A Jacksonville law firm's claim that marijuana is already legal as medicine in Florida has other supporters of medical pot crying foul.

Health Law Services, formally incorporated as IJC Law Group, is telling clients that Florida's alternative health-care laws already say that doctors can prescribe otherwise-illegal drugs such as marijuana if they determine it is the only practical medicine for the patient.

So, the firm argues, Florida does not need to change the law or impose a constitutional amendment to make marijuana a legal treatment.

After news broke that Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott’s administration had forbid state employees from using the phrase “climate change” during official business, many conservatives claimed that people were overreacting. After all, they reasoned, Rick Scott wouldn’t seriously punish scientists for talking about climate change.

Oh yes, he would.

The Florida Cannabis Action Network is now developing a 2016 voter initiative to legalize marijuana, based on the likelihood that the Florida Legislature will be unwilling to create a comprehensive medical-only program in coming weeks.

That could mean that there is both a medical marijuana amendment and an adult-use amendment on the Florida ballot during the presidential election-year ballot.

Unlike two recently filed but restrictive medical marijuana legislative bills and unlike the revised medical marijuana amendment possibly headed for the November 2016 ballot, the proposed Florida-Can amendment would open use of the plant.

A man suffering from anorexia successfully argued that he needs cannabis to stay alive.

Jacob Sullum|Mar. 4, 2015 2:47 pm

Health regulators are on the defensive about their latest attempt to get the state's medical-marijuana industry up and running, rejecting criticism from a legislative oversight panel while trying to assuage concerns of parents of sick children.

At a hearing Monday, the Florida Department of Health's Office of Compassionate Use Director Patricia Nelson fielded questions from investors and nursery owners eager to become one of five operators authorized to grow, process and dispense non-euphoric cannabis believed to eliminate or dramatically reduce life-threatening seizures in children with rare forms of epilepsy.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -

A South Florida man is making history after becoming the first person in Florida that will have a jury decide whether he guilty of smoking marijuana for medical reasons.

Jesse Teplicki, 50, was arrested in 2013 after police said they found 46 marijuana plants in his possession.

However, Teplicki claims he grows marijuana solely for himself and said marijuana is the only thing that helps his eating disorder, stating it stimulates his appetite and keeps his nausea at bay.

Teplicki said he's been smoking marijuana for 33 years and has tried other medicines to help his eating disorder, but says none have worked thus far.

On Sunday, Columbia University associate professor of psychology Carl Hart delivers  a major business conference keynote in San Francisco on spotting biased marijuana science. He’s also urging the crowd of largely white, affluent attendees at the International Cannabis Business Conference to diversify their new hires, and play a part in helping to correct centuries of racial inequality in America.

Medical marijuana advocates in Maine are trying to spread the word about a recent study indicating the drug may slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The Gelassen family of Portland says it works.

Allen Gelassen is a pretty happy guy despite living with Alzheimer’s.

“I always have a problem (remembering) day-to-day,”said Gelassen, “But distance, some of it I can, some of it I can’t.”

The diagnosis came a few months ago, after the stroke that left him in a wheelchair. And with it, prescription painkillers; something that impacted his kids’ lives too.

“Groggy, depressed,” said his son, Benjamin Gelassen, “Which put that energy onto me.”

Extremely low levels of the compound in marijuana known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, may slow or halt the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, a recent study from neuroscientists at the University of South Florida shows.

Findings from the experiments, using a cellular model of Alzheimer’s disease, were reported online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.