Florida state has decided to move forward with the process of outsourcing the issuance of medical marijuana identification cards. As much as this is going forward, there had been some protests on how the contract had been awarded. This is according to the health officials who have agreed to sign the deal. The Office of Medical Marijuana Use had signed the contract on Monday awarding the contract to Veritec Solutions LLC. The deal would even have been awarded last month, but it dragged on for a while before a few things could be finalized.
Another company that would have benefited from the outsourcing Automated Health Systems had filed an administrative protest of how the award of the deal was done. This is because Surgeon General Celeste Phillip had decided to file an immediate award of this outsourcing contract to help avoid any serious danger to the public health in the state.
When checked with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings website, it shows that the filed case against the Department of Health is yet to be assigned to a judge to deal with the matter. This means that the case might not be heard until mid-December. Veritec Solutions can now go ahead with the production of the cards, even when the case is still being heard.
The Department of Health in Florida has defended its move claiming that the rate at which the medical marijuana is growing has shown that they cannot always wait on protests to be over before serving the patients. If they do not make decisions fast, then the patients are likely to suffer since they would not access the medical marijuana for their conditions.
Christian Bax, executive director of the Office of Medical Marijuana Use has said that they made sure the process of processes the IDs was faster and first priority. This was when they presented their ideas to the Florida’s House Health Policy Committee. With the cards produced, it means that the patients could not get back to accessing medical marijuana at their convenience.
The identification cards for medical marijuana was part of the law signed in June by Gov. Rick Scott. The state had in last November revised its laws to allow for medical marijuana to be sold in the state for patients. The law allows for patients who suffer from chronic muscle spasms, cancer, epilepsy, and terminal conditions to use medical marijuana. Well, there is a catch, it is not just any marijuana. The marijuana is supposed to have low THC levels.
It is later on that Amendment 2 was passed to have more medical conditions to be permitted by the law. This amendment allowed people with glaucoma, AIDS, PTSD, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and other similar conditions to be treated with medical cannabis whenever it is necessary. With these conditions added to the list, the patient’s registry for those who could use medical cannabis was on average having 264 people added to it.
Currently, there are 54,120 patients in the medical cannabis registry. With such a large number, only 29,000 cards have been successfully printed. It is estimated that over 5,200 applications are still being processed before the printing of the card can commence. There are those who might be missing key information, but this can be resolved if the patients are contacted. Some might have attached the wrong photo size.
About 35 people who had been hired by the Office of Medical Marijuana were working on the processing of these identification cards since June. The benefit of outsourcing the service is important so that the staff can now concentrate on ensuring better patient access, regulation, and licensing of Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers. This should also help them easily work along with the physicians.
