Trulieve’s new product went on the market after Monday’s end of the 2017 legislative session, during which lawmakers insisted they wanted to impose a ban on smoking marijuana products.
“The bills that were going through the process on the House and Senate side were the antithesis of this activity,” Sen. Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican who took over negotiations on the pot measure in the waning days of the session, told the News Service on Wednesday.
The session ended without legislators reaching a consensus on implementation of the constitutional amendment, approved by more than 71 percent of voters in November.
Not only were lawmakers intent on banning smoking of marijuana, Galvano also seemed surprised that current law allowed vendors like Trulieve to sell the whole-flower products.
“I understand the technical nature of the argument that’s being made to you. But if the net result was the retail sale of marijuana that could be put into a rolling paper or any other apparatus, that was not the intent. In fact, the intent was to prevent that from happening,” Galvano, slated to take over as Senate president late next year, said.
