Lawmakers in Florida are sending legislation to the governor’s desk that would revoke state medical marijuana registrations of people convicted of certain drug crimes.

On Monday, both the House and Senate signed off on a compromise version of SB 2514, a broad bill that touches on cancer, dentistry and other health-related matters. It also contains a provision that would force the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted or plead either guilty or no contest to criminal drug charges.

On Monday, both legislative chambers approved a compromise committee’s revised version of the bill and sent the measure to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Language in the latest version is slightly different than what the Senate approved earlier this year. It says that a patient or caregiver would have their registration immediately suspended upon being charged with a state drug crime. The suspension would remain in place until the criminal case reaches a final disposition.

DOH officials would have authority to reinstate the registration, revoke it entirely or extend the suspension if needed.

Authorities would be required to revoke a person’s registration if the patient or caregiver “was convicted of, or pled guilty or nolo contendre to, regardless of adjudication, a violation [of state drug law] if such violation was for trafficking in, the sale, manufacture, or delivery of, or possession with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver a controlled substance.”

The revised language appears to eliminate an earlier restriction that would have also revoked registrations for people who merely purchased illegal drugs, including more than 10 grams of marijuana for their own use. The new version focuses more specifically on production and distribution.

It also clarifies that patients and caregivers would have a process to request their registrations be reinstated. That would involve submitting a new application “accompanied by a notarized attestation by the applicant that he or she has completed all the terms of incarceration, probation, community control, or supervision related to the offense.”

It’s not clear from the plain language of the revised bill whether it would impact only future criminal cases involving medical marijuana patients and caregivers or whether DOH would need to review the records of existing program registrants and revoke registrations of an untold number of Floridians with past drug convictions.

Notably, lawmakers defeated several proposals to expand the medical cannabis program during this year’s regular legislation session—including by allowing home cultivation, adding new qualifying conditions, protecting employment and parental rights of patients and letting military veterans register for free.

Separately in Florida, advocates are working toward putting a new adult-use marijuana legalization measure on the 2026 state ballot following the failure of Amendment 3 at the polls last November.

After filing the measure and launching a signature drive earlier this year, the campaign Smart & Safe Florida has collected 377,832 valid signatures—about 150,000 more than required to kick off the review process, according to Division of Elections numbers from earlier this month.

The state is now statutorily obligated to conduct a judicial and financial review of the measure that will determine its legal eligibility and inform the electorate about its potential economic impact.

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Smart & Safe Florida is hoping the revised version will succeed in 2026. The campaign—which in the last election cycle received tens of millions of dollars from cannabis industry stakeholders, principally the multi-state operator Trulieve—incorporated certain changes into the new version that seem responsive to criticism opponents raised during the 2024 push.

For example, it now specifically states that the “smoking and vaping of marijuana in any public place is prohibited.”Another section asserts that the legislature would need to approve rules dealing with the “regulation of the time, place, and manner of the public consumption of marijuana.”

Gov. DeSantis had repeatedly condemned the 2024 initiative over that issue, claiming there were not parameters to prevent public smoking, while expressing his distaste for the smell of cannabis.

The governor said in February that the newest measure is in “big time trouble” with the state Supreme Court, predicting it will be blocked from going before voters next year.

Last year, the governor accurately predicted that the 2024 cannabis measure from the campaign would survive a legal challenge from the state attorney general. It’s not entirely clear why he feels this version would face a different outcome.

While there’s uncertainty around how the state’s highest court will navigate the measure, a poll released in February showed overwhelming bipartisan voter support for the reform—with 67 percent of Florida voters backing legalization, including 82 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans.

However, the results conflict with another recent poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, a proactive opponent of legalization, that found majority support for the reform among likely voter (53 percent) but not enough to be enacted under the 60 percent requirement.

In the background of the campaign’s signature development, DeSantis signed a GOP-led bill last month to impose significant restrictions on the ability to put initiatives on the ballot—a plan that could impair efforts to let voters decide on marijuana legalization next year.

Separately, a Florida GOP senator claimed recently that the legalization campaign “tricked” Trump into supporting the 2024 measure by misleading him and the general public about key provisions.

Ahead of the election, Trump said in September that he felt Amendment 3 was “going to be very good” for the state.

