At long last, Florida’s health department has announced the names of nurseries that will receive cultivation and dispensary licenses as part of its CBD program.
The five companies are dispersed geographically across the state to ensure there will be CBD producers in each region of Florida.
Under the state’s CBD law, licenses will only be awarded to long-time, large existing nurseries.
All five companies must now post a $5 million bond by Dec. 9.
Each company also has 75 days to request formal cultivation authorization from the state and must be ready to begin dispensing medicine within 210 days of receiving that authorization. Missing any of these deadlines could result in a company having its license revoked.
The five winners were chosen from a pool of 24 companies that submitted a total of 28 applications in July.
The announcement comes in advance of a second shot by Orlando attorney John Morgan and the campaign United for Care to pass a broader medical marijuana ballot measure in the 2016 election. If the ballot question passes, it’s possible the five license winners will be ideally placed to get a headstart on potential competitors.
There’s also the possibility that the state legislature may take action on its own to broaden the existing CBD program.
