Florida’s first medical cannabis dispensary is set to open Tuesday, July 26 — two years after it was approved by state lawmakers — according to a Miami Herald report.
Trulieve was given the green light by the Florida Department of Health to open up their Tallahassee location and begin delivering cannabis throughout the state.
“We know that patients have been waiting for a long time,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said in the report. “We thought that it was critical to open as soon as possible to get patients the medications they have been waiting for.”
Surterra Therapeutics, who will operate locations in Tampa and Tallahassee once approved, harvested its first plants last week and anticipates their sites will be open later this summer.
Florida’s strict medical cannabis law allows dispensaries to sell oils taken orally, injected or by methods other than smoking. Patients must be approved by a doctor who has completed a medical marijuana course, and can place orders with any of the approved dispensaries. While other companies wait for Health Department approval, patients can place orders with Trulieve’s Tallahassee location for delivery. According to Rivers, delivery will take less than a week.
Terminally ill patients, within a year from death, can access full-strength medical cannabis under a measure passed by legislators last spring. A constitutional amendment legalizing the drug for medical purposes, which would expand the eligible condition list, will be put to voters in November.