After more than a year of delays, the Florida Department of Health on Wednesday will begin accepting applications for five geographically distributed licenses to grow non-euphoric marijuana, process it into a concentrated oil and market it to epileptics and people with cancer.
It is a process that was expected to get underway last summer, but was prevented when various would-be applicants made legal challenges to the rules.
How many applicants there will be is unknown, but the number has likely dwindled from what it would have been a year ago.
At that time, companies were hooking up with Florida nurseries qualified under the law with the aim off getting a license in advance of the potential passage of the proposed medical marijuana amendment 2, which received 58 percent of the popular vote — 2 percentage points less than the 60 percent required for ratification.
The applications must be made by Florida nurseries that have been in existence for 30 years or longer and have 400,000 or more plants under cultivation.
“Ninety-two nurseries are eligible to apply,” said David Kotler, a Boca Raton attorney who specializes in medical marijuana legal consulting. “The scuttlebutt was 15 were probably capable of applying. Frankly I think the number is going to be a little less.”
The Southwest Florida license takes in a north-to-south strip of Hillsborough, Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte and Collier counties.
The South Florida license covers the largest portion of Florida’s population. Using conservative estimates, Kotler and a client figured they should only count on 1,400 monthly clients. “The expected revenue was pretty good after ramp-up, but start-up costs were high,” he said.
Overall, it will cost each successful license winner more than $2 million just to set up shop. Submitting an application requires a $63,000 nonrefundable fee. If successful in winning a license, the enterprise must post a $5 million bond, which costs $50,000 to $300,000 per year to maintain. Building an indoor grow operation could cost $1.75 million or more. The processing plant and lab together would bring that total to a minimum of $2.25 million.
Officials at Sarasota County’s AltMed LLC, which in the past has described a working relationship with a qualified Sarasota County nursery, on Monday declined to comment on whether they would be part of an application by July 8, when the state’s narrow window will close.
The health department now claims it could have the extract in the hands of patients by the end of 2015, but potential suppliers say spring 2016 would be more likely.
The post Florida Accepting Medicinal Marijuana Applications appeared first on Live Trading News.