The Florida Senate sent Gov. Rick Scott a bill allowing terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana in the last year of their lives, despite arguments that the measure sets up a “state-sanctioned drug cartel” that will enrich five nursery owners.

The chairman of a constitutional amendment campaign aimed at letting doctors prescribe marijuana for patients who are not near death called the bill “lipstick on the pig” that lawmakers enacted two years ago.

That legislation, which applies only to a low-potency strain of cannabis oil for treatment of seizures, has been tied up in regulatory work by the Department of Health and court challenges involving the five licenses authorized by the 2014 law.

“This bill ends the delay,” Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, told the Senate. “It delivers on the promise we made to those families two years ago.” [Read more at the Tallahassee Democrat]