Before making the comments, Trump met with the CEO of Trulieve, Kim Rivers, as well as with a GOP state senator who is in favor of the reform.

While Trump endorsed the Florida cannabis initiative—as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access—he has since been silent on cannabis issues. And his cabinet choices have mixed records on marijuana policy.

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“I wish we had done this back in 2021 when we figured out the whole hemp problem. The genie is pretty far out of the bottle now, so we’re trying to stuff it back in.”

By Clayton Henkel, NC Newsline

In a political climate in which Republicans and Democrats rarely find themselves on the same side, House Bill 328 provided a vehicle for common ground on Tuesday. Lawmakers praised the bill to regulate hemp-derived consumables as something that was long overdue in North Carolina.

The new proposed “committee substitute” rolled out in the Senate Health Care Committee defines hemp-derived cannabinoids to include delta 9 THC, delta 8, cannabidiol (CBD) and a variety of other synthetic products derived from hemp. The bill would limit sales to adults 21 and older.

While hemp may legally have 0.3 percent or less THC, lawmakers said some unregulated products may be delivering a more potent hit than advertised.

THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main ingredient in marijuana that provides users with a high.

Senator Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) praised Sen. Amy Galey (R-Alamance) for shepherding the bill through the Senate.

“I wish we had done this back in 2021 when we figured out the whole hemp problem,” said Mayfield. “The genie is pretty far out of the bottle now, so we’re trying to stuff it back in.”

HB 328 would also ban hemp-derived consumables on educational property, requiring local boards of education to have a written policy barring the products from school grounds along with electronic cigarettes and other vaping products.

Bill Croft, executive director at NC Respiratory Care Board, joined those urging regulation of the products that increasingly appear in vape shops.

“I would highly support this simply because vaping is destroying lungs. We already have a huge problem in North Carolina,” Croft said.

Attorney General Jeff Jackson attended Tuesday’s hearing with his 10-year-old son, Owen.

“While I would trust him with many things, the notion that he can go into one of these shops and be presented with what is branded as candy by the misappropriation of actual brands that he’s familiar with like Oreos, like Sour Patch Kids, to try and sell him an intoxicating substance…the notion that that is somehow lawful in North Carolina is very difficult for parents,” said Jackson.

Jackson said even as the legislation evolves with time, his office supports this initial step forward.

“We have been meeting with Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) over the last several months in anticipation of a bill like this to talk to them about what enforcement would actually look like on the ground. They are very well positioned to move on this,” the attorney general told lawmakers.

Jackson said the Department of Justice was also ready to work with ALE to aggressively enforce this law to protect kids.

Sen. Benton Sawrey, chairman of the Senate Health Care Committee, said it was ‘bizarre’ the state had not placed restrictions on these products in prior sessions.

“I’ve been shocked by the pictures and the packaging that I’ve seen that these products are sold in,” said Sawrey in acknowledging the colorful graphics were intended to catch the eye of young consumers.

“It’s not something we would permit [with] anything else.”

Under the legislation, retailers would be prohibited from selling THC-infused candies and drinks to anyone under 21. Retailers would also be required to have a valid license to sell hemp-derived consumables.

Producers selling their products illegally could face an initial civil penalty up to $500. Repeated violations within a three-year period would result in a $2,000 fine and the revocation of the seller’s license.

A separate section of the bill would add kratom to North Carolina’s list of controlled substances.

Kratom is a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia whose leaves are generally smoked, brewed with tea, or placed into gel capsules. In low doses it can provide a stimulant effect, but it high doses it has a sedative effect. Kratom is currently not a controlled substance and is unregulated and legal under state and federal law.

Sen. Sawrey said he believes there is finally broad consensus to raise the age and place restrictions on the packaging of these consumables that come with a potent punch.

“I hope that we’re able to achieve that in this session and get that across the finish line.”

HB 328 won unanimous support Tuesday in both the Senate Health and Senate Finance Committees. The measure now moves to the Judiciary Committee as senators appears intent on fast-tracking the bill ahead of a floor vote.

Florida Lawmakers Pass Bill To Revoke Medical Marijuana Cards From People With Drug Convictions, Sending It To DeSantis’s Desk

Activists in Alaska are working to put a measure on the 2026 state ballot to legalize certain psychedelics—including psilocybin, mescaline and DMT—and create a state-regulated system for facilitated use.

