Fort Myers) and would allow practitioners to certify patients for medical cannabis via FaceTime, Skype, etc. visits rather than in-person visits. Roach told the House Healthcare Regulation Subcommittee that the bill would “treat this (medical marijuana) like any other medicine.”

Doctors in Florida are doing it anyway, and the bill would simply make the practice legal, lawmakers said in so many words. It would also organize the way the rules are enforced. The bill “would add a necessary and immediate tool to help the department when physicians break the rules,” Roach added.

Barry Gordon specializes in medical cannabis care in Venice, Florida. He told the House panel that using telehealth to be certified would benefit some of the sickest Floridians—the ones who need it most.

“It’s a cost-savings for patients, it’s safe for patients, and it’s critical,” Gordon said at the hearing. “You have to remember that our patients are sometimes the most debilitated and weakest of the patients here in Florida.”

The Tampa Bay Times reports that over 2,500 doctors in Florida completed the training that allows them to order medical cannabis for patients. Voters said yes in 2016 by approving a constitutional amendment that legalizes medical cannabis. Nearly 800,000 patients have been certified for medical cannabis so far.

Currently, doctors must provide a physical examination of a patient “while physically present in the same room as the patient” before certifying them and ordering medical cannabis.

Not so fast, though. The bill also would allow the Department of Health to suspend a physician from being able to order medical cannabis for up to two years if he or she “provides, advertises or markets telehealth services prior to July 1, 2023.”

Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Sanford) filed a similar bill for consideration during the 60-day legislative session.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended the state’s face-to-face requirement for medical cannabis due to COVID-19, but it only applied for patients who were renewing medical cannabis certifications. People who need to see new doctors are out of luck. DeSantis’s executive order expired in 2021, but some doctors continue to use telehealth to recertify patients anyways.

Medical Cannabis in Florida

Florida’s Department of Health recently announced that it will open a new round of licensing for medical marijuana businesses that will double the number of vertically integrated cannabis operators in the state. In an emergency rule, the health department revealed that 22 new medical cannabis business licenses will be available, a move that would double the 22 operators currently licensed to produce and sell medical marijuana in Florida. The new emergency rule comes more than six years after Florida voters legalized the medicinal use of cannabis.

Meanwhile, the WISE & Free Florida committee is seeking to get home growing in Florida via a proposal on the 2024 ballot, according to the state Division of Elections website. In order to do this, they would need to submit 891,589 valid petition signatures.

Similarly, Smart & Safe Florida is seeking to get an amendment on the 2024 ballot that would legalize adult-use cannabis. The Smart & Safe Florida committee submitted 291,999 valid signatures as of Friday.

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Pioneering cannabis chemist Dr. Raphael Mechoulam passes away at 92

Dr. Mechoulam was the first to isolate THC in the 1960s and his research laid the foundation for medical and adult-use weed legalization.

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‘Father of Cannabis Science’ Raphael Mechoulam Dead at 92

Raphael Mechoulam, the first person to synthesize THC, earning him the moniker the “Father of Cannabis Science,” has died, Analytical Cannabis reports. He was 92 years old, and his legacy will most certainly live on for centuries to come. The esteemed chemist is also called the father of cannabis research. Some of his additional game-changing contributions to drug science include isolating and synthesizing other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG), and cannabichromene (CBC). 

While THC, CBD, and CBG are basically household names today, that would not be the case if it weren’t for Dr. Mechoulam, so smoke one out for him in remembrance. A medicinal chemistry professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, his work laid the groundwork and got the ball (or blunt) rolling to prompt future breakthroughs, such as illumination into the human body’s internal cannabinoid receptors in the 1980s and ’90s, as detailed in the 1993 academic paper titled Molecular characterization of a peripheral receptor for cannabinoids. 

Make sure to pay your respects today, as Dr. Mechoulam’s friends and fellow scientists are, as you pass the peace pipe around with your buddies. “This is a very sad day for me, for the science community and for the cannabis community. Professor Raphael Mechoulam or as we called him Raphi, was one of the greatest scientist[s] I ever met and was my teacher and mentor in many aspects. I truly believe he [deserved] a Nobel prize!” wrote David “Dedi” Meiri, an associate professor at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, and one Mechoulam’s colleagues, in a touching online statement. “Thank you Raphi for all the great things you did and discover[ed] in your life and thanks for all the help and support you gave me. Rest in peace my dear friend,” he continues. 

