Orlando's hopes are high for the medical marijuana vote expected to go on the ballot in November. The proposed constitutional amendment would legalize medical marijuana for patients with debilitating conditions as determined by physicians licensed in Florida.

A recent Orlando Business Journal poll tallied an overwhelming majority in favor of the amendment, and legalization will spark budding prospects for local entrepreneurs.

Marijuana laws are changing all around us.

From a non-euphoric strain that will soon be grown legally in Florida, to a bunch of communities rushing to decriminalize small amounts of pot, to a proposed constitutional amendment that would greatly expand medicinal marijuana around here.

Like it or not, pot is about to become a larger part of society.

And Florida ain't ready for it.

At least not from one important legal perspective.

Like a lot of other states tinkering with more permissive marijuana laws, Florida does not yet have a firm handle on how to determine when a person is driving under the influence.

A medical marijuana grower may have told a Senate panel last week he was working with University of Florida scientists, but a university spokeswoman now says that’s not the case, according to a report by public broadcasting affiliate WUFT-TV and FM.

Robert Wallace, owner of Chestnut Hill Tree Farm in Alachua, on Wednesday told senators on the Regulated Industries Committee he was “working with” the university’s researchers “to develop and distribute medical marijuana by summer, and that he will donate a portion of his proceeds to the university for research,” the report said.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — In the two years since the Florida Legislature passed a law allowing highly restricted use of medical marijuana to help people with seizures, the measure remains in regulatory limbo with more questions than answers.

The low-potency marijuana allowed under the Compassionate Cannabis Act of 2014 is not getting to patients and that has key supporters in the Legislature frustrated.

"We passed a law to respond to concerns from suffering families and we look up here a couple years later and we still do not have the relief promised to those families," Sen. Rob Bradley said during a recent hearing of the Regulated Industries Committee. "I find that particularly frustrating and I am sorry to those families that we are not there yet."

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As mounting evidence suggests that the administration of cannabis can reduce the frequency of migraine headaches, Neutra Corp. (OTCQB:NTRR) will explore the promise of advanced cannabinoid delivery technologies to ease migraine sufferers’ pain.

“Inhalers and topical salves could provide superior options to patients suffering from migraines and debilitating issues.”

If you think about growing medical marijuana, you probably picture pot growing in a field or maybe a green house. Instead, think prison, with a hint of laboratory.

At the end of a residential road in Lake Wales, you’ll pass a set of railroad tracks and then a 10-foot barbed wire fence. There’s a guard shack with cameras, and another barbed wire fence.

This is McCrory’s Sunny Hill nursery, between Tampa and Orlando, and just down the road from the plant that makes the Florida’s Natural orange juice.

Here I meet Darrin Potter, the chief horticultural officer for McCrory’s Nursery. He’s wearing jeans, a Grow Healthy polo shirt and a camouflage hat.

TALLASSEE, Fla. (NSF) - Florida health officials are holding to a deadline next month for the state's first medical marijuana businesses to seek permission to begin growing non-euphoric cannabis, even with hearings in license challenges stacked up through mid-summer.

Department of Health spokeswoman Mara Gambineri said Monday that five dispensing organizations --- selected by a three-member panel last year to grow, process and distribute low-THC marijuana --- must submit requests for cultivation authorization by Feb. 7, the first deadline in a process more than a year behind schedule due to previous legal wrangling.

Facing a Feb. 1 deadline, supporters of a ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana have topped 500,000 valid petition signatures submitted to the state.

As of Monday morning, the group "People United for Medical Marijuana" had submitted 523,168 valid signatures, according to the state Division of Elections website. The group needs to meet a Feb. 1 deadline for submitting 683,149 signatures.

The Florida Supreme Court on Dec. 17 approved the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment, which would legalize medical marijuana for a wide range of patients.

People United for Medical Marijuana, which also is known as "United for Care," has steadily moved toward meeting the signature requirement.

Florida-based BiotrackTHC has been selected to implement Hawaii's first medical marijuana seed-to-sale tracking system, the state health department confirmed Wednesday.

Federal authorities filed notices to seize 16 residential properties in Broward County after their owner was indicted for trafficking marijuana.

Frederick Robert Goldberg, aka Scott C. Bryant, aka Fredrick Brill, was charged on Nov. 9 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Both counts are felonies.

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