Naples may sit in the same statewide cannabis system as Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville—but on the ground, local policy choices can make cannabis access feel very different from one Florida city to the next.

At the top level, Florida remains a medical-only state. The medical program is governed by state law, including what qualifies as “medical use,” how products are obtained, and where use is prohibited. For example, Florida’s medical marijuana statute restricts use in many everyday settings—such as public places, public transportation, and vehicles (with limited low-THC exceptions). In other words: a medical card can authorize possession and use under state rules, but it does not create a “public consumption” right.

Where Naples stands out is less about rewriting state law and more about how local government handles placement and availability—especially dispensary siting. The City of Naples has historically used zoning and location standards to regulate medical marijuana businesses, including defining medical marijuana terms and tying dispensary location criteria to broader commercial rules. That matters because location criteria (buffers, eligible districts, and waiver processes) can effectively limit how many storefronts open and where they can operate.

The bigger access issue, however, is the surrounding unincorporated area. In unincorporated Collier County, commissioners adopted an ordinance prohibiting medical marijuana treatment center dispensing facilities from establishing or locating there. Practically, that pushes more patient access pressure onto the limited number of nearby jurisdictions where dispensaries are allowed, and it increases reliance on delivery or travel to other counties.

Compare that to Florida’s larger metro areas, where local policy often aims to reduce the life impact of low-level possession rather than restrict access points. Miami-Dade County, for instance, adopted an approach giving officers the option to treat possession of 20 grams or less as a civil offense—typically a fine—though it explicitly did not remove the underlying state criminal law option. And across Florida, other municipalities (including Tampa and Orlando, among others) have adopted similar “civil citation” models—policies that can change the day-to-day experience of enforcement even when statewide penalties remain on the books.

So the comparison is stark: Naples/Collier’s approach is heavily shaped by zoning and outright limits on dispensary locations, which affects availability and patient convenience, while some other Florida cities emphasize enforcement discretion, using civil-citation pathways for small-amount possession to avoid arrests in certain cases. The result is a patchwork where the same state cannabis framework produces very different realities—one where geography can determine whether cannabis access feels tightly constrained (Naples area) or administratively softened (parts of South Florida and major cities).

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