MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Any day now, eligible Black farmers in Florida could be granted a license to grow medical marijuana thanks to newly signed legislation by the governor late last month.

The legislation primarily focuses on telehealth renewals on medical marijuana licenses, but also works to formalize a process for Black farmers to participate in the industry. This comes after years of litigation and alleged discrimination by the state.

The law marks a major win for Sen. Darryl Rouson, who has been fighting for Black farmers for years.

Waiting on pins and needles with little to no seed in the ground has been the reality for at least one family of Black farmers here in the Bay area. If and when they’re approved, the Smith family said they have to be ready to shell out millions and meet state requirements to grow medical marijuana.

It’s a waiting game they’ve been playing for six years and they’re hoping that time is finally up.

For Charles Smith, farming comes easy. If you ask him, he’d tell you it’s in his blood to be a farmer.

“All we know is farming,” he said. “Well, my father started this business with one truck and he took it to a thousand employees. I was born in upstate New York on a migrant farm. As a migrant worker we used to migrate back and forth, and he started this business, but his mother was in the same business also.”

You name it, he said their company, Manatee Harvesting Company has grown it. “We picked 50 loads of fruit a day and we delivered them to farmers, tropicana and we was 100% Black owned,” he said.

In 2017, when Floridians voted in favor of medical marijuana, Charles and his brothers, Tyrone and Herold, started the process to apply for a license to grow medical marijuana.

“During this process we had dates and goals to get this license out but for seven and a half years it never was done. So not only just us, everyone who wanted to get that license, had to change how they did business,” he said.

That meant little to no seed in the ground while laying the groundwork for their new business venture.

His brother Tyrone explained how they came up with their detailed business, building and grow operation plans all while they were suing the state for discrimination.

“We really didn’t have a opportunity to apply. They grandfathered in the initial five to seven companies that started it off and the rest of the companies that’s in there now got in through litigation,” Tyrone said.

With the newly passed law, HB 387, they’re confident black farmers like them can get back to doing what they do best.

But until that approval comes through, Charles said they’ll be waiting to reap the harvest of Florida’s medical marijuana industry.

The Smith brothers said they’re hoping to rejuvenate Black farmers once they finally get their license. They also want to change the conversation about medical marijuana in the Black community.