The business of marijuana is attracting thousands of professionals from across the country to Osceola County for a national cannabis trade show.

  • Marijuana Business Conference and Expo in Kissimmee through Wednesday
  • Floridians learning more about marijuana in case medical marijuana becomes fully legal
  • Miarjuana businessman said group of investors would do better as a new marijuana business

It’s also attracting Floridians who may jump into the medical marijuana game if it is legalized by Florida voters in November.

Raymond Weisbein, who runs PMS 4 DOCS LLC in South Florida, is inspired to step into the industry by his friends in Colorado.

“I have a degree in biochemistry and I would like to get into growing it too and also doing different strains," Weisbein said.

Other Floridians were a bit more cautious while attending the Marijuana Business Conference & Expo at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee.

“It’s a research expedition. If the medical marijuana industry comes to Florida, then I should be ready for it," said Robert Sanders, who runs a small information technology business in St. Petersburg.

More than 3,000 marijuana professionals are in Central Florida to attend the conference, which wraps up on Wednesday. 

But regardless of enthusiasm, the chief operating officer of one of the most successful marijuana businesses in Colorado said the industry is tough to crack if you’re a small or independent dispensary owner.

“Unfortunately, they’re going to be hugely disadvantaged," said Medicine Man Technologies Co-Founder Brett Roper.

Roper said after initial investments of about $670,000, Medicine Man Technologies finally began to make a small profit.

“The smartest little guy is a group of little guys. It’s a group of investors with a common passion for the product or for the space and they pretty much put their nickels and dimes together so that all of a sudden, they’re real money," Roper said.

Nevertheless, Weisbein sees Florida as an untapped market.

“I absolutely think it’s extremely important to get in day one. Like I said, before when I was watching my friends in Colorado do it, they got in for a fish cake. Virtually no money and they were able to open dispensaries and get licenses," Weisbein said.

Roper’s suggestion for a successful foray into the medical marijuana business is vertical integration -- a co-op or collective of investors that can pool enough money to go seed to sale by growing, processing and setting up several dispensaries to sell their own cannabis.

“They’re a lot stronger as a group than they are as individuals, both financially and from a responsibility perspective," Roper said.

Morgan on medical marijuana campaign: This is political philanthropy

Meanwhile, a well-known medical marijuana advocate is making the case for legalizing the drug in Florida.

Attorney John Morgan gave a speech before hundreds of people at the Marijuana Business Conference & Expo Tuesday afternoon.

Morgan told the crowd he has no financial business interest in the marijuana industry.

However, he said he’s seen marijuana work first hand on his brother, who is a quadriplegic, and his dad, who had cancer.

Morgan said he’s learned from their 2014 Election defeat.

This time he says he going to focus on educating seniors about how medical marijuana can help them and their loved ones, as an alternative to prescription pills.

“Four hundred to 500,000 really sick and debilitated people benefit, so for me this is a legacy, this is a cause, this transcends politics. It’s what I call political philanthropy," said Morgan.

Morgan believes the medical marijuana industry would also be a job creator and a big tax boost to Florida’s economy.

So far, Morgan said he’s spent about $7.5 million of his own money on the campaign.

He believes it could take another $10 million in political advertising to help the medical marijuana initiative pass on the November ballot.