Charlotte County imposes extra wait for medical pot

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Potential medical marijuana patients in Charlotte County will have to wait for access to the drug regardless of the outcome of next month’s vote on a constitutional amendment that would expand its legal use in Florida.

County leaders unanimously passed a measure Tuesday that temporarily bars marijuana dispensaries if voters statewide approve Amendment 2. Dispensaries in the county wouldn’t be allowed to open for an additional nine months while zoning, licensing and other regulations are put into place.

“There’s a lot of things that people aren’t thinking about and we just need the time to get everything set straight,” said Shaun Cullinan, a Charlotte County planning and zoning official.

Some residents wondered why county leaders haven’t been preparing for the possibility that the amendment will pass.

“You would think that the plan would have been in place as soon as the amendment was on the ballot, so it seems like government is moving a little bit more slowly then they should have been if they were really staying on top of things,” Rebecca Quider said.

Still, others said they would be on board with a delay. Language in Amendment 2 allows the Florida Department of Health up to nine months to issue patient ID cards, so it’s not as if anyone would be allowed to light up the morning after Election Day.

Some medical marijuana use is already legal in Florida. The state’s Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act, which became effective Jan. 1, 2015, allowed non-smoked low-THC marijuana for qualified patients. The first dispensaries opened earlier this year, though none are in Southwest Florida.

The measure that Charlotte County passed Tuesday allows officials to expand the moratorium on dispensaries beyond nine months if they need more time to put regulations in place. They also have the right to lift the moratorium sooner.