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 conclude in mid-February, stems from a decision by the Florida Department of Health to award licenses to 22 applicants in November 2024. Thirteen rejected applicants are challenging the scores given to their applications, claiming they were unfairly low.
The hearing before Administrative Law Judge Mary Li Creasy features a complex web of legal and administrative issues, with hundreds of exhibits and days of witness and expert testimony. The applicants are arguing that the state health agency and the evaluators of their applications made errors in scoring, which resulted in their proposals being rejected.
One of the key issues is the scoring of the applications, which ranged from 1,450 to 3,280 points. The lowest score of an intended awardee was 2,826, just one point ahead of one of the challengers. Attorneys for the rejected applicants are arguing that their clients received scores that were lower than they deserved, and that the state health agency failed to properly evaluate their applications.
In addition to the scoring disputes, the hearing is also considering eligibility challenges and industry context. One applicant, MSD Enterprises LLC, was rejected because it failed to provide the names of every “natural person” affiliated with the company, as required by state rule. Another applicant, Niraam LLC, is disputing that its application was ineligible because of a prohibition against ownership in 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 state currently has 25 licensed operators running 736 dispensaries throughout the state.
The hearing is a significant development in the ongoing battle over medical marijuana licenses in Florida, which has been ongoing for nearly a decade. The state received 72 applications in April 2023 for the batch of licenses, and the hearing is expected to have a significant impact on the future of the industry in Florida.
