10/13/22 Update
Effective 8/29/22 the OMMU has imposed dosage limits on all routes of administration. For current information on understanding your recommendation, please see this video.
Original Post 5/28/21
We get all sorts of questions here at Florida Medical Cannabis Clinic but by far one of the most common - “How much medical cannabis can I purchase?”
The quick answer - it depends on your physician, but there are some laws and general practices to be aware of. We’re breaking those down below.
Smoking Marijuana
While flower can be inhaled, or used to make topicals or edibles, it’s dispensed under its own category within the Medical Marijuana Use Registry (MMUR) under a category called “Smoking Marijuana.” Patients in Florida can buy up to 2.5 ounces of smokable flower within any 35-day period and can have no greater than 4 ounces of whole flower cannabis in their possession at any given time. “Up to” is the important piece to pay attention to. While most recommending physicians do authorize the full allotment as part of their standard orders, they can also recommend less than the State max 2.5oz. It’s a decision made between physician and patient.
The 2.5oz purchasing and 4oz possession limit is written into State Statutes and can not be increased by any recommending physician at the current time. While the law permits physicians to request an increase, it charges the Department of Health to create the process for which physicians to do so. At the time of this article, they still have not instituted this process.
Effective April 5th, 2022 the MMUR will change to a rolling 35-day window based on individual purchase dates. For further clarification on how this works please see this post.
Low-THC Cannabis and Medical Marijuana
Proposed State Max Dosage Amounts
Patients are able to purchase medical cannabis and low-THC cannabis products via five different routes; Oral, Inhalation, Topical, Sublingual, and Suppository.
Like ‘Smoking Marijuana’ these routes need to be authorized by the recommending physician and will include a purchasing limit, set by the physician.
Unlike ‘Smoking Marijuana’, there is no Statute defined limit on this amount. State Statutes do require the Department of Health to create daily dosage limits and while they have been proposed, they have not been finalized into the program.
For each of these routes, the recommending physician enters a daily dosage amount into the MMUR. This amount is multiplied by the number of days on the order to determine the purchasing limit for that time period. The registry will also note this amount, titled ‘Total Amount Ordered’. As a patient makes purchases the milligrams are deducted from this total available amount, indicated under the ‘Amount Remaining’ section.
Available milligrams = daily total milligrams x the amount of days on your order.
Example Open Oral Medical Cannabis Order
Understanding the Registry
Medical Marijuana purchases in Florida are tracked into the Medical Marijuana Use Registry (MMUR). Required by the law, the MMUR keeps a record of physician recommendations, patient dispensation history, patient adverse events, controlled substance reductions, and card status information & applications. It can be accessed by patients (their own record only), dispensary personnel, recommending physicians, and law enforcement. The MMUR is overseen by the Department of Health.
Patients can log on to the Medical Marijuana Use Registry to view current, previous, and upcoming certification orders. The Office of Medical Marijuana Use maintains a website, KnowtheFactsMMJ.com, that includes up-to-date MMUR instructional guides for using and understanding the registry.
MMUR Things to Note:
If you have been a patient for a while you may have multiple pages of orders. They do not always show chronologically. Click through the pages to find each active order type (Medical Cannabis, Low THC, Smoking).
Caregivers who are also patients can access both their own patient profiles and caregiver-patient profiles within the MMUR.
All orders end on the date indicated. Any pre-scheduled orders will begin automatically, but will not start early if the patient exhausts their milligram allotment.
Your recommending physician must authorize each specific route of administration (inhalation, sublingual, oral, topical, suppository). If you do not see a certain route on your orders, contact your recommending physician to add it. Patients of FMCC, can fill out this form.
Physicians can increase the daily dose if necessary. Patients of FMCC can request to do so here.
Purchasing Cannabis
Florida Medical Cannabis Products
At the dispensary, you will be able to purchase any combination of products and strains as long as you stay within your order type, delivery method, and milligram limit. Staff will be able to tell you if your order exceeds your available allotment. Remember that you will have a separate order for each type of medical cannabis (low THC, medical cannabis, smoking) as well as orders for each delivery type (inhalation, sublingual, oral, topical, suppository). Some products may be dispensed via multiple different routes. Distillate, for example, can be dispensed as an oral, sublingual, inhalation, or topical product. If you’d like your product dispensed under a specific route discuss with the dispensary personnel.
We hope this post helps you to have a better understanding of how the Florida medical marijuana program works, how much medical cannabis you can purchase, and how to better understanding the Medical Marijuana Use Registry. Being an informed patient can help reduce stress when navigating dispensaries and making purchases and help you save money!
Post Written By: Kristina Risola, MA, CRC, NBC-HWC
