Telehealth Eyed for Medical Marijuana use Certification

Two Republican lawmakers filed proposals this week that would allow physicians to use telehealth to recertify medical-marijuana patients.

Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, and Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, filed the proposals (SB 344 and HB 387) for consideration during the legislative session that will start March 7.

Patients are required to receive in-person physical exams from physicians to get certified to use medical marijuana. Under current law, they also are required to be evaluated in person at least once every 30 weeks for recertification.

The bills, however, would allow recertification to be done through telehealth, which generally involves using online technology to provide care remotely.

In 2021, Rep. Roach penned an opinion for The Floridian, where he outlined the dangers of THC.

In 2016, Florida voters overwhelmingly expressed their desire for a safe and accessible medical marijuana program, and I am fighting to preserve the medical nature of the program that voters demanded.  What we have now is a recreational drug program masquerading as a medical marijuana program, and the long-term societal carnage attendant with unfettered access to high-potency THC demands legislative action.  That’s why I filed HB 1455.

THC is the psychoactive component in marijuana that produces the ‘high’ which, like other narcotics, causes cognitive impairment, deterioration of motor skills, and euphoria.  THC is highly addictive and many studies indicate a strong association with first-episode and chronic psychosis from frequent use of high-potency THC.  Perhaps more alarming are the effects on brain development in children:  impaired brain function, high probability of graduating to other ‘hard’ drugs, impairments in learning and IQ reduction, and earlier onset of schizophrenia.

Publisher Javier Manjarres contributed to this News Service of Florida story.