14 doctors in Jacksonville certified to recommend medical marijuana

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Medical marijuana is legal in Florida after more than 70 percent of voters supported Amendment 2 on Election Day.

The Florida Department of Health lists more 150 doctors in Florida certified to recommend patients get medical marijuana.

At least 14 of the certified doctors are in the Jacksonville area. They will soon be able to prescribe liquid and vapor forms of medical marijuana once Amendment 2 becomes law.

Action News Jax asked one of those doctors, Dr. Harold Laski, what safeguards are in place to prevent people from abusing the system.

“A physician has to be certified, and to be certified you have to take a test and a course,” Laski said.

Laski is certified to recommend patients with diagnosed conditions such as certain cancers, epilepsy and AIDS to receive medical marijuana.

“Only a certified physician can do it, and we have to re-certify every two years,” Laski said.

“How do you prevent abuse now that amendment has passed?” Action News Jax reporter Cole Heath asked Dr. Laski.

Download the Action News Jax News app and First Alert Weather app

“We see our patients every 30 to 45 days. So we can see what’s happening, we still do things we normally do with any controlled substance,” Laski said.

Laski said the process should start next July.

He said patients and their conditions will be logged electronically to make sure allowing someone to use medical marijuana is the best treatment option.

“I have to enter that in a large database," Laski said. "Why we are doing it, what we’ve done in the past, why it has failed and why we expect this to be an improvement."

Experts say only the liquid and vapor forms of medical marijuana will be allowed.

Medical marijuana cannot be smoked according to Laski. He said the marijuana will only come from licensed distributors in Florida.

A full list of doctors certified to recommend medical marijuana in Florida is listed on FloridaHealth.gov.

Cox Media Group