Florida’s medical marijuana program gets boost from doctors

Florida’s medical marijuana market is expanding quickly, thanks in large part to the rapidly growing number of physicians certified to recommend MMJ.

There are more than 1,200 doctors in Florida who can recommend medical marijuana, up from roughly 300 when voters approved the program in November 2016, Florida Politics reported.

That interest gives Florida a leg up on other medical cannabis markets, like New York and Minnesota, where physicians’ reluctance to recommend MMJ is hindering the programs.

The state’s medical marijuana office is certifying about 20 new physicians every week, according to the online news agency.

South Florida is spurring much of that growth, Florida Politics reported. The Miami-Dade County area, for example, has 208 authorized doctors, while there are 196 physicians in the Tampa Bay area. Broward County and Palm Beach County, have 118 and 116 doctors respectively, according to Florida Politics.

Of the doctors certified to recommend medical cannabis, more than 400 specialize in internal medicine, making that the most common specialty among the group. At least another 243 doctors specialize in family medicine, 134 in anesthesiology, 77 in pain management and 65 in neurology specialties.