The Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU) works to provide qualified patients, caregivers and physicians the information and resources they need to access Florida’s medical marijuana program.
The OMMU also writes and implements the Department of Health’s rules for medical marijuana; oversees the statewide Medical Marijuana Use Registry; licenses Florida businesses to cultivate, process and dispense medical marijuana to qualified patients and certifies marijuana testing laboratories to ensure the health and safety of the public as it relates to marijuana.
A medical marijuana treatment center (“MMTC”) must, at all times, maintain compliance with the criteria demonstrated and representations made in its initial application. Upon request, the Florida Department of Health (“Department”) may grant a MMTC a variance from the representations made in the initial application. Consideration of such a request will be based upon the individual facts and circumstances surrounding the request. A variance may not be granted unless the requesting MMTC can demonstrate to the department that it has a proposed alternative to the specific representation made in its application which fulfills the same or a similar purpose as the specific representation in a way that the department can reasonably determine will not be a lower standard than the specific representation in the application
The department may suspend or revoke an MMTC license, or refuse to renew an MMTC license, if the department finds that an MMTC committed a violation as provided in Section 381.986(10)(f), F.S. For any such violation, the department may revoke or suspend an MMTC’s license for a period of time based upon the seriousness of the violation. Factors to be considered in determining the seriousness of the violation include:
- Frequency or number of occurrences;
- Potential for rehabilitation;
- Any prior violations;
- Impact on the department;
- Potential and/or actual harm to a qualified patient or a member of the public;
- Willfulness and deliberateness of the violation;
- Severity of noncompliance;
- Length of noncompliance;
- Any good faith effort made to prevent a violation; and
- Any corrective action taken by the MMTC related to the current violation or prior violations.
