logo
4/20 marijuana holiday is here. What are Florida weed laws? Find medical dispensaries in PBC

4/20 marijuana holiday is here. What are Florida weed laws? Find medical dispensaries in PBC

Yahoo18-04-2025
As families gather to celebrate Easter today, others across the country are marking a different kind of holiday, 4/20, a day widely recognized by marijuana enthusiasts. Whether it's the distinct smell lingering in the air or eye-catching dispensary billboards across Palm Beach County, cannabis culture is hard to miss. But it raises a big question: Is marijuana actually legal in Florida?
No, you cannot.
Despite receiving 55.9% of votes, Amendment 3 did not achieve the 60% threshold needed to pass during the 2024 General Election. It saw 5,934,139 votes in total.
Medical marijuana is legal in Florida for residents diagnosed with a specific set of conditions who have applied for and received a Medical Marijuana ID Card or caregivers who have received a Medical Marijuana Caregiver Card.
Here are following conditions eligible for and to receive a Medical Marijuana Card:
Cancer
Epilepsy
Glaucoma
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)
AIDS (Acquired immune deficiency syndrome)
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)
ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
Crohn's disease
Parkinson's disease
Multiple sclerosis
Comparable medical conditions or status to the above
A terminal condition
Chronic nonmalignant pain
​Palm Beach County is home to over 30 licensed medical marijuana dispensaries, offering a range of cannabis products to qualified patients. These dispensaries are spread across various cities, including West Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, and Jupiter. Notable dispensary chains operating in the county include Trulieve, Curaleaf, MÜV, Surterra Wellness, Green Dragon, and Sunnyside.
No. The state of Florida does not offer reciprocity, although a bill filed for this year's legislative session would change that if passed.
Without a Medical Marijuana Card (or Medical Marijuana Caregiver Card, for people assisting medical marijuana patients who are minors or who need help), if you are caught with pot, marijuana advocacy group NORML lists the following penalties under Florida Statutes:
Possessing 20 grams or less: first-degree misdemeanor, up to one year in jail and maximum $1,000 fine.
Possession of paraphernalia: Misdemeanor, up to one year in jail and maximum $1,000 fine.
Possessing marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school, college, park or other specified areas: Felony, mandatory three-year sentence and maximum $10,000 fine.
Possessing from 20 grams: to 25 pounds: Felony, up to five years in jail and maximum $5,000 fine.
Possessing from 25 to 2,000 pounds of marijuana: First-degree felony, from three to 15 years in jail and $25,000 fine.
Possessing from 2,000 to 10,000 pounds of marijuana: First-degree felony, from seven to 30 years and $50,000 fine.
Possessing more than 10,000 pounds of marijuana: First-degree felony, from 15 to 30 years and $200,000 fine.
However, many communities and municipalities have decriminalized possession of up to 20 grams or marijuana, meaning if you're busted you'll get a fine (which will go up each time) and you may be required to attend a drug education program or do community service.
Areas that have decriminalized pot include Alachua County, Broward County, Cocoa Beach, Hallandale Beach, Key West, Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County, Orlando, Osceola County, Palm Beach County, Port Richey, Sarasota, Tampa and Volusia County.
Only licensed medical marijuana dispensaries may sell marijuana in the state of Florida. Even if the proposed recreational amendment passes next year, you still would have to buy your pot at a licensed dispensary.
People charged with selling marijuana can face the following:
25 grams or less, without renumeration: Misdemeanor, maximum 1 year in jail, $1,000 fine.
20 grams to 25 pounds: Felony, maximum 5 years in jail, $5,000 fine.
25 to less than 2,000 pounds or 300-2,000 plants: Felony, three to 15 years, maximum $25,000 fine.
2,000 to less than 10,000 pounds or 2,000-10,000 plants: Felony, seven to 30 years, maximum $50,000 fine.
10,000 pounds or more: Felony, 15 to 30 years, maximum $200,000 fine.
If within 1,000 feet of a school, college, park, or other specified areas: An additional 3-15 years, $10,000 fine
Assorted different types of so-called "diet weed" cannabinoids such as delta-8, delta-9, delta-10 and THC-O, which are derived from hemp and not marijuana and contain lower levels of THC, are sort-of legal here under the 2018 federal Farm Bill that allows farmers to grow industrial hemp.
Last year, the Florida Legislature passed a bill, SB 1698, that effectively banned delta-8 and delta-10 products and placed a 5-milligram-delta-9 concentration limit per serving but Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it, reportedly to protect small businesses. However, they remain federally illegal.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: What 4/20 looks like in Florida: Legal limits, marijuana dispensaries
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

The brain tech revolution is here — and it isn't all Black Mirror
The brain tech revolution is here — and it isn't all Black Mirror

