YES. Patients often ask why do I need to try vaping before flower? Doctors ordering cannabis are bound by law to follow the 2021 Florida laws. Florida Statute 381.986 defines the Medical Use of Marijuana. Paraphrasing it, if the doctor finds smoking as an appropriate route of using cannabis, they must be able to show the Florida Medical Board the following:
- A list of other routes of use that the patient has tried,
- the length of time the patient used such routes, and
- an assessment of the effectiveness of those routes in treating the patient’s qualifying condition.
The only way a doctor can show this is if they have you try vaping before they add flower to your prescription. The Medical Board’s rational is as follows. Between the two inhalation routes of smoking cannabis, the method of heating weed using a vape pen is safer than directly burning flower or bud. Burning allows more harmful particles into your lungs than vaping. As a result, first-time prescriptions, with the exception of patients with terminal cancer, do not include flower or bud.
For patients who have tried to vape in the past and not tolerated it, their prior use needs to have been under a doctor’s supervision. To meet the Statute requirements, new registry patients need to first buy and use a vape pen from a licensed MMTC. If they are unable to tolerate it, they can contact the doctor to have flower added. So, despite the inconvenience, patients do need tor try vaping before flower. Click here for a link to the 2021 Florida Statute 381.986.
