It’s been approximately one year since the people of Florida voted in favor of Ballot Amendment 2, known on the ballot as “Use of Marijuana for Debilitating Medical Conditions”. This amendment legalized the medical use of marijuana for individuals with debilitating medical conditions determined by a licensed Florida physician. Florida joined the twenty-eight other states that had legalized marijuana by some capacity at the time.

Chris Willie of the Herald Tribune has published a fascinating article about the effects of legalized marijuana on real estate markets, which you can read here. The article suggests that states and cities with legalized marijuana often experience a real estate market boon, both on the residential and commercial sides. Housing prices increase, while industrial warehouses and strip mall stores gain valuable new uses as places to legally grow and distribute marijuana products.

At the moment, the state of Florida has only legalized the use and distribution of medical marijuana products – recreational marijuana use is still illegal. This means legal recreational marijuana stores will not be opening in Florida any time soon. However, medical marijuana companies have already begun seizing the opportunity to do business in Florida. Florida already has its own legal medical marijuana dispensary – the TruLieve dispensary located at 1103 14th St. W. in Bradenton. TruLieve has ambitious plans to build several more dispensaries throughout Florida, including one in Sarasota, with the goal of making medical marijuana only “an hour away” from anywhere in the state. A Sarasota-based company called AltMed is also in the process of opening a dispensary on Fruitville Road.

For now, Sarasota probably will not see a massive boom in commerce caused by medical marijuana because of strict limitations on cultivation operations and complicated requirements to obtain a grow license. However, the presence of dispensaries selling legal medical marijuana products will certainly attract people suffering from debilitating medical conditions to the Sarasota/Manatee county. As Downtown Sarasota continues to grow, some of these people will be drawn to the many new apartments and homes being developed in the area, and these people will contribute directly to the city’s commerce. Medical marijuana will likely be a win-win for both businesses and consumers.