Medical marijuana industry making headway in Santa Rosa County

When Trulieve opened its first Medical Marijuana Treatment Center dispensary in Pensacola in April of 2017, it was the company's fourth location in the state, and a lot of questions still surrounded the emerging medical marijuana industry.

Though citizens passed an amendment to the Florida Constitution in 2016 legalizing medical marijuana, the proposition had been opposed by powerful forces across the state. The Florida Sheriff's Association adopted a statement in 2015 stating "the future of 'medical' marijuana is best left to the scientists and medical professionals at the Food and Drug Administration."

The stigma has subsided in the last seven years as many of the fears that initially surrounded the legal sale of cannabis have been proven unfounded, and on Friday Trulieve, the state's largest medical marijuana provider, held a shindig to celebrate the opening of its first distribution center in South Santa Rosa County.

"We are excited to bring Trulieve's world class customer service and assortment of high quality products to Gulf Breeze," Trulieve's Chief Executive Officer Kim Rivers said in a news release. "We look forward to serving patients and caregivers in south Santa Rosa County."

The address of the new location is 3271 Gulf Breeze Parkway, but Gulf Breeze City Manager Samantha Abell was quick to point out the new Trulieve is outside of the city limits. The City Council she serves enacted an ordinance in August of 2017 that bans marijuana dispensaries within the boundaries of the municipality.

The city decided to research crafting the language for a ban two months ahead of the ordinance being adopted. Then-City Council member David Landfair said at the time he didn't believe city residents were ready for dispensaries in Gulf Breeze, and that residents in need of medical marijuana could find it in Pensacola.

The ordinance to ban dispensaries actually provided a different rationale for keeping them out of the city than the one espoused by Landfair. It cites limitations written into the state statute legalizing the distribution of medical marijuana prohibiting city officials' from deciding where dispensing facilities could be located.

The city "was preparing a proposed ordinance which would have allowed Medical Marijuana Treatment Center dispensing facilities as a permitted use within the boundaries subject to certain restrictions," the ordinance states.

But the statute decreed that medical marijuana dispensaries would be treated in zoning matters similarly to pharmacies. Gulf Breeze officials stated their objections to the two being treated identically in the body of the ordinance.

"They are two distinct land uses which could be subject to differing, overlapping or identical land use regulations as determined by the municipalities in which they are located," the ordinance said.

"Certain provisions" found in statute that would have been applicable to dispensaries in Gulf Breeze "are more restrictive than the regulations applied to pharmacies" and would have been unlawful under the 2017 legislation, it said.

"The city council supports the proposition that Florida municipalities that decide to permit Medical Marijuana Treatment Center dispensaries should be able to prepare, vet and adopt reasonable constitutional and otherwise lawful land use regulations for permitting and determining the location of the facilities without a statutory restriction tying the regulations applicable to pharmacies," the ordinance said.

Officials found the state had "forced the city council to make a choice between allowing MMTC dispensaries in a location the city does not believe would be appropriate or prohibiting their being allowed altogether.

"It would be in the public interest to exercise the option to ban facilities at the present time," the ordinance stated.

Florida is hotspot for medical marijuana

Gulf Breeze appears to be the only local municipality presently enforcing the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, but was hardly alone in moving to ban them in the early days following the legalizing of cannabis for use in treatment for various ailments. In 2017 it was reported that 24 Florida counties and 48 cities had elected to impose bans.

The Office of Medical Marijuana Use, the state agency that monitors cannabis use in Florida, did not respond Monday to a request for numbers of counties and cities still banning medical marijuana distribution, but numbers on the office website indicate demand for the facilities.

There are 656 total dispensaries in the state, representing 20 companies presently operating at least one facility. There are 884,561 state residents qualified to obtain and use medical marijuana and 2,281 physicians qualified to prescribe its use.

In many areas medical marijuana has become big business. In 2023, the News Journal reported 19 dispensaries in Pensacola, representing 14 different companies.

While the Gulf Breeze-area Trulieve will be the first for that company in South Santa Rosa County, it is its second overall, as it also operates a facility in Pace. Truelieve operates two dispensaries in Escambia County and three in Okaloosa County, said company spokesman Philip Burk.

A second company, MUV, has opened a marijuana dispensary in Navarre and another business profiting from the medical marijuana industry is the Northwest Florida Medical Marijuana Evaluation Center in downtown Milton. The evaluation center diagnoses patients to see if they meet the criteria to obtain a medical marijuana license.

Santa Rosa County Planning Director Shawn Ward said that while there has been discussion about possibly limiting sites where new medical marijuana dispensaries might be located, in actuality attempting to do so would be problematic. Zoning requirements for dispensaries are laid out in the county Land Development Code.

Ward said that if a n amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida passes in November, it may be necessary to revisit existing location requirements.

Milton's city code provides similar requirements for Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers as those imposed by the county, according to city Planning Director Tim Milstead. Provisions include regulations barring a dispensary from being within 500 feet of a school and 1,300 feet of another medical facility.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Medical marijuana industry making headway in Santa Rosa County