Medical Marijuana Clinics Continue to Struggle in Florida

Posted by brett on June 24th, 2018

In 2016 with the passing of Amendment 2 in Florida, for the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes in Florida.  Florida entrepreneurs and doctor’s rushed to the medical marijuana evaluation business believing there was a pot of gold at the end of rainbow, but like fairy tale there has been no monetary boom for many of these clinics.

In 2017 California based Tetra Health closed down 6 of their 7 medical marijuana clinics in Florida, citing problems with Florida Rules & Regulations.  Now more recently in June 2018 Compassionate Care Clinics of America which operated 5 locations around the state closed their doors.

As medical marijuana boom has turn bust for many companies what are the factors causing these issues.

1. Florida Medical Marijuana laws state that doctor does not have to see the patients for 270 days, so this creates a market where many medical marijuana doctors will see patients only 1 time a year.
2. The laws do not let the doctors evaluate the patient’s condition to make a decision, the doctors are relying on records from other doctors. Many patients who seek help do not have a medical diagnosis due to not seeing a doctor in years because of no medical insurance.
3. The biggest factor is money, many these patients are on disability, do not work, or just can’t afford the visit cost and medical cost associated with not having insurance cover medical marijuana visits.

What is the future of Florida Medical Marijuana business in Florida? Talking with many other doctor’s offices it is too soon to really tell. We will see many more companies going out of business and leaving the patients in limbo. Who will fill that void that is to be determined