The new patient count triggers changes to current regulations.
According to The Florida Department of Health’s weekly Medical Marijuana update released last Friday, the number of medical marijuana patients in the state has exceeded 100,000.

The Department of Health counted 100,576 patients as of Friday, and about 2,500 people join the list each week.

Not only does it indicate a rapidly growing statewide marijuana industry, which is currently producing and selling more than 12 million milligrams of cannabis per week, it triggers some new changes in the law.

1. Four (4) more licence applications will now be accepted for Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers (MMTC). That means, four more companies like Trulieve, Knox and Curaleaf will be awarded licences for grow, process and sell medical marijuana. Applications can be found here.

2. All MMTCs can now open five (5) additional “stores” or “dispensaries”. Until now each MMTC was limited to just 25 storefronts. They are now permitted to own and operate a total of 30.

The changes are triggered by regulations outlined in SB8A, which passed the Florida legislature in 2017.

Florida voters legalized medical marijuana in a landslide in November 2016, and the new industry has ramped up quickly. In addition to the 100,000 patients, more than 1,300 Florida doctors have joined the state’s list of physicians allowed to recommend cannabis. More than 30 marijuana dispensaries have opened, including two in Lake Worth.

“It’s some serious progress,” said Tom Adams, principal analyst at BDS Analytics, a company that tracks the marijuana industry. “The patient count is growing at a pretty good pace. The stigma is going away.”
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Entrepreneurs have invested tens of millions of dollars to launch vertically integrated cannabis companies. Pot proponents say that in the next few years, 500,000 Floridians will sign up for the state registry triggering even more new MMTC licenses and pave the way for upwards of 450 dispensaries statewide.