Voters in Florida overwhelmingly approved a ballot to legalize medical marijuana Tuesday, breaking the 60 percent threshold needed to make it law.
“This is a major tipping point,” Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “With Florida’s decision, a majority of states in the U.S. now have laws allowing patients to find relief with medical marijuana, and these protections and programs are no longer concentrated in certain regions of the country like the West and Northeast.”
Roughly 71 percent of Floridians threw their support behind Amendment 2, marking a landslide victory for advocates of medical cannabis in the state. The Amendment will open up access to medical marijuana for patients suffering from epilepsy, cancer, HIV and a litany of other ailments, reports the Miami Herald.
The Florida Department of Health will work to craft regulations for the new industry through July. Officials will then start licensing growers and dispensaries by October 2017.
Florida came close to legalizing medical marijuana in the 2014 election with a majority of residents voting yes on the ballot, but state law requires the ballot to pass with at least 60 percent support before it can become law.
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