Just one week after health officials signed off on guidelines for edible pot products, Florida’s largest medical marijuana operator on Wednesday began selling THC-infused brownies, cookies, chocolates and gel caps in Tallahassee.

The edible products are appearing on shelves nearly four years after Floridians approved a 2016 constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana for a broad swath of patients and nearly three years after state legislators passed a law carrying out the amendment.

Quincy-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp., whose owners built a 10,000-square-foot commercial-grade kitchen facility in anticipation of the guidelines, was the first of the state’s medical marijuana operators to sell the edible products.

Arnold Lawson, a retired paramedic from Tallahassee, bought a package of 10 blueberry TruGels candies for $25 on Wednesday.

“As a paramedic, my back started giving me problems years ago; surgery after surgery, pill after pill. I took Percocet, 60 milligrams a day, for 12 years. Now I take zero,” Lawson told reporters as he made his purchase.

The availability of edibles in Florida comes as the number of eligible medical marijuana patients nears 400,000, according to the state Department of Health.

Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers predicted that the consumable products are likely to expand the number of patients. [Read more at Orlando Weekly]