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1930, Mechoulam and his family relocated to Israel, where he began studying chemistry. His inspiration to start his successful hunt for THC began after wise observance of other drugs’ mechanisms. In an interview with CNN in 2014, Mechoulam pointed out that: “Morphine had been isolated from opium in the nineteenth century, early nineteenth century, cocaine had been isolated from coca leaves [in the] mid-nineteenth century. And here we were, mid-twentieth century, and yet the chemistry of cannabis was not known. So it looked like [an] interesting project.” According to the National Library of Medicine, in 1964, he succeeded. And the story behind how Mechoulam obtained the cannabis he studied may surprise you. 

While working as a chemist in the early 1960s at the Weizmann Institute, Mechoulam got some weed from the Israeli police with his goal already in place: to discover and isolate what makes pot psychoactive. Once THC and other cannabinoids, such as the aforementioned CBD and CBG, were identified, in 1992, Mechoulam and his team discovered the chemical arachidonoyl ethanolamine, which you know as anandamide (derived from the Sanskrit word ananda, which means bliss). Anandamide is something our body’s endocannabinoid system produces on its own (as if we are built to use cannabis) and activates the CB1 receptor. 

Deeply passionate and hardworking, Mechoulam continued his research right up to his death. At the age of 88, at the cannabis conference CannMed in California in 2019, he announced another breakthrough, synthetically stable cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), the main phytocannabinoid in fiber and seed-oil hemp, which contains anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsant, and anti-cancerogenic properties, and that’s likely just the tip of the iceberg. “We have taken the unstable acid molecules of the cannabis plant and synthesized them to provide a stable, consistent basis for researching new therapies across a wide range of medical needs,” Mechoulam explained at the conference. He also used his stage time to encourage the scientific community to invest more into cannabis research, as enough time has already been lost, citing the many people from the past who would have vastly benefited from medicinal cannabis should it have been available. “Did we have to wait 30 years? No,” he said. “We could have helped thousands of children, and we didn’t.” 

Rest in Power, Dr. Mechoulam, and may everyone lucky enough to have access to the results of his work enjoy the power of plant medicine today. 

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Discover strain-specific edibles from Lost Farm

Lost Farm, part of the uber-popular Kiva family, has charted a new course for cannabis edibles and is inviting all potheads of good taste to share in their discovery. Lost Farm chews and gummies are all full-spectrum, and strain-specific, infusing either 100% live resin or solventless live rosin into their plant-based edibles.

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What Biden’s Tax Plan Would Mean for the Cannabis Industry

President Joe Biden just dropped the federal budget for 2024. The White House boldly claims that the tax plan will reduce the deficit by $3 trillion over the next 10 years. But several parts of the budget’s tax reforms are likely to significantly (and adversely) impact the cannabis industry. Today, I’ll analyze a few key provisions of the tax plan and why they will be significant.

First off, we can’t talk about cannabis industry tax issues without bringing up section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code, which states, “No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted.” We’ve written about 280E many times, but most recently here, where my colleague, Hilary Bricken, discussed some potential for 280E reform in 2o23. In pains us to state, however, that there was nothing of the sort in Biden’s tax plan. So that can has been kicked down the road…again.

Now let’s get into some of the key points in the tax plan. President Biden wants to raise the corporate tax rate across the board, and to increase capital gains taxes on certain wealthy individuals. This will undoubtedly make corporations a less desirable entity form for the cannabis industry. I’ll take these provisions one at a time.

The current corporate income tax rate is 21 percent. This was set by President Donald Trump with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and as we noted when that law was passed:

The centerpiece of GOP tax reform is the reduction of tax rates. As we have written before, in determining the legal structure for your cannabis business, one choice is the C Corporation.

C Corporations pay tax at the corporate level. Individual shareholders are then taxed on dividends at a rate as high as 20%. In the past, this “double taxation” has discouraged the use of C corporations. The Act mitigates the problem of double taxation by reducing the C Corporate tax rate to 21%. The tax rate on dividends does not change under the new law.

President Biden’s tax plan proposes to increase the corporate income tax to 28 percent. While in his fact sheet, President Biden claims that this will “Revers[e] the Trump Tax Giveaway to Large Corporations,” this will increase the tax rate across the board. Whatever you may think about large corporations paying taxes, this will have an effect on small corporations as well. In the cannabis industry, where 280E and state regulators already pillage cannabis businesses with taxes, even a 7 percent increase is likely to make people move away from corporations as the entity of choice.

Additionally, as mentioned, President Biden wants to increase capital gains taxes for certain wealthy individuals. This is not likely to have an effect on the average cannabis business, though it could put limits on equity finance from wealthy investors. It is also likely to make corporations even less desirable since the “double taxation” would be much more severe for wealthy stockholders.

