On the eve of the Florida Department of Health accepting applications to grow low-THC cannabis, such as Charlotte’s Web, the Jacksonville City Council approved a six-month moratorium to block any such businesses from operating in Duval County.
The action is devastating to families like the Batemans who featured on our June 4 article, “The Faces of Cannabis,†on the yearlong fight to make it for children dealing with severe forms of epilepsy.
Bridget Bateman is on the front page of the Florida Times Union: Jacksonville’s low-potency pot moratorium draws battle lines with distressed parents.
City Councilman Richard Clark sponsored the moratorium. He told the Times Union the action was not to deny children relief, but to allow the city to adjust its zoning code for the regulation of businesses connected to a substance that has been illegal thus far.
Bateman protested the wording of Clark’s moratorium stating, “The uncontrolled siting of dispensing organizations would pose serious adverse effects and cause irreparable harm to public health.â€
She said, “It’s a medicinal plant … lower than 1 percent THC. How’s that going to cause irreparable harm to anybody? It can only do good for these children and other patients who are in need of it.”
Holley Moseley is traveling to Jacksonville and will address the city council tomorrow.
