Talk to people with experience in Colorado and California and they’ll say there’s lots of money to be made in Florida expanding medical marijuana industry, however, 80% of the money will go to people who never have to touch a plant. Case in point is Sarasota’s Todd Kleperis. He says most of us couldn’t afford to become Florida growers anyway.

“If you’re a millionaire, you could easily get into the cannabis business in Florida", Kleperis said. "If you’re the small guy, there’s no way you’re going to be able to do it right now unless you have an ancillary business. If you do air conditioning or plumbing or you have greenhouses or if you’re a security company, those businesses can get into the business because they can support it.”

Kleperis himself started an armored car business to service California’s medical pot industry. He wasn’t dismayed by the small turnout of investors and networkers at an industry event Thursday evening.

“Florida’s going to be a very large market eventually; not this year, but maybe next year or the next year after”, said Kelperis.

And Kleperis hopes many of those job opportunities go to veterans.