Vox

timea day ago

  • Vox

The brain tech revolution is here — and it isn't all Black Mirror

is a senior editorial director at Vox overseeing the climate teams and the Unexplainable and The Gray Area podcasts. He is also the editor of Vox's Future Perfect section and writes the Good News newsletter. He worked at Time magazine for 15 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia, a climate writer, and an international editor, and he wrote a book on existential risk. When you hear the word 'neurotechnology,' you may picture Black Mirror headsets prying open the last private place we have — our own skulls — or the cyber-samurai of William Gibson's Neuromancer. That dread is natural, but it can blind us to the real potential being realized in neurotech to address the long intractable medical challenges found in our brains. In just the past 18 months, brain tech has cleared three hurdles at once: smarter algorithms, shrunken hardware, and — most important — proof that people can feel the difference in their bodies and their moods. A pacemaker for the brain Keith Krehbiel has battled Parkinson's disease for nearly a quarter-century. By 2020, as Nature recently reported, the tremors were winning — until neurosurgeons slipped Medtronic's Percept device into his head. Unlike older deep-brain stimulators that carpet-bomb movement control regions in the brain with steady current, the Percept listens first. It hunts the beta-wave 'bursts' in the brain that mark a Parkinson's flare and then fires back millisecond by millisecond, an adaptive approach that mimics the way a cardiac pacemaker paces an arrhythmic heart. In the ADAPT-PD study, patients like Krehbiel moved more smoothly, took fewer pills, and overwhelmingly preferred the adaptive mode to the regular one. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic agreed: The system now has US and EU clearance. Because the electrodes spark only when symptoms do, total energy use is reduced, increasing battery life and delaying the next skull-opening surgery. Better yet, because every Percept shipped since 2020 already has the sensing chip, the adaptive mode can be activated with a simple firmware push, the way you'd update your iPhone. Waking quiet muscles Scientists applied the same listen-then-zap logic farther down the spinal cord this year. In a Nature Medicine pilot, researchers in Pittsburgh laid two slender electrode strips over the sensory roots of the lumbar spine in three adults with spinal muscular atrophy. Gentle pulses 'reawakened' half-dormant motor neurons: Every participant walked farther, tired less, and — astonishingly — one person strode from home to the lab without resting. Half a world away, surgeons at Nankai University threaded a 50-micron-thick 'stent-electrode' through a patient's jugular vein, fanned it against the motor cortex, and paired it with a sleeve that twitched his arm muscles. No craniotomy, no ICU — just a quick catheter procedure that let a stroke survivor lift objects and move a cursor. High-tech rehab is inching toward outpatient care. Mental-health care on your couch The brain isn't only wires and muscles; mood lives there, too. In March, the Food and Drug Administration tagged a visor-like headset from Pulvinar Neuro as a Breakthrough Device for major-depressive disorder. The unit drips alternating and direct currents while an onboard algorithm reads brain rhythms on the fly, and clinicians can tweak the recipe over the cloud. The technology offers a ray of hope for patients whose depression has resisted conventional treatments like drugs. Thought cursors and synthetic voices Cochlear implants for people with hearing loss once sounded like sci-fi; today more than 1 million people hear through them. That proof-of-scale has emboldened a new wave of brain-computer interfaces, including from Elon Musk's startup Neuralink. The company's first user, 30-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh, told Wired last year he now 'multitasks constantly' with a thought-controlled cursor, clawing back some of the independence lost to a 2016 spinal-cord injury. Neuralink isn't as far along as Musk often claims — Arbaugh's device experienced some problems, with some threads detaching from the brain — but the promise is there. On the speech front, new systems are decoding neural signals into text on a computer screen, or even synthesized voice. In 2023 researchers from Stanford and the University of California San Francisco installed brain implants in two women who had lost the ability to speak, and managing to hit decoding times of 62 and 78 words per minute, far faster than previous brain tech interfaces. That's still much slower than the 160 words per minute of natural English speech, but more recent advances are getting closer to that rate. Guardrails for gray matter Yes, neurotech has a shadow. Brain signals could reveal a person's mood, maybe even a voting preference. Europe's new AI Act now treats 'neuro-biometric categorization' — technologies that can classify individuals by biometric information, including brain data — as high-risk, demanding transparency and opt-outs, while the US BRAIN Initiative 2.0 is paying for open-source toolkits so anyone can pop the hood on the algorithms. And remember the other risk: doing nothing. Refusing a proven therapy because it feels futuristic is a little like turning down antibiotics in 1925 because a drug that came from mold seemed weird. Twentieth-century medicine tamed the chemistry of the body; 21st-century medicine is learning to tune the electrical symphony inside the skull. When it works, neurotech acts less like a hammer than a tuning fork — nudging each section back on pitch, then stepping aside so the music can play. Real patients are walking farther, talking faster, and, in some cases, simply feeling like themselves again. The challenge now is to keep our fears proportional to the risks — and our imaginations wide enough to see the gains already in hand. A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!

