Marketing Medical Marijuana in Florida: A Research Methodology

On November 8th, 2016 Amendment 2 was approved by 71% of voters making Florida the 26th state to enact a medical marijuana law. Medical marijuana treatment centers are the only entities in the state that are authorized to cultivate, process, and dispense medical marijuana. Medical marijuana laws vary widely across states, making it extremely difficult to learn from the twenty-five states that have already enacted these laws. Medical marijuana laws also have no history to draw upon that provides evidence of best practices. There remains a scarcity of research conducted in real-time on medical marijuana policies while medical marijuana policy is being developed and implemented at a furious pace (Lamonica, et. al., 2016). Florida also has a specific need to evaluate medical marijuana policies and develop best practices. The fastest growing group of marijuana users in the US are older Americans and Florida has the largest population of older Americans in the country.