Medical Marijuana Legal Advice - Can a lawyer advise a client about using the drug or operating such a business without running afoul of the Bar?

Legal Advice for
Medical Marijuana
Dispensaries

With a possible legalization of medical marijuana on deck in Florida, many are wondering how can a lawyer advise using the drug or operating a marijuana dispensary without running afoul of the Bar? Now we know the Florida Bar's position. "Yes [counsel can advise], according to the Bar Board of Governors, which adopted a policy not to prosecute Bar members for misconduct if they advise clients about the new state law — as long as they also remind clients about federal law. " says the Florida Bar News in its June 15, 2014 edition.

Can a lawyer advise a client about Medical Marijuana without Violating Bar Rules?

The new medical marijuana Policy follows: “The Florida Bar will not prosecute a Florida Bar member solely for advising a client regarding the validity, scope, and meaning of Florida statutes regarding medical marijuana or for assisting a client in conduct the lawyer reasonably believes is permitted by Florida statutes, regulations, orders, and other state or local provisions implementing them, as long as the lawyer also advises the client regarding related federal law and policy.”

What are the Responsibilities of a Florida Marijuana Dispensary - Chapter 893 Statute if Florida Legalizes Medical Marijuana? - Part 10

What are the Responsibilities of a
Florida Marijuana Dispensary

What are the Responsibilities of a Florida Marijuana Dispensary?
This series or articles continues with our 10th installment and explores how Marijuana Laws in the Florida Statutes might be changed should the voters, the courts, and/or the legislature be so inclined. Here are some issues that will outline what are the Responsibilities of a Florida Marijuana Dispensary under the proposed language of the law:

(a) This section shall apply to individuals specified in Chapter 893.

(b) No medical marijuana cooperative, collective, dispensary, operator, establishment, or provider who possesses, cultivates, or distributes medical marijuana pursuant to this article shall be located within a 600-foot radius of a school.

(c) The distance specified in this section shall be the horizontal distance measured in a straight line from the property line of the school to the closest property line of the lot on which the medical marijuana cooperative, collective, dispensary, operator, establishment, or provider is to be located without regard to intervening structures.

(d) This section shall not apply to a medical marijuana cooperative, collective, dispensary, operator, establishment, or provider that is also a licensed residential medical or elder care facility.

(e) This section shall apply only to a medical marijuana cooperative, collective, dispensary, operator, establishment, or provider that is authorized by law to possess, cultivate, or distribute medical marijuana and that has a storefront or mobile retail outlet which ordinarily requires a local business license.

(f) Nothing in this section shall prohibit a city, county, or city and county from adopting ordinances or policies that further restrict the location or establishment of a medical marijuana cooperative, collective, dispensary, operator, establishment, or provider.

(g) Nothing in this section shall preempt local ordinances, adopted prior to the effective date of this law in Florida, that regulate the location or establishment of a medical marijuana cooperative, collective, dispensary, operator, establishment, or provider.

(h) For the purposes of this section, “school” means any public or private school providing instruction in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive, but does not include any private school in which education is primarily conducted in private homes.