Florida bill HB 1269 would limit THC to 30% if voters approve recreational marijuana

UPDATE: The bill was amended Thursday to change the THC cap from 10% to 30%.

Depending on the pending Florida Supreme Court decision on the November ballot, voters just might make recreational marijuana legal.

But a Florida legislator is already making plans to harsh your buzz.

HB 1269, introduced by Rep. Ralph Massullo (R-Lecanto) on Jan. 5, would set caps on the potency of marijuana products that would go into effect if adult personal use is legalized, effectively limiting the strength of legal marijuana right out of the gate.

On Feb. 1 a nearly identical bill, SPB 7050, was introduced in the Senate.

What does HB 1269 do?

HB 1269, Potency for Adult Personal Use of Marijuana, is a simple bill. It would place a cap on tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content — the psychoactive chemical compound that produces the euphoric feeling — in marijuana products to specified levels.

Under HB 1269, how powerful can Florida marijuana be?

HB 1269 would set the following limits on adult-use marijuana potency.

• Smokable flower: Limited to 30% THC or less by weight or volume

• Concentrate, extracts and vape potency: Limited to 60% THC

• Edibles: Must be less than 200mg THC per package and no more than 10mg THC per serving

The original bill called for a 10% cap on smokable marijuana, a limit substantially lower than in most other legal-use states, although the edible limits are on par with other states.

But Massullo offered an amendment Wednesday to raise the limit to the bill to match similar caps in Connecticut and Vermont (although neither state caps vapes) and it was approved Thursday.

Cannabis flower available for sale elsewhere or at Florida's medical dispensaries is usually around 20-30% THC.

Does HB 1269 affect Florida medical marijuana limits?

No. "Personal use" in the bill is defined as "possession, purchase, or use of 26 marijuana or a marijuana delivery device by an adult 21 years of age or older for nonmedical consumption."

Why do recreational marijuana supporters oppose THC limits?

Trulieve, by far the largest medical marijuana dispensary company in Florida and the major backer behind Smart & Safe Florida, the committee behind the proposed recreational marijuana amendment, is unsurprisingly against THC caps.

"HB 1269 would make Florida the most restrictive state in America by severely limiting THC content to only 10%," the company posted on X.

Trulieve, which currently has 131 dispensing locations in Florida and distributed over 42 million ounces of smokable marijuana from Jan. 19 - 25, backed the committee with $38 million to collect signatures.

"The THC cap would not just undermine voters’ wishes, but will make consumers have to buy more, spend more and use more cannabis just to receive the same dosage," says yourvoicemattersfl.org.

"Prohibiting adults from accessing these products from state-licensed retailers will not eliminate consumers’ demand for them," said the petition against the bill from NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). "Rather, it will encourage consumers to seek out high-THC products in the unregulated market. It will also move the production of these products exclusively underground. This undermines the primary goal of legalization, which is to provide patients and consumers with safe, above-ground access to lab-tested products of known purity, potency, and quality."

When would HB 1269 go into effect?

If signed into law HB 1269 would go into effect 30 days after passage of a constitutional amendment authorizing adult personal use of marijuana.

What is the recreational marijuana amendment in Florida?

Under a proposed constitutional amendment that supporters hope to get on the November general election ballot, anyone 21 years old and up could use and possess up to three ounces of marijuana with not more than five grams in a concentrated form (with assorted restrictions) and it could be sold through marijuana dispensaries without the need for a medical marijuana card.

Marijuana possession, sales, transportation and use would still be against federal law, however.

While the committee behind the amendment, Smart & Safe Florida, says they have collected enough signatures to get on the ballot, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has filed to block it from the 2024 ballot because she said the proposed ballot language was not clear and didn't stick to a single subject requirement. In arguments before the state Supreme Court in November, state attorneys expanded on that with claims that the wording didn't make it clear that marijuana was still illegal under federal law and that the amendment would empower the small cartel that currently supplies medical marijuana.

In November the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments for and against the amendment and will decide by April 1.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida bill would restrict recreational marijuana potency if legalized