ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – Medical marijuana is a hot-button issue across the country and Florida is now one step closer to implementing a 2014 law that allows a medicinal form of the plant to be grown and sold in the state.
The Florida Department of Health announced this week that several organizations across the state have been approved to become dispensaries.
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The Chestnut Hill Tree Farm in Alachua is one of five locations around the state approved to dispense low-THC cannabis and many people believe it will change their lives.
Angie and David Tate of Yulee are the parents of four girls and their 14-year-old daughter Gracie Tate started having epileptic seizures when she was just seven.
"We're excited because it's something we want to try," Angie Tate said.
"She was just a normal kid and then one day she had a horrible seizure. The full-fledged on the ground shaking, convulsing, it was the first time she ever had one," David Tate said.
And the seizures didn't stop. Seven years, countless doctor's visits and prescriptions later the family said Gracie still has multiple seizures a day.
She's no longer able to attend school because her current medications cause liver damage, blindness, depression and a number of other problems.
The Tates said word of legalized low-THC cannabis, for those with seizures like their daughter, is welcome news.
"Why would we not want to try something that's working for others? When you do the research, you see these kids out there that are taking it and they were 300 seizures plus. Now they're seizure free and of course, (we) want to try it," Angie Tate said.
Even Gracie Tate said she wants to try something else that may stop her seizures.
"My big wish is just try to get, try to go back to school and be a normal, a normal person," Gracie Tate said.
The Tates said the seizures and medications have robbed Gracie Tate of a normal life. They said they've tried everything else and cannabis would be a last resort, but it's an option they said they're grateful the state is making available.
"There's no side effects to it, there's no bad side to it, other that it's got that stigma with people, that it's marijuana. That's the only thing. If you take that away and you don't look at it from the medical side of it, and the people it can help and touch, why wouldn't you try it?" David Tate said.
The state health department will hold a workshop Dec. 9 to discuss rulemaking and procedure for the dispensaries once they open.