DNAKE Emerges as a Global Innovator in Brain-Computer Interface Technology
DNAKE Emerges as a Global Innovator in Brain-Computer Interface Technology

Yahoo

time3 days ago

  • Yahoo

DNAKE Emerges as a Global Innovator in Brain-Computer Interface Technology

XIAMEN, China, July 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology is redefining human-machine interaction by establishing direct communication between the brain and external devices. This transformative innovation is driving profound societal impact across industries: revolutionizing neurological disease treatment (e.g., epilepsy, Parkinson's, and depression), enhancing educational outcomes through improved focus, and enabling seamless industrial human-robot collaboration. With aging populations and rising neurological disorders worldwide, BCI's healthcare applications are experiencing explosive demand. According to IMARC Group, the global BCI market reached $1.74 billion in 2022 and is projected to hit $3.3 billion by 2027. In this rapidly evolving field, DNAKE is establishing itself as a rising force through cutting-edge R&D and global vision. Technology Leadership & Standardization As a key driver of BCI advancement, DNAKE has forged strategic partnerships with elite research institutions like the CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, Xiamen University's Brain Cognition & Intelligent Computing Lab, etc. These collaborations underscore its dual strengths: proprietary innovation and integration of top-tier academic resources. DNAKE holds pivotal roles in the BCI Industry Alliance and China Communications Standards Association, actively co-authoring technical standards such as "EEG-Based Attention Monitoring Systems: Technical Requirements and Testing Methods." This standardization expertise positions DNAKE to extend its influence into global markets, where consistent technical benchmarks are critical for adoption. Breakthrough Innovations DNAKE's BCI team recently published groundbreaking research in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, solving a critical industry challenge: environmental adaptability. Their innovative "Human-AI Multi-agent Copilot" system merges EEG signal decoding with deep reinforcement learning AI, enabling devices to interpret user commands while autonomously responding to environmental changes—a leap from one-directional BCI systems to true interactive intelligence. In sleep health, Dr. Phang's team also developed a Multiscale Temporal Convolutional Neural Network (MTCNN) algorithm in the Journal of Neural Engineering that achieves 88.24% accuracy in sleep-stage classification—a 23% improvement over consumer-grade headbands (Miller et al., 2022). This approach sets new paradigms for EEG signal analysis. R&D Commitment DNAKE's 300+ member R&D team includes specialized BCI engineers, with 2024 R&D investment spiking to 11% of revenue. A dedicated $18 million BCI Technology Center will accelerate project commercialization. Strategic Vision Aligned with its "Innovation-Driven Transformation" strategy, DNAKE is pivoting toward digital health ecosystems while strengthening its smart community and hospital solutions. "In BCI, Chinese innovators compete on equal footing globally," notes DNAKE. "Through autonomous R&D and international collaboration, we're poised to shape BCI's future." About DNAKE DNAKE (Xiamen) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is a global leader in smart intercom and home automation solutions. Since 2005, we've delivered innovative, high-quality products—including IP intercoms, cloud platforms, smart sensors, and wireless doorbells—to over 12.6 million households worldwide. Combining cutting-edge technology with customer-focused design, DNAKE provides reliable, scalable solutions for both residential and commercial needs. View original content: SOURCE DNAKE (Xiamen) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

World Brain Day: brain health and an ageing population
World Brain Day: brain health and an ageing population

Yahoo

time3 days ago

  • Yahoo

World Brain Day: brain health and an ageing population

World Brain Day, celebrated annually on 22 July, serves as a call to action for increased neurological health awareness and advocacy. In the context of a rapidly ageing global population, the burden of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease is rising, posing significant challenges to healthcare systems. These progressive disorders not only diminish quality of life, but also contribute substantially to disability and dependency among older adults. Apart from posing a public health concern, they pose personal issues affecting individuals and families, and contribute to long-term care needs among the elderly, both for professional and informal care. These diseases erode memory and independence, and often lead to emotional and physical hardship for patients and families. Cases of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease (PD) are increasing globally. Several factors are contributing to the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer's and PD. These included the ageing population and increased detection and diagnosis. GlobalData's Alzheimer's and PD epidemiology forecasts shed light on the future burden of these diseases. The latest report forecasts an increase in the diagnosed prevalent cases of Alzheimer's in the eight major markets (8MM: China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US) from approximately 11 million in 2025 to more than 12.3 million in 2028. Diagnosed prevalent cases of PD are expected to increase from 2.7 million cases in 2025 to 3.1 million cases in 2033 in the seven major markets (7MM: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US). Understanding the key risk factors and potential challenges of managing these diseases will help healthcare providers and patients recognise symptoms earlier, which could slow disease progression, understand individual risk factors, and coordinate care among different health professionals, such as neurologists, primary care providers and caregivers. With global life expectancy rising, the at-risk population for Alzheimer's and PD will grow. Awareness days can help educate people on professional and self-administered screening tools for signs of memory and cognitive impairment related to Alzheimer's, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Mini-Cog (administered by professionals), and the self-administered test called SAGE (the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam). In the case of PD, events such as World Brain Day can shed light on symptoms such as tremors, stiffness and slow movement. Awareness days draw attention to diseases. They advance global notice, understanding and diagnosis. By spotlighting brain health on an international stage, the campaign encourages collaboration among researchers, clinicians and policymakers to address gaps in access to care and treatment. This is important when we consider that Alzheimer's and PD are major challenges in an ageing world. "World Brain Day: brain health and an ageing population" was originally created and published by Clinical Trials Arena, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store