An appeals court in Florida has upheld a significant increase in license renewal fees for medical marijuana companies. This decision comes after a challenge by Sanctuary Cannabis against a new rule from the Florida Department of Health that raised renewal costs dramatically.
The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel from the 1st District Court of Appeal, confirmed a prior decision made by Administrative Law Judge William Horgan in 2023. The new fee formula, introduced by the Department of Health in December 2022, increased renewal costs to approximately $1.3 million. This amount is over 22 times higher than the previous biennial fee of $60,000 that medical marijuana treatment centers had paid.
Sanctuary Cannabis argued that the new fee structure was “wholly without logic or reason,” pointing out that it did not consider the millions of dollars generated from patients who pay $75 annually for identification cards to access the medical marijuana program. However, the appeals court found no arbitrary or capricious elements in the formula used for calculating the fees, stating that it adhered to existing state law regarding fee structures.
The ruling, authored by Chief Judge Timothy Osterhaus and supported by Judges Ross Bilbrey and Thomas Winokur, emphasized that the law clearly requires medical marijuana treatment center licensing fees to cover the Department of Health’s implementation and administrative costs. They noted that the statute does not allow for adjustments based on customer card fees or other fines to reduce the licensing costs for these centers. Therefore, the court concluded that the Department’s method for calculating the license fees was neither incorrect nor arbitrary.
