Florida health officials are set to issue a medical cannabis license to a Central Florida nursery. This is the Florida’s seventh license and it comes as the state’s marijuana industry is expecting a huge boom. The nursery lost out to a competitor by a fraction of a percentage point last fall.
After a year of litigation over the license, McCrory’s Sunny Hill Nursery received the license from the Department of Health. The ruling was given by Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth McArthur.
State health officials admitted that McCrory’s Sunny Hill Nursery should have received the Central Florida license that was awarded to Knox Nursery in November; this is according to the Division of Administrative Hearings website post regarding the Dec. 12 settlement.
A three-member panel was responsible for evaluating seven applicants in the Central region including McCrory’s. The panel gave Knox a score of 5.5458 while McCrory’s scored an aggregate of 5.5417, just a fraction below Knox. As a result, the Lake Mary-based Knox was awarded the license.
McCrory’s Sunny Hill Nursery contended that one of the reviewers, who identified the nursery as “superior to all other applicants” in one component, made a mistake of giving the nursery a score of “6” instead of a “7.” According to the nursery’s lawyers, McCrory’s “would correctly receive the high score and been the highest scoring applicant in the Central region if the rank had been assigned correctly.”
Backers of Amendment 2 and other marijuana proponents have been calling out for an increase in the number of licenses allowed in the state so that more patients can access marijuana treatment. As it stands, Florida only allows a limited number of marijuana licenses.
It remains to be seen if the state will be issuing more marijuana licenses in the near future since the pot industry is expected to grow drastically.