ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Knox Medical, the first medical marijuana dispensary to open in Central Florida, is less than 3 miles from the Orange County Commission Administration building in downtown Orlando where Tuesday afternoon commissioners debated whether to allow or ban dispensaries in unincorporated Orange County.
"The way this [state law] is written, it really puts local governments between a rock and a hard place," said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, clearly frustrated, during the commission meeting.
Last November, 71 percent of voters agreed to legalize medical marijuana in Florida. In June, state legislators decided to give cities and counties the power to either ban or allow dispensaries within their jurisdiction. If municipalities allow dispensaries, they must regulate them the same way that pharmacies are regulated.
"To say if you don't like that [dispensaries], just ban it, that is a situation I cannot ever remember being in," said Jacobs. "We're told we want to be in a position of honoring the voters and implementing something but doing it in a way it best protects our citizens against unintended consequences. We've done that with everything, alcohol sales, tobacco sales. This is the one time where it's like if you don't stick to exactly what we have, ban it. We really feel like we have a gun to our head to better ban it."
Nearly 25 people spoke to commissioners at Tuesday's public hearing, most in favor of allowing dispensaries in unincorporated Orange County.
Patricia Freitag drove from New Port Richey.
"I am 57 years old, I'm a disabled RN, and I am a medical marijuana patient," said Freitag. "My concern with bans on dispensaries is this: We have patients who cannot get to the doctor. We need access to this medication and we need it in a decent area. There are people who can't get places, you have to take the bus."
High-profile attorney John Morgan told News 6 that any city or county commissioner better listen to the will of the people.
"You still have a lot of legislators or commissioners who say 'we don't care what you want, we're going to do what we want.'" said Morgan. "And the only solution is in the next election somebody run against and them and say 'look, if you elect me I'm going to bring in medical marijuana dispensaries for really sick people.'
So what I say to these commissioners is you do it at your own peril. Seventy-one percent of Florida said yes to this. Now you got the county and city commissioners coming in and saying 'we're not going to do it in our city.' So really my only answer is vote them out."
Knox Medical is within the Orlando City limits and was "grandfathered" in by city council members. Knox is highly regulated and doctors are specially licensed.
Daytona Beach, Oviedo, and Astatula commissioners have voted to allow medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits.
Winter Park, Winter Garden and Apopka commissioners have voted to ban dispensaries.
At the second public hearing on Nov. 14, Orange County Commissioners will vote on whether to ban or allow dispensaries.
"Whether I like something or not, I have enormous respect for the voters," said Jacobs. "I do find it troubling that the Legislature put in place what they put in place, and that's what we're wrestling with today. I have enormous respect that 71 percent of the people voted for this. I'm term-limited so if anyone else wants to stand up and threaten me about taking me out of office, that's taken care of."