{"id":1981,"date":"2017-12-11T19:03:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T19:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2017-12-11T19:05:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T19:05:13","slug":"big-canada-cannabis-tries-to-kill-florida-cannabis-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/2017\/12\/11\/big-canada-cannabis-tries-to-kill-florida-cannabis-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Canada Cannabis Tries to Kill Florida Cannabis Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida’s medical marijuana program has not been an easy one on patients and Aphria<\/a>\u00a0is trying to keep whole plant medicine from them. \u00a0There have been many twists and turns in the lawmaking surrounding access to cannabis. \u00a0The latest bombshells to hit the dockets at Florida’s Department of Health was Aphria’s (DFMMJ Investments, LLC (\u201cDFMMJ\u201d)) Motion to Intervene<\/a>\u00a0 in an attempt to stop Trulieve<\/a> from releasing it’s whole plant vaporizer cups which were approved in the license.<\/p>\n

In May of 2017, Trulieve released it’s Entrouage product line,\u00a0sealed vaporizer cups containing whole buds. \u00a0 Within days they were served a cease and desist from\u00a0Office of Compassionate Use Director Christian Bax<\/a>\u00a0ordering the flowers to be taken off the shelves. \u00a0Trulieve filed a Petition for Declaratory Before The Department of Health<\/a> (DOH) on November 8th, citing that:<\/p>\n

“3. \u00a0 \u00a0 DOH approved Trulieve’s application to be licensed as a medical marijuana treatment center (MMTC), to supply medical marijuana and marijuana delivery devices to persons who qualify to purchase and use these products.<\/h5>\n
4. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Fla \u00a7 381.986(l)(j) defines “medical use” to allow vaping products containing marijuana flower in a sealed, tamper-proof receptacle.”<\/h5>\n

Trulieve has been the top license holder pushing for whole plant based medicine.<\/p>\n

Aphria is a Canadian based medical marijuana business valued at more than $2 billion dollars. \u00a0In April they purchased Chesnut Hill Medical (CHT), one of the seven original license holders in Florida. \u00a0Earlier this month they signed a five year deal with Canadian online pharmacy retailer,\u00a0Shopper’s Drug Mart<\/a>, making Aphria the preferred supplier of medical cannabis to the chain. \u00a0Canada is set to recreationally legalize weed July of 2018 and it seems that Aphria has profits on its mind.<\/p>\n

Aphria has cited in the Motion To Intervene filed on December 4th, 2017 that Trulieve releasing these cups will directly hurt their sales. \u00a0They also question wether the use of Trulieve’s cup are for medical use at all,<\/p>\n

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“8. The question presented in the the Petition is whether the Petitioner can sell and\u00a0dispense vapable ground marijuana flower and associated marijuana delivery devices used for vaporizing the ground marijuana flower. In essence, the Petitioner is asking if its vapable ground marijuana flower products fall within the definition of \u201cmedical use\u201d.”<\/h5>\n

Aphria is already selling whole plant medical buds in the Canadian market but CHT (Aphria’s original license holder) did not have plans in their DOH approved methods of treatment which puts Aphria behind in the Florida Pot Monopoly. \u00a0They cite in their motion that,<\/p>\n

“9. The Department\u2019s answer to the question presented in the Petition will directly and immediately impact DFMMJ\u2019s interests by affecting the products which can be sold and dispensed to qualified patients in Florida. This impact is an injury in fact because the Department\u2019s determination will affect DFMMJ\u2019s production processes, product line, and sales. The injury in fact is immediate because the impact to DFMMJ\u2019s interests is not dependent upon any intervening factors. If the Petition is granted, the products identified in the Petition can immediately be sold and dispensed in Florida. Thus, DFMMJ meets the first prong of the Agrico test. See Boca Raton Mausoleum, Inc. v. Dep\u2019t of Banking and Finance, Div. of Finance, 511 So. 2d 1060, 1063 (Fla. 1st DCA 1987) (An injury is of sufficient immediacy when it is the agency\u2019s action itself which will cause the injury.)”.<\/h5>\n

The Department of Health did approve Trulieve to release it’s Entrouage line and the foreseen answer, “yes” to their Petition for Declaratory Before The Department of Health<\/a> will cause injury to Aphria’s bank accounts as they have no plans to release whole plant flowers to Florida’s patients.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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