In addition, President Biden’s tax plan proposes to eliminate like-kind exchanges of real property. Here’s how the IRS presently describes like-kind exchanges:

Like-kind exchanges — when you exchange real property used for business or held as an investment solely for other business or investment property that is the same type or “like-kind” — have long been permitted under the Internal Revenue Code.  Generally, if you make a like-kind exchange, you are not required to recognize a gain or loss under Internal Revenue Code Section 1031. If, as part of the exchange, you also receive other (not like-kind) property or money, you must recognize a gain to the extent of the other property and money received. You can’t recognize a loss.

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Section 1031 now applies only to exchanges of real property and not to exchanges of personal or intangible property.

This proposal comes at a time when the real estate industry is already in a crunch, and this is not likely to help. If the tax plan becomes law, the lack of like-kind exchanges will mean that there will be one less tax benefit. Again, this will have a significant impact on the cannabis industry given the precarious nature of tax policy in the industry.

The bottom line is that so long as 280E exists, any tax reform that increases taxes will unduly impact the cannabis industry. It is time that the federal government does something about 280E now but, unfortunately, I don’t see that happening any time soon. In the meantime, Congressional Republicans are very unlikely to allow Biden’s tax plan to proceed as written, so there’s some possibility of negotiations.

Stay tuned to the Canna Law Blog for more updates on Biden’s tax plan and how it will impact the cannabis industry.

The post What Biden’s Tax Plan Would Mean for the Cannabis Industry appeared first on Harris Bricken Sliwoski LLP.

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Hawaii Senators Pass Adult-Use Cannabis Bill

On March 7, the Hawaii Senate voted to pass an adult-use cannabis bill in a 22-3 vote. Also referred to as SB669 SD2, the bill would set up a framework for cultivation, manufacturing, sales, and taxes. It would allow residents to possess up to 30 grams, cultivate up to six plants for personal use, and also decriminalize small amounts of cannabis as well.

The bill was first introduced by Sen. Joy A. San Buenaventura, Sen. Stanley Chang, Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, and Sen. Angus LK McKelvey on Jan. 20, and has consistently worked through numerous committee hearings. Sen. Keohokalole chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, where amendments were addressed, including establishing penalties for unlicensed cultivation, protecting employers who want to prohibit employee cannabis use, preventing any cannabis business from opening within 1,000 feet of youth-related areas, and other changes to address cannabis licensing that does not allow monopolies to develop. 

“Today marks a significant step forward in the legalization of adult-use cannabis in Hawaiʻi. These amendments are reflective of the Senate’s commitment to ensuring a fair and well-regulated cannabis market that provides safe access to both adult consumers and existing medical patients,” said Keohokalole. “If legalization of adult-use cannabis is something that is supported by the Governor, we hope his administration, which has thus far opposed every proposal to legalize adult-use cannabis, will work with us to bring this to fruition.” 

After passing in the Senate with amendments, it was sent to the House for consideration on the same day.

On Jan. 11, a different adult-use cannabis bill, HB-237, was introduced by Rep. Hawaii Rep. Jeanné Kapela. This bill would establish a regulatory framework for legalization as well, but would also include language to allow out-of-state patients to benefit from medical cannabis law, and would make medical cannabis sales exempt from being charged with the general excise tax. Additionally, Kapela introduced HB-283, which would prohibit employers from discriminating against potential hires or current employees for their medical cannabis consumption. Neither HB-237 and HB-238 have progressed past hearings, which were held in late January.

A recent poll published by the Hawaii Cannabis Industry Association at the end of January found that 86% of adult Hawaiian residents are in favor of legalizing adult-use cannabis, with only 9% in opposition, and 5% saying that they don’t know. The poll also found that adult-use was slightly more popular than medical, in a 45% to 41% comparison. Overall, the state could collect up to $81.7 million in taxes and $423 million in gross revenue if cannabis legalization was passed. 

An additional report from the Dual Use Cannabis Task Force also published its findings in January, and shared that cannabis tax revenue could reach between $34 million to $53 million. 

Kapela focused on the data provided by that task force report to create the bill she introduced. “We all know, and Hawaii’s people know, that it is high time to legalize recreational cannabis use for adults in Hawaii. This year we stand on the precipice of history,” Kapela said. “Following the recommendations of a task force devoted to addressing cannabis policy, we now have a roadmap for legalizing recreational cannabis in our islands.”

Aside from the pace of support for cannabis legalization from legislators, efforts to legalize therapeutic psilocybin have also become popular. One such bill, SB-1454, was introduced in January, and unanimously passed in the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services on Feb. 6. It aims to establish regulations to create a “therapeutic psilocybin working group” to examine the medical benefits of psilocybin for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and end-of-life psychological distress.

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Does smoking weed negatively impact running performance?

Many runners may wonder if weed is negatively impacting their workout. Leafly spoke with a doctor to learn more.

The post Does smoking weed negatively impact running performance? appeared first on Leafly.

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