Florida’s Medical Marijuana License Battle Heats Up in Months-Long Hearing
A months-long hearing has begun in a contentious battle over medical marijuana licenses in Florida. The hearing, which is expected to last until mid-February, is a result of a year-long dispute over the state’s decision to award licenses to 22 applicants.
Thirteen rejected applicants are challenging the scores given to their proposals, claiming that the state’s health agency and evaluators made errors. The applicants are seeking to convince Administrative Law Judge Mary Li Creasy that their scores were lower than they should have been.
One of the applicants, Liner Source, Inc., is disputing a score of 1,427 points, which was 23 points lower than the lowest-scoring applicant selected for a license. The company’s attorney, Will Hall, argued that the score was flawed because Liner Source had secured significant cultivation infrastructure and equipment.
In addition to scoring disputes, the hearing is also considering eligibility challenges and industry context. MSD Enterprises LLC, which received one of the highest scores, is fighting to get a license after being rejected because it failed to provide the names of all “natural persons” affiliated with the applicant, as required by state rule. Another applicant, Niraam LLC, is disputing its ineligibility due to a prohibition on owning more than one medical marijuana license.
The new licenses are required under a 2017 law that aimed to increase the number of licenses as the number of eligible patients grows. The current round of licensing is the first major opportunity for newcomers to the industry to vie for licenses since the 2017 legislation passed.
The hearing is a complex administrative procedure involving hundreds of exhibits and days of witness and expert testimony. The state’s health agency, along with the companies selected for licensure, are also part of the process.
The dispute has been ongoing since November 2024, when the state announced its intent to award licenses. The state received 72 applications in April 2023, and the current round of licensing will nearly double the number of medical marijuana operators in the state.
The hearing is a significant development in the ongoing battle over medical marijuana licenses in Florida. The state’s medical marijuana industry has grown significantly since the 2017 legislation passed, with 25 licensed operators running 736 dispensaries throughout the state.
