A House medical-marijuana plan sponsored by Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues is ready for a floor vote after a key committee approved the proposal (HB 1397) late Monday afternoon.
The legislation is aimed at carrying out a constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana for a broad swath of patients with debilitating conditions.
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The amendment was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November.
Proponents of the amendment object that the House bill is too restrictive, in part because it would rely too heavily on a 2014 law that legalized non-euphoric marijuana for patients with chronic muscle spasms, epilepsy or cancer.
Critics of the House plan have urged lawmakers to adopt a Senate approach, which would do away with a requirement that patients have a 90-day relationship with health-care providers before doctors can order medical marijuana treatment for them.
The House plan --- which would ban vaporized or edible marijuana products --- would also prohibit pregnant women from being eligible for the treatment.
Stephani Scruggs Bowen, whose husband, Michael, had a seizure during a Senate committee meeting last week, urged the House Health & Human Services Committee to do away with the 90-day requirement.
"We need to stop pretending this issue is about hippies and stoners. … This is about medicine," Bowen, whose husband is on the board of directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida, said Monday.
Rodrigues, R-Estero, called the bill "a work in progress" before the panel's 14-4 vote.
"I believe we're going to have a final product which addresses many of the concerns I've heard here today," he said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee is slated Tuesday morning to take up a competing version of the medical marijuana implementing bill (SB 406).