Florida Health Officials Defend Higher Marijuana License Fee – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

A formula used to set a $1.33 million price tag for medical marijuana license renewals properly carries out state lawmakers’ policy choices, Florida health officials argued as they try to swat down a challenge to the fee.

The Florida Department of Health in December adopted a rule creating a formula for establishing the fee. In doing so, they made license-renewal costs for the state’s medical-marijuana operators more than 22 times the $60,000 biennial fee paid since the cannabis program started six years ago.

Sanctuary Cannabis, one of the state’s 24 licensed medical-marijuana operators, filed an administrative challenge last month arguing that the fee is “wholly without logic or reason” because it does not take into account tens of millions of dollars from patients who pay $75 a year for identification cards to participate in the program.

Read: Florida Justices Question State Arguments On Marijuana Initiative

But state officials maintain the fee reflects charges required under Florida law, which says the health department must adopt rules “establishing a procedure for the issuance and biennial renewal of licenses, including initial application and biennial renewal fees sufficient to cover the costs of implementing and administering” the medical-marijuana program.

The administrative challenge “presents a pure legal question regarding the validity of the straightforward implementation of plain and unambiguous…