Is Florida ready for legalized recreational marijuana?

West Palm Beach, FL/CBS12 News — In less than two weeks, Florida voters will head to the polls to decide a number of important issues. Among them is whether recreational marijuana should be legalized.

Is the state ready if the issue passes?

We posed that question to state lawmakers and to a top official at a company that owns medical marijuana dispensaries.

If Florida residents vote to make recreational marijuana legal, that doesn’t mean you can go out and buy it the next day.

It could take months before that can happen.

“I 100 percent think the state is ready and we are ready because we have medical marijuana now,” said state Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton.

Polls show Florida voters are more than likely to approve legalized recreational marijuana when they go to the polls in November.

“In my opinion, we are as ready as we are for any other amendment that comes along,” Senator Berman explained.

Florida has already legalized medical marijuana, and there are rules and regulations for that.

But if voters approve recreational marijuana in the Sunshine State, lawmakers will have to roll up their sleeves and come up with some rules.

“The Legislature will absolutely put some rules in place about probably not being able to smoke in public,” Senator Berman said.

“If Florida voters approve and legalize recreational marijuana, will the state be ready for it?” we asked Joseph Lusardi, Exec. Vice Chairman of Curaleaf. “Yes, absolutely. There are almost 700 locations in the state, you know, more than twenty companies that deal with medical patients today. We have a tremendous amount of installed capacity, so I think the operators will be up for the challenge of adult use,” Lusardi said.

Curaleaf has 66 medical marijuana dispensaries in Florida.

“Regulators are going to have to look at it and figure out how they’re going to set the rules. So there’s going to be a lot of work to be done,” Lusardi said.

Lusardi says Florida lawmakers and regulators can look at what other states have done with recreational marijuana.

“There are, you know, the 20-plus states that have adult use programs across the country with thoughtful regulations. So there’s no question that there’s a playbook that can be replicated in Florida,” Lusardi said.

It appears that the medical marijuana dispensaries already operating will be the first to sell recreational marijuana.

“Right now, I think the facilities that are currently licensed to distribute medical marijuana are already ready to distribute recreational marijuana,” said state Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach.

State Sen. Bobby Powell says the state will have to come up with rules on testing, monitoring and regulating recreational marijuana, and taxing its sales.

“We’ve seen in the past that even when medical marijuana passed the overwhelming 70% mark, the state still had to put regulations in place and that took over two years, so I think based on what I’ve seen historically, this isn’t only happen tomorrow,” said Senator Powell.

If voters approve recreational marijuana, lawmakers say the Florida Legislature will undoubtedly look at rules such as testing, regulation and taxation during the next legislative session.