The group Natural Medicine Alaska this week officially began gathering signatures in the cities of Anchorage and Palmer as part of a first step in the state’s initiative process.

Organizers first have to submit 100 signatures of qualified registered voters to get the process rolling. From there, the state Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom (R) has 60 days to decide whether to certify the proposal for further signature gathering to qualify for the 2026 ballot.

While language of the prospective ballot measure is not available on Natural Medicine Alaska’s website—and the group did not immediately respond to an emailed request from Marijuana Moment—a policy outline explains the plan as “building off of” Colorado’s voter-approved 2022 Natural Medicine Health Act, under which facilitators recently administered the state’s first legal dose of psilocybin.

The Alaska proposal would legalize non-commercial use, cultivation and sharing of DMT, non-peyote mescaline, psilocybin and psilocin under a so-called “grow, gather, gift” model popular among psychedelic reform proponents.

It would further create a state-regulated program where adults would be administered natural medicines in a supervised setting, and it would allow certain medical professionals to “prescribe and dispense microdoses…to patients.”

The policy outline says the measure “shifts away from a restrictive healing center model, allowing individual practitioners to provide [natural medicine] in their offices and at-home facilitation, increasing accessibility in rural communities” common in Alaska.

Facilities would need to be “majority Alaska-owned, ensuring economic benefits stay within the state.”

Traditional healers would also be protected under the proposed initiative for “ceremonial, spiritual, or cultural use of plant medicines” through legal exemptions to state drug laws.

“We see a future where natural medicines are available as an option to all who are seeking out healing and well-being, a future where education on these medicines empowers the Alaskan community with legalized personal use of psilocybin and other natural psychedelics,” says a Natural Medicine Alaska campaign video uploaded to YouTube in February. “We see an Alaska transformed by the decriminalization of entheogens into a regulated and supportive environment for the therapeutic use of psychedelics.”

One natural medicine, ibogaine, would be specifically prohibited for personal use, though ibogaine treatment centers are included in the proposal as component “to be implemented once Alaska’s regulated access program is established.”

“Traditional use [of iboga] by highly trained and recognized practitioners” would also be protected under the plan.

Other provisions in the policy outline include expungement and record-clearing for past criminal offenses related to natural medicine, local protections “for active duty [military] members, law enforcement and first responders who use [natural medicines] covered under the initiative” and support for synthetic versions of ibogaine “to promote sustainability and prevent overharvesting of natural sources.”

Alaska would be further required under the proposal, the outline says, “to provide psychedelic crisis assessment and intervention training for first responders to enhance their knowledge and skills to quickly and effectively respond to emotional and behavioral crisis events involving [natural medicines].”

A poll last year found that nearly half (49.4 percent) of adults in Alaska would support a ballot measure to more broadly remove criminal penalties for using substances such as psilocybin mushrooms.

That support rose markedly—to nearly two thirds (65 percent)—when participants were told that Alaska has high rates of mental illnesses that could potentially be treated with psychedelics.

Last year, Alaska lawmakers passed legislation to create a state task force to study how to license and regulate psychedelic-assisted therapy. The measure took effect without the signature of Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R).

So far two other states have facilitated psychedelics programs that are fully operational. Oregon voters legalized therapeutic psilocybin in 2020, and Colorado’s program was passed at the ballot box in 2022, with the state’s governor signing legislation a year later to create the regulatory framework for the program.

In Oregon, more people could eventually access legal psilocybin following a recent federal court ruling in favor of plaintiffs who argued that the state’s first-in-the nation psilocybin law wrongfully prevents homebound patients from seeking care.

Four care providers—three licensed psilocybin facilitators and a physician specializing in advanced and terminal illnesses—sued the state about year ago, alleging that the state Psilocybin Services Act (PSA) discriminates against disabled individuals who can’t travel to designated service centers where the substance is administered.

In Maine, meanwhile, lawmakers last week reversed course and rejected a bill to legalize possession of up to one ounce of psilocybin by people 21 and older.

At the federal level, attorneys for a doctor seeking to reschedule psilocybin so he can administer it to terminally ill patients recently demanded an update from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which previously agreed to submit a request for a scientific review of the psychedelic from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Separately in Alaska, a federal judge ruled late last month that state officials did not violate the constitution when restricting intoxicating hemp products in